Big log file: auth.log

mjdousti · #1 (**permalink**) 02-25-2008

Hi, I'm a user of Debian etch (4). The system made a file in /var/log with the name: .auth.log.0.swo

This file is so big, about 22.2 GB ! Is it safe to delete this file? (Actually, what's this file? I want to be aware of what happened if I delete it.)

Thanks, in advance.

sysgate · #2 (**permalink**) 02-25-2008

When I used to administer some FreeBSD servers, in this file there were all login attempts via various protocols, I guess it's the same in Debian - consult the man pages first. If you choose to delete the file, you must reload the syslogd or if you don't need the info inside, you can zero-out the file, for example with "echo "" > /var/log/auth.log"

mjdousti · #3 (**permalink**) 02-25-2008

Thanks, I solved my problem myself. This file is related to a crashed vim program which was opened and left open in a root session which was crashed. I kill that process and the file was go away!

This file in fact was swap file for vim.
Again thanks.

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