Huge /var/log/message files
 

I have just had a look at the /var/log/messages files on my Centos 64 box- the current one is 2GB and the previous is 5GB (not a misprint - I was staggered). I have tried a tail and there's not a lot of activity but no programmes seem to allow me to browse the bulk of them. What can I do to stop them exceeding a resonable size that I can browse to get to the bottom of what is going wrong.

Maybe nothing. You didn't say what services are running on this server and how often you are rotating your /var/log/messages.

If this is a heavily used server you should be rotating it daily. Check your logrotate configuration (in /etc/logrotate.conf and /etc/logrotate.d/ on RedHat - not sure where it is on yours). Rotating it daily should cut it down to a reasonable size.