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

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

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.

• Command: log-file-cleaning
• Version: 3.0.0
• Created: 2012-12-09
• Updated: 2016-08-27
• Contact: Joel Parker Henderson ([email protected])
• License: GPL