In "/var/log", "kern.log" "messages" "syslog" swamp disk partition

[Peter Garrett]

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 12:32:43 +0530
"Masatran (Deepak), R." <masatran at research.iiit.ac.in> wrote:

> 
> Periodically (every few hours or so), the files "kern.log" "messages"
> "syslog" in /var/log grow large (half a gigabyte each) till the disk
> partition is full.
> 
> 1. What is causing this and how do I solve it?

Reading the messages in /var/log/syslog and /var/log/kern.log would be a
start :) I suggest you might want to open a couple of terminals and run

tail -f /var/log/syslog     and
tail -f /var/log/kern.log

To see when this starts, and what might be causing it. The messages can be
a bit cryptic, but at least you would have something to go on. Given that
the messages are filling your disk, they will probably be repetitive, so a
few lines of output would probably show the cause. 
> 
> 2. As a temporary measure, I am deleting these files. Is this the right way
> or is there any logging-program utility for this?

That's a bit like giving a patient an anaesthetic because he has a
headache: removes the symptoms completely, but fails to diagnose the
problem, which could be anything from a mild hangover to a brain tumour ;-)

Peter