Question about 2 files in /var/log
 

Good afternoon.

I have 3 files in my /var/log that are quite large. I was wondering if I could >> these files to make them much smaller. The files are

wtmp
wtmp.1
lastlog

Thanks

Jim Macdonald

wel,l they are log files, delete them if you don't want them. are they growing all the time? if they are then it may be that your logrotate setup is failing. make sure it's runnning and that the entries in /etc/logrotate.d/ or /etc/logrotate.conf make sense (see the logrotate manpage for info on making these work diferently)

Hi Acid_kewpie.

Thanks for the info. I am looking into it. One file I am not sure about is the lastlog file. That is the biggest one. I tail -100 and it looks binary. So I am not sure if I can zero it out. Thanks again.

Jim

Logrotate zips and rotates your logs at 4.00 in the morning. If your computer is not on 24/7 you might want to use 'anacron' ( urpmi anacron ) A program that executes tasks that are "forgotten' by cron ( like logrotate ) because your computer was not on at the time they were supposed to run.

Wtmp and lastlog are both login (attempt) records, they're system files. *If you don't know what a file is for, and you suspect it to be part of a package, try "apropos <search term>", "whatis <search term>" or "man -f <search term>"and if there's any reference it'll show ya.