/var/log/message problem

[gerrynix]

--- Alexander Apprich <A.Apprich at science-computing.de> wrote:

> 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
/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

Unless you have changed the configuration in /etc/syslog.conf
file... the name of the log file that will be written-to is:
/var/log/messages (ending with an 's') It also appears that
logrotate is not configured to "rotate" a file named:
/var/log/message ... Thus, no /var/log/message.1, etc..
--
Nix
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