[LBo] /var/log directory

[Jim Westbrook]

Howard, unless you are absolutely sure of what you're doing, leave 
everything in /var/log in place.  In most cases, if you delete a 
necessary logfile it will be create anew as needed.  However, the 
previous contents are no longer available for your edification.

SuSE, and I'm sure other distros, provides for a periodic archiving of 
the /var/log/messages file.  The older archives can be deleted once you 
are confident that you do not need the info therein.  My personal 
practice is the retain the current messages file and the most recent 
archive file (usually about a month's content) manually deleting the 
older archives (must be root to do so).

JimW

Howard Rosen wrote:

>Recently Stefan referred to messages stored in /var/log.  I just checked
>my /var/log directory and here is what I found:
>
>Number of Lines
>hrosen70 at linux:~> cd /var/log
>hrosen70 at linux:/var/log> ll | wc -l
><...snip...>
>60
>
>Number of Characters
>hrosen70 at linux:/var/log> ll | wc -m
><...snip...>
>4112
>hrosen70 at linux:/var/log>
>
>I'd like to reduce this directory to a smaller amount, but I am not
>familiar with the contents and, of course, do not want to loose anything
>vital.  Any thoughts anyone?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Howard
> 
>
>  
>