a file which contains information like physical memory, cpu information, kernel version number etc.

[bogdan.mustiata at gmail.com]

On Sunday 05 February 2006 23:54, Patrick Boutilier wrote:
> Peter Arremann wrote:
> > ...
> > dmesg is a command not a file. Also, the content of dmesg can't be
> > guaranteed - if you execute the command on a server that's been up for a
> > longer time, none of that information will still be there.
> >
> > Peter.
>
> /var/log/dmesg

The /var/log/dmesg file is very RedHat specific. On my OpenSUSE 10.0 this file 
doesn't exist, but on my FC4 there is, so I belive it's distribution specific 
in general. Regarding the issue of an interview, I don't belive it was a 
FC/RHEL centered interview, so in my opinion they should reffer to dmesg 
command rather than file.

But...

The content of the /var/log/dmesg file is different than the output of the 
dmesg command (on the FC4 machine), because the file is the stored output of 
dmesg in the intialisation of the system (done probably in some script at 
startup), while the dmesg command outputs a limited kernel-side buffer, 
meaning the older messages are deleted in case the buffer is full. If the 
system is running long enough and there are applications polluting the dmesg 
buffer with various messages you might end with the impossibility of reading 
the start of the content... including memory or CPU information, that forcing 
us to appeal to the stored file.

Bogdan