54 GB in /var/log!!

[Kevin J. Cummings]

Beartooth wrote:
> 	One of my F9 machines -- actually my #1 main machine -- started 
> having display problems. I see this a lot, because my hardware isn't 
> really up to date enough to handle my monitor optimally. So I tried a 
> couple of tricks that usually help, and they didn't.
> 
> 	Then I thought to run baobab. Lo and behold, I was running out of 
> space -- because /var/log shows up consuming 54 GB of space! Yes, fifty-
> four gigs.
> 
> 	What could be causing this, and what do i do about it?? 

log files growing at am alarming rate because they are trying to tell 
you something.

My entire /var partition is only 5GB in size and /var/log is only 660MB 
of it.  That machine has an uptime of 130 days.

> 	At present, the machine offers only a CLI login; if I use is as 
> root, startx still works; but if I log in as user, startx fails. So I 
> can't run Pan, and can't c&p directly between anything in it (including 
> this list!) and the CLI.
> 
> 	I can still do what I'm doing now: access the list via Pan on 
> another machine, and go back & forth with my KVM switch; but it makes it 
> hard, for instance, to post things like a list of contents for /var/log, 
> or any whole file in it.
> 
> 	Obviously, I want to cut /var/log with electronic double-bitted 
> axes in both hands, to get to my user's GUI again; and to find the source 
> of the bloat and correct it.
> 
> 	What should I do first??

Find the particular log file that oversized.  Look at it and try to 
determine *WHY* it is very large and correct the problem that is causing 
it to grow.

Do you have logrotate installed?  Is it rotating log files periodically 
in order to keep their size down?


-- 
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at rcn.com
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)