Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Philip Webb <purslow@××××××××.net>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] what is /var/log/wtmp ?
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:18:27
Message-Id: 20110325141651.GB3749@ca.inter.net
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] what is /var/log/wtmp ? by Alex Schuster
1 110325 Alex Schuster wrote:
2 > Philip Webb writes:
3 >> In /var/log/ there is a file wtmp , which is 24 MB & owned by utmp
4 >> . It is in binary format & is updated when I reboot.
5 >> Can anyone explain what it's for & whether it cb safely deleted ?
6 > It tracks logins, you can use the 'last' command to show its contents.
7 > I'm pretty sure it's safe to delete it,
8 > but you should create it as empty file afterwards
9 > -- 'touch /var/log/wtmp' -- ,
10 > otherwise the system will not make use of it again.
11 > If wou want to get the space, I suggest compressing the file,
12 > it will be much much smaller then:
13 >
14 > bzip2 -v /var/log/wtmp
15 > touch /var/log/wtmp
16 >
17 > Also see the man pages for wtmp and last.
18
19 Thanks & to the other respondent. I'll decide how to handle it.
20
21 --
22 ========================,,============================================
23 SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb
24 ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto
25 TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatchassdotutorontodotca

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] what is /var/log/wtmp ? Paul Hartman <paul.hartman+gentoo@×××××.com>