how to clean /var directory

UltraSoul · 04-16-2008, 08:20 PM

Hi, ALl

RHEL4 /var directory has reached 100%.
I deleted some big file but /var still stops at 100% via checking df -hk.
I wonder how to check why /var grows so fast.

gilead · 04-16-2008, 08:43 PM

It's probably /var/log or the directory your rpms are cached in. You can use the du command to see where the usage is:

Code:

du -csh /var/*

You can use logrotate to manage your log directory.

UltraSoul · 04-17-2008, 12:53 AM

Thanks for your advices.

colucix · 04-17-2008, 02:41 AM

If you delete log files, the disk usage still reports 100% until you restart the syslogd service. Indeed, if the deleted files were in use, the application created a hard link to them, so deleting the file does not actually free the disk space. Restarting the syslogd service (or any other application which kept files busy) let the system to release the hard links and finally free the disk space.

To check which application make use of a certain file, you can try the command (as root)

Code:

lsof name_of_file_to_be_deleted