/var/log/message problem

[Alexander Apprich]

Hi Daisy,

daisy wrote:
> Hello everyone.
>  
> I would appreciate help with my /var/log/message file.  It is no longer 
> logging anything.
>  
> Background of the problem: Previously the message logs worked without 
> problem. When the log file grew to a certain size it would create an 
> archive /log/var/message.1 file and create a brand new and empty 
> /log/var/message file.  For some reason, however, one day the log file 
> archives were no longer being created and the message file just grew and 
> grew.  When my RedHat Linux system began to slow and lag, I thought that 
> the /var/log/message file, which by then was very large, was the 
> problem.  I decided to do a temporary fix until I could get expert 
> advice on how to get the system to create archives and new message files 
> automatically.
>  
> What I tried:  I manually copied the /var/log/message file and renamed 
> it /var/log/message.1.
> I also manually created a /var/log/message file.  This did not work.  No 
> messages were logged at all.  I then renamed one of the older archive 
> files that were still of managable size as /var/log/message.  Still no 
> luck. 
>  
> Advice I am hoping for:  
> 1.  How to fix my /var/log/message file so that it will log necessary 
> warnings. Why did creating a blank /var/log/message file cause the sytem 
> to not log anything? Is the file a special binary file?

AFAIK if you change the file manually, syslog does not longer log events
there because it noticed the manually change. Did you check for syslogd
to run?

     service syslogd status

if this doesn't come back with a pid for syslogd I would recommend a

     service syslogd restart

> 2.  Why did the system stop updating and archiving the /var/log/message 
> file in the first place.

Hmmm, updating because syslogd is not running, archiving because
logrotate doesn't work. Check if

    /etc/cron.daily/logrotate

exists

>  
> Thanks for any advice in advance.  As you can probably tell, I am still 
> at beginner level. I hope I explained the situation well enough.
>  
> daisy
>  

Hth

Alex