/var/log/message problem

Rick Stevens rstevens at vitalstream.com
Fri Dec 10 17:37:30 UTC 2004


daisy wrote:
> Thank you Alexander, gerrynix and Rick
> Restarting the syslog service did the trick.  The system is now logging 
> messages.
>  
> I have tried the logrotate and will wait to see if the system will 
> automatically rotate the files.
>  
> Rick, thank you for you kind words and welcome.
>  
> Thanks again,
>  
> Daisy

Glad to help, Daisy.  See, it wasn't that hard.  ;-)

> 
> */Rick Stevens <rstevens at vitalstream.com>/* wrote:
> 
>     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.
> 
>     The logs rotate on a scheduled basis as determined by
>     /etc/logrotate.conf -- not when they reach a certain size. Note,
>     however, that neither the kernel logger nor syslogd are built with LFS
>     (large file support), so neither program can "talk" to a file bigger
>     than 2GB.
> 
>      > 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.
> 
>     A manual rotate is done via:
> 
>     cp file file.1
>     cat /dev/null >file
> 
>     or
> 
>     mv file file.1
>     touch file
> 
>     Or you can force logrotate to do it whenever you wish:
> 
>     logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf
> 
>      >
>      > 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?
> 
>     syslogd only creates log files when it starts up. If it ever tries to
>     log to a non-existant file, it will cease logging for that file
>     entirely. Simply make sure the target file exists, then (as root) run:
> 
>     killall -HUP syslogd
> 
>     or
> 
>     /etc/rc.d/init.d/syslog restart
> 
>     to force syslogd to look at the file again.
> 
>      > 2. Why did the system stop updating and archiving the
>     /var/log/message
>      > file in the first place.
> 
>     If the file went over the 2GB limit, syslogd can't write to it anymore.
>     The fix is to make sure the file doesn't go above 2GB or to recompile
>     syslogd with LFS (large file support).
> 
>      > 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.
> 
>     You explained it quite well. Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux!
>     ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>     - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer rstevens at vitalstream.com -
>     - VitalStream, Inc. http://www.vitalstream.com -
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-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-    When you don't know what to do, walk fast and look worried.     -
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