UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I've a question to ask:
we can first modify /etc/syslog.conf then "service syslog restart" to make the modification activated. After that, we can use "openlog", "syslog" etc. functions in our program to output the log. My question is, if my program works day and night, the log file may be larger and larger, does syslog supply "log file clean-up" service? Can syslog delete the log file everyday? How can I make the configuration?

Hi,

Depending on you OS ( please, always post your platform on every question, even if you think that it's not necessary ), there're some tools to do log rotation... logrotate ( linuxes ), logadm ( solaris ), etc... keep in mind that everytime you change a file that is modified by syslog, you must restart the daemon... you can do it in a lots of ways, restarting the service on the initialization scripts, sending a HUP signal to the process ( it works on every *IX "flavour" ), etc...

Thank you for your reply and I'm in RedHat Linux env.
Now I'll browse Internet and manual of Linux to see how to use logrotate. If I still have some question, may I bother you again?
Thanks.

Hi,

RedHat Linux is using logrotate from default I think. It should be already installed and configured. Check your crontabs.

Regards
malcom