/var/messages

[mondo]

Howto stop /var/messages from continouosly filling this directory.


mondo

[dingetje]

The messages logged to /var/messages are controlled with /etc/syslog.conf, but because that files lives in the RAM disk you'll need to edit/create a file /boot/etc/syslog.cfg
Here's an example:

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auth.*          /dev/tty4
auth.*          /var/secure

kern.=debug     /dev/null
*.info          /usr/local/var/info
*.*             /dev/tty3
*.*;*.!info     /var/messages


As you can see messages of type 'info' are now logged to /usr/local/var/info and no longer to /var/messages.
I've added the following code to my rc_user script to activate this change:

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      start) echo -n "Starting rc_user...                       "
                SYSLOG=`cat /var/run/syslogd.pid`
                cp /boot/etc/syslog.cfg /etc/syslog.conf
                kill -1 $SYSLOG


HTH

[pollo]

dingetje,

Created /boot/etc/syslog.cfg file and entered the script you provided and edited the rc_user script to activate the change and on reboot I get the followings;

Syslogd: /usr/local/var/info;
No such file or directory

Any ideas?

pol

[Lightning]

Howto stop /var/messages from continouosly filling this directory.

I am a small amount at a loss as to the real problem here. It is true that the files are stored in the ram drive. However there is a background process running that monitors the size of the files. So most likely you have ignored the warning message for the size of the logs and changed it to a number that is to big. Which is allowing the log size to be bigger than will fit in the ram disk.

The easiest solution is to just reduce the log file size back to the original ( 30000 ) and reboot the machine and if you want to save the logs then just answer the save logs question that way in the setup and the system will keep the logs. You then will also have access to those logs from within the control panel rather than only having access from the command line.

However if having the file be that big and being a permanent file without using the built in mechanisms is critical to you then the one step missed in the instructions is to first create the directory you are going to be using.

mkdir /usr/local/var

[dingetje]

Correction, that should be:

Code: Select all

mkdir /usr/local/var


because info is the file name for the kernel info messages.
One problem with this solution is that info isn't part of the normal log rotation mechanism, so Lightnings suggestion (don't pick a too large number for the messages file in your setup) is probably a better one.