Re: lastlog is huge

[Dave Mitchell <davem iabyn com>]

On Tue, Mar 01, 2005 at 06:00:00AM -0500, Hacksaw wrote:
> Seems like something is getting logged there a lot, which is kind of odd. Does 
> this machine have a lot of users?
> 
> In any case, it's just a log of who has logged in and when. If you don't need 
> that history, delete the file as root. The machinery will create it as needed.
> 
> You might look into logrotate, which would help keep it to a reasonable size.

lastlog is a *sparse* file that only records the last login of each user
at a fixed offset in the file (indexed by uid). If you have a user with a
large uid, the file will appear huge, but ls -s will show the true size.

Log rotation will not help at all.

-- 
A major Starfleet emergency breaks out near the Enterprise, but
fortunately some other ships in the area are able to deal with it to
everyone's satisfaction.
    -- Things That Never Happen in "Star Trek" #13