On Linux systems, the /var/log directory stores important system logs such as authentication, cron jobs, system messages, and web server logs. Over time, these logs can grow large and take up significant disk space.
To manage this, administrators often use scripts to clear or reduce the size of log files. Below is an example script that trims log files while retaining recent entries.
Sample Script to Empty /var/log
#!/bin/bash
logpath=/var/log
loglines=5000
for name in `ls $logpath`
do
tail -n $loglines $logpath/$name > /tmp/log.temp
cp -f /tmp/log.temp $logpath/$name
done
rm -f /tmp/log.temp
/bin/sleep 3
/usr/bin/killall -9 httpd
/bin/rm -rf /usr/local/apache/logs/*
/bin/sleep 5
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd startssl
Using scripts to empty or trim /var/log helps manage disk usage and maintain system performance. However, for production servers, it’s recommended to use log rotate or other log management tools to ensure proper rotation and archiving.