Log file cleaning script
This script deletes typical old log files, logrotate files, and similar log backups.
Please be certain you don't need these log files before you run this.
Syntax:
log-file-cleaning [path]
Example:
log-file-cleaning /var/log
The path default is /var/log which is typical on popular Unix systems.
You can customize the command by providing your own rm command
as an environment variable.
Example:
rm="/bin/rm" log-file-cleaning
Specifics
This removes many kinds of log files.
File names that end with:
- .bz2
- .gz
- .old
- .bak
- .backup
- .log.[0-9]*
- .[0-9]*.log
File names that match:
- btmp.[0-9]*
- dmesg.[0-9]*
- mail.err.[0-9]*
- syslog.[0-9]*
- wtmp.[0-9]*
- xferlog.[0-9]*
Any atop files.
- atop/atop_[0-9]*
Any Mac OSX Apple System Log files:
- asl/*.asl
- DiagnosticMessages/*.asl
Implementation notes
This script aims to work even when a disk is full or commands are missing.
For example, this scripts starts by deleting files one name by one name,
rather than relying on more-sophisticated file globbing or using find.
This script source code aims to be descriptive and meaningful, so a systems administrator can easily comment out lines as needed, or add new lines easily without affecting any other lines.
If you are a developer who is creating a patch or pull request, please keep this code pattern, rather than trying to introduce features such as more globbing, loops, non-POSIX commands, etc.
Tracking
- Command: log-file-cleaning
- Version: 3.0.0
- Created: 2012-12-09
- Updated: 2016-08-27
- Contact: Joel Parker Henderson (joel@joelparkerhenderson.com)
- License: GPL