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what does Ubuntu store under system logs? i found this link https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LinuxLogFiles but is the information on the website accurate?

lampshade74
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  • Please be more specific. – DK Bose Jan 09 '20 at 00:30
  • There can be differences depending on your release of Ubuntu (ie. the age of your software stack; and LTS releases can be running two different stacks). The page you mentioned was edited 2018-October, but conf (config) files can be edited to output data to alternate locations so nothing should be taken as gospel without some validation yourself on your own installation (what packages & from where can influence details, esp. 3rd party) – guiverc Jan 09 '20 at 00:31
  • im using ubuntu 18.04 with a minimal installation. What i want to know is if i accidentally deleted some log files would i break my ubuntu system? specifically things like my internet browser or open vpn settings? – lampshade74 Jan 09 '20 at 00:50
  • The system automatically rotates out old log files. Don't delete ANYTHING from your system if you don't know what it is! – heynnema Jan 09 '20 at 02:06

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Deleting logs (if they really are logs) generally WON'T break your Ubuntu system.

However, in most cases deleting logs is not necessary. logrotate runs daily by default and will automatically delete older logs. You don't need to install anything or trigger it - logrotate is already installed and turned on.

Some other tools (like BleachBit) simply delete log files that would be deleted on schedule anyway.

Logs are essential for several kinds of troubleshooting and security checks. On the rare occasions that you need a log, you REALLY need that log.

On rare occasion, a logfile (typically syslog) will grow enormously --1 GB or more-- as it records each instance of a constant error that re-occurs several times each second. In the unlikely event that this happens to you, it IS okay to delete the huge logfile to keep your system from running out of disk space -- syslogd will start a new logfile automatically. However, that's not a solution. It's merely a workaround until you actually fix the underlying problem that the log is warning you about.

user535733
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