[SOLVED] /var/log/ size increases

DVOM · 09-20-2017, 05:35 PM

I've got 5 OSs on my machine, all linux. Debian/antix/Xubuntu. 4 of them have /var/log/ increase size extremely minimally and slowly. i.e. in 2 weeks I get about 9 MB in /var/log/.
The most recent installation (antix17 pre rc1) gets over 140 MB in a couple of hours and well over 400 MB in a couple of days.
What up with that?

On this machine (as far as antix goes) I've had antix 15.1, 16.0, 16.1, 16.2, 17.a1, a2 and a3. 17.b1, b2 and b3. And finally 17 pre rc1.

Only antix 16.1 and 17 pre rc1 have done this.

pan64 · 09-21-2017, 01:41 AM

check which logfile is that (within that directory)

!!! · 09-21-2017, 02:00 AM

What specifically is in those 100s of MB? Same msg? One thing misconfigured? There's zillions of details that could cause a flood of logging. Which is saying what? Let us know.

DVOM · 09-21-2017, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

check which logfile is that (within that directory)

The log files are "debug", "kern.log" and "syslog".

Quote:

Originally Posted by !!!

What specifically is in those 100s of MB? Same msg? One thing misconfigured? There's zillions of details that could cause a flood of logging. Which is saying what? Let us know.

Holy moly, I can't believe I didn't notice this. Every entry is about the kernel, so I've replaced the kernel and we'll see if there's improvement. Ya know, maybe it wasn't a good idea to use an Ubuntu kernel. We'll see.

Anyway, thanks people. I appreciate it.

Edit: If anyone knows how I can find a debian kernel 4.11.0, that would be great. From what I've seen, debian jumps from kernel 4.10.5 to 4.12.x

rtmistler · 09-21-2017, 11:44 AM

antiX is Debian based. If you've used the Ubuntu kernel to boot it, I'd say that behavior is undefined, and also a likely explanation for what you're seeing.

frankbell · 09-21-2017, 09:08 PM

I once installed a major Linux OS in which logrotate was not installed and active by default; I'm certain it was just a glitch.

The log files quickly grew out of hand until I realized what was missing.

DVOM · 09-24-2017, 01:48 PM

OK, 3 days later and /var/log/ is still behaving nicely. So thanks people.