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DEVCNN
Asked: 2019-04-02 21:13:47 +0800 CST

How to delete logs automatically after a certain time and restart the process that fills up the log file?

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Server is Ubuntu 16.04. I have a process running with nohup that logs into a local file. This file gets big enough to consume 100% disk space. To resolve this I have to kill the process first and then remove the log file. Then I restart the process. How can I resolve this with a script or some other tool?

log process kill 16.04 nohup

3 Answers

  1. With logrotate you can configure how big a log file may get or after how much time:

    • the log files are rotated (log.n becoming log.n+1, and the last log file being deleted)

    • the current log file is truncated without disturbing the writing process.

    Take a look at man 8 logrotate.

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  2. Best Answer

    I guess that you start the script/program with nohup like

    nohup scriptname 1>logfile.log 2>& &

    I would recommend instead of deleting the log file just to clear it with

    echo -n >logfile.log

    If you delete/move an open file it will be written until the process will close the file or the process will end.

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  3. To delete all logs automatically, edit the .bashrc file using your favorite text editor. Here I'm using nano. In your terminal run:

    nano ~/.bashrc -

    Add the following to the bottom of the file:

    rm -r /var/log   # Deletes logs directory
clear            # Clear the terminal

    Press Ctrl+O to save and Ctrl+X to exit edit mode.

    The .bashrc file is executed every time you log in or launch a terminal instance, thus your logs will always be deleted.

    You can also delete them based on time. E.g. delete all logs created 3 days ago using:

    find /yourlog/path -mindepth 1 -mtime +3 -delete
    • -mindepth 1 means process all files except the command line arguments.
    • -mtime +3 will check for the files that were modified 3 days ago.
    • -delete will delete them.
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