I want to clean up the disk for more space and speed. I have seen files with names

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 151256 Nov 17 01:43 lastlog
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 361241 Nov 17 01:37 maillog
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 192414 Nov 17 01:43 messages*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 468801 Nov 14 04:02 messages.1*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 482992 Nov 7 04:02 messages.2*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 418636 Oct 31 04:05 messages.3*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 438527 Oct 24 04:03 messages.4*
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 0 Nov 14 04:02 mysqld.log
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 0 Nov 7 04:02 mysqld.log.1
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 0 Oct 31 04:06 mysqld.log.2
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 0 Oct 24 04:03 mysqld.log.3
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 0 Oct 18 04:09 mysqld.log.4

is messages*, messages.1*... messages.n* ..


can i remove these files in order to save some space..


Thanks,
sharma

The numbered files are backups of old files made by logrotate and it's safe to delete those. The other files are in active use, you can see which process keeps them open with the fuser command. If really desperate for disk space you can empty them too, but in that case use
>messages
instead of rm.

Thank you LasseW

but in that case use >messages instead of rm.

what do you mean by this .. Please clarify

Thanks,
sharma

Hi Sharma,

To delete the numbered files, use the rm command, eg

rm messages.1

You should never use this command for a file that's being used by a process, check this with

fuser messages

If necessary, a file like that can be emptied by typing

>messages

The file will be emptied, ie you can still see it in the file listing with a size of 0.

lasse

How can i clean up the disk on redhat linux. where can i look up for the tmp files and others.

How to maintain the redhat linux server . please give some guide lines to make my website faster..

Thanks,
sharma