On Monday 07 August 2006 12:20 am, Florian Kulzer wrote: > On Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 17:23:13 +0000, Elmer E. Dow wrote: > > On Sunday 06 August 2006 09:43 pm, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: > > > On Sun, Aug 06, 2006 at 02:31:40PM +0000, Elmer E. Dow wrote: > > > > I discovered that /var/log/messages is 428.6 MB on my IBM > > > > R40 laptop running Sarge. I see /var/log/messages.1.gz, to > > > > messages.6.gz. None of those are more than 302 KB and > > > > they're a year old. Syslog is in a similar situation. Other > > > > log files aren't so big, but they haven't been rotated in a > > > > year either. Why did rotation stop? How do I start it > > > > again? Logrotate was installed. I just got rid of it. Could > > > > it have been interfering? > > > > > > umm... logrotate rotates the logs. removing it will prevent > > > the logs from being rotated. check man logrotate to get the > > > output from logrotate emailed to you so you can see what it > > > happening. you should confirm that there is still a cron job > > > for log rotate. When I've had problems with logrotate in the > > > past is has been a permissions issue, so maybe you have > > > changed some permissons inadvertantly causing this problem. > > > > > > A > > > > From the reading I've done recently, I was under the impression > > that Debian (unlike RedHat) used syslogd and cron to handle log > > rotation. According to > > http://www.ducea.com/2006/06/06/rotating-linux-log-files/ , log > > rotation is handled in two ways on a Debian system (in contrast > > to RedHat, etc.). Most system log files are rotated by syslog > > itself and not by using logrotate. Logrotate is the default > > choice for all other log files (application logs). Indeed, > > /etc/logrotate.d contains scripts for apps (aptitude, > > exim4-base, ppp, etc.), while # /usr/sbin/syslogd-listfiles > > --weekly > > /var/log/mail.warn > > /var/log/uucp.log > > /var/log/user.log > > /var/log/daemon.log > > /var/log/messages > > /var/log/debug > > /var/log/auth.log > > /var/log/mail.err > > /var/log/mail.log > > /var/log/kern.log > > /var/log/lpr.log > > /var/log/mail.info > > R40:/home/ellsworth# > > > > Logrotate isn't listed in a cron job since I deleted the > > logroate package, but strangely logrotate.d still exists. I > > hope that reinstalling logrotate will set it up again. You're > > right, I need to put logrotate back for the apps, but it > > appears that it's syslogd's responsibility to rotate system > > logs. I've seen quite a bit online about changing a Debian > > system to use logrotate for system files, but I haven't done > > that here. Feel free to enlighten me if I'm wrong in my > > understanding of this. What could I have done to have messed up > > what syslogd should be doing? I checked, and syslogd has a > > script file in cron.daily and cron.weekly with correct > > permissions. Now what? > > Are you sure that the cronjobs actually run during the night? You > could put a short script into /etc/cron.daily, just "touch > /tmp/cron-flag" or something similar, to rule out problems with > your cron setup. > > -- > Regards, > Florian
I noticed that the system-wide crontab seems to call for anacron. See below. R40:/home/ellsworth# cat /etc/crontab # /etc/crontab: system-wide crontab # Unlike any other crontab you don't have to run the `crontab' # command to install the new version when you edit this file. # This file also has a username field, that none of the other crontabs do. SHELL=/bin/sh PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin # m h dom mon dow user command 17 * * * * root run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly 25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily 47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly 52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly # R40:/home/ellsworth# Given that this is a laptop, that made sense, so I installed it. Bingo! It immediately started to run cron jobs, rotating logs, etc. Now I remember that I'd used ancron for this when running RedHat on this laptop a few years ago. One more question: Is it possible to run cron jobs manually? That way I could run cron at my convenience, rather than tie up system resources while I'm working. Thanks for you help. -- Elmer E. Dow -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
