log files growing out of control

[dreamz Veteran]

i noticed earlier that my log files were huge. kern.log and syslog were around 1.6gb and daemon.log and messages were quite large as well.

why do these grow so quickly? how can i prevent them from getting so large? can i disable logging of certain processes? can i automatically delete the logs after they reach a certain size?

thanks.

[Evolution]

Well first read the logs to see if there is a problem. The logs should cycle every once in a while, compressing the old ones and creating new ones.

[dreamz Veteran]

here's part of kern.log. everything looks fine to me.

where are the old logs sent? are they deleted? can i force ubuntu to delete logs more frequently?

Nov_16_20_10_01_ubuntu_kernel_imklog_.doc

[Evolution]

How did you view that log file? All the log files should be located in /var/log ... at least for Gentoo.

[dreamz Veteran]

i just opened it up in kwrite (although now i'll just use nano).

i've been reading about logrotate.conf. i guess i'll just edit that and add the size command.

[dreamz Veteran]

i'm not sure if logrotate is running automatically or not. the files don't seem to be rotating (i've had to force it).

is it possible to configure when logrotate runs? could i make it run on shutdown, for example?