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On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 9:16 AM, Philip Webb <purslow@××××××××.net> wrote: |
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> 110325 Alex Schuster wrote: |
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>> Philip Webb writes: |
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>>> In /var/log/ there is a file wtmp , which is 24 MB & owned by utmp |
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>>> . It is in binary format & is updated when I reboot. |
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>>> Can anyone explain what it's for & whether it cb safely deleted ? |
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>> It tracks logins, you can use the 'last' command to show its contents. |
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>> I'm pretty sure it's safe to delete it, |
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>> but you should create it as empty file afterwards |
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>> -- 'touch /var/log/wtmp' -- , |
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>> otherwise the system will not make use of it again. |
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>> If wou want to get the space, I suggest compressing the file, |
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>> it will be much much smaller then: |
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>> |
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>> bzip2 -v /var/log/wtmp |
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>> touch /var/log/wtmp |
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>> |
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>> Also see the man pages for wtmp and last. |
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> |
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> Thanks & to the other respondent. I'll decide how to handle it. |
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|
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"man wtmp" will also give you much detailed info about what's in the |
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file, which programs write to it, how to use it in your own programs, |
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etc. in case you're interested in that. |
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