Re: [newbie] What can I get rid of in '/var' ?
Judy, I have no idea why anything would stay there. (?) As an addendum, I've been reading a book on Linux security, and the author has said that sometimes crackers try to wreak havoc on a system by placing destructive scripts with command names in different places (i.e. a script to bloat up the hard drive named ls). The /tmp directory is one of those places. I haven't figured out why /tmp, but I figure even a dumb reason is one more good reason to keep /tmp tidy. Miark Miark and Frank, Thanks for letting me know about deleting stuff in the /tmp directory. I'll move the contents somewhere else and see if anything complains. If not, blow it away. Do you know why things get left in /tmp? In Windows, it's because a program crashes and doesn't have a chance to close its temp files, or a program or installation routine fails to clean up after itself by deleting its temporary files. --Judy Miner
Re: [newbie] What can I get rid of in '/var' ?
Michael wrote: Another place to check is /tmp which is where all kinds of temporary files get dumped. Is it okay to get rid of everything in /tmp, or are some of those files needed or supposed to be there? I found stuff in there and I'd just as soon get rid of it, but I left it alone because I don't want to make a bad mistake. --Judy Miner
Re: [newbie] What can I get rid of in '/var' ?
You can configure LILO to delete everything in /tmp on startup, so I'd have to assume it's a a standard convention to only put disposable files (for lack of a better term) in there. I have that LILO option set, and so far, so good. Miark - Original Message - From: Judith Miner [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, July 09, 2001 11:24 AM Subject: Re: [newbie] What can I get rid of in '/var' ? Michael wrote: Another place to check is /tmp which is where all kinds of temporary files get dumped. Is it okay to get rid of everything in /tmp, or are some of those files needed or supposed to be there? I found stuff in there and I'd just as soon get rid of it, but I left it alone because I don't want to make a bad mistake. --Judy Miner
[newbie] What can I get rid of in '/var' ?
Hi,
My system (LM8.0) broke down a few weeks ago, with the X server
complaining that it couldn't open the default font 'fixed'. A re-install
fixed the problem, but I've just re-experienced the same trouble.
In despair, I was about to re-install again, when I recalled that
the root ('/') partition on my hard drive was suspiciously close to
full. When I checked, sure enough, the partition was completely full,
and after I moved some files to a different partition to make a little
free space, I re-booted and the X server started normally. No more
problem.
When I checked the '/' partition, I found the disk hogs to be the
log's in '/var/log'. So, I guess my questions are:
- Which log files can be safely deleted ?
- Is it normal for these logs to grow so large, so quickly ?
- Are there any other system files which may need periodic
purging ?
thanks,
Charlie.
Re: [newbie] What can I get rid of in '/var' ?
Charles,
Do you have logrotate installed? If so, there should be *.[1-9] (or
possibly .gz) log files, which can be deleted. Other files can be replaced
with 0 byte files by turning off the service in question, running rm -f
logname, and then touch logname.
You can also check /var/spool/mail and see if there is anything in there --
if you don't regularly check your root e-mail account (or have it forwarded
to another account), that e-mail file can grow quite large.
Another place to check is /tmp which is where all kinds of temporary
files get dumped.
Finally check ~/.netscape/cache -- which is where all the stuff from your
net browsing (if you are using netscape), gets dumped. If you surf the
Internet (and yes that is a capital I--there is a difference between an
internet, and the Internet), there could be quite a bit in there. If you
do actually find anything in there, or would like a script to clean that
directory out on a regular basis, let me know, and I'll send it to you.
This of course, presupposes that you have one large partition mounted as /,
rather than individual partitions mounted as /var, /tmp, and /home.
--
Michael Viron
Registered Linux User #81978
Senior Systems Administration Consultant
Web Spinners, University of West Florida
At 01:46 AM 07/09/2001 +1000, Charles Darcy wrote:
Hi,
My system (LM8.0) broke down a few weeks ago, with the X server
complaining that it couldn't open the default font 'fixed'. A re-install
fixed the problem, but I've just re-experienced the same trouble.
In despair, I was about to re-install again, when I recalled that
the root ('/') partition on my hard drive was suspiciously close to
full. When I checked, sure enough, the partition was completely full,
and after I moved some files to a different partition to make a little
free space, I re-booted and the X server started normally. No more
problem.
When I checked the '/' partition, I found the disk hogs to be the
log's in '/var/log'. So, I guess my questions are:
- Which log files can be safely deleted ?
- Is it normal for these logs to grow so large, so quickly ?
- Are there any other system files which may need periodic
purging ?
thanks,
Charlie.
