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General discussion

Console Problems

Oct 9, 2007 8:13AM PDT

I have been peering into the depths of my MBP, and have found numerous things. For instance, Console has numerous logs with things on it that the CPU must have initiated for I have no knowledge of it. I know how to delete the console.log files but I do not know how to clean up the system logs.

Plus, if I delete the logs, it says no logs have been created and none come up. But of course, I never mess with it so I don't know how it works. I just want to clean all of it out since the internal contents of my Mac have gotten quite unorganized. Anyone know how?

-BMF

Discussion is locked

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For me...
Oct 9, 2007 8:15AM PDT

A trip to the command line. Since its UNIX at it's core I know I can rm such things without damage.

Bob

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So you recommend just deleting the files?
Oct 9, 2007 8:19AM PDT

I can't find the system logs though. I've only found the console logs in my library. And will the system create new logs anyway? Probably of course, but it didn't for me earlier. I restored the logs though.

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For me, yes.
Oct 9, 2007 8:21AM PDT

I am writing about me. Others will have their own ways. Remember I'm from the days before CP/M and used many a command line so it's a snap to look for such things... 'the old fashioned way.'

Bob

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(NT) Okay...
Oct 9, 2007 8:24AM PDT
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Console Logs
Oct 9, 2007 8:22AM PDT

you can delete them from the Console itself, using the Clear icon or you can leave you machine on 24/7 and allow the CRON routines to rotate and delete some of the logs.

This from the Daily CUPS log:
ruptime: no hosts in /var/rwho.

Rotating log files: system.log

Tue Oct 9 03:15:00 CDT 2007
Removing old log files:
Removing scratch and junk files:
Removing scratch fax files
msgs: /var/msgs/bounds: No such file or directory
Backing up NetInfo data
Checking subsystem status:


The fact that you can see the log files means that your internal contents are not "quite unorganized". Those logs are exactly where they are designed to be.

If you delete them, nothing untoward happens. A new set of logs gets created when something needs to be written, by the OS, into them.

P

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When I use Clear,
Oct 9, 2007 8:27AM PDT

the files return back anyway as soon as I switch to another log. I've tried multiple times, but the Clear icon just wipes it away and puts the exact same thing back with the dates of previous days. It reloads the logs anyway. Any tips?

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Interesting...
Oct 9, 2007 8:34AM PDT

I have sifted through numerous subdividers and have found all the recorded Console logs in Console. So I'm going to get rid of those, but I still want to get rid of the System logs and all the other ones... Will it create a new log for me?

Apparently it's been loading older logs under Console, but they're still recent...

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By the way, I seem to keep finding recovered files in my
Oct 9, 2007 8:40AM PDT

trash bin that I did not delete and put there. This is like a routine for my machine. Power on, empty trash, get the Dashboard up and running, etc. Is it supposed to do this? I find lots of odd documents in it.