HUGE console.log

J

JML

I'm Hungry
Hello:

I noticed that my hard drive usage was very high. My files don't amount to nearly what's being used. So I looked around and found this.

Library/Logs/Consol/501/console.log.7 = 45.25 GB (WHAT!?!?)

I thought I was pretty tech savvy. Guess not. This is beyond me. Is this something that can be reduced in size? What is it? What do I do?

Please help.

Thanks,
Jason
 
You can always trash that huge log file. But, first view the log (in the Console utility). You should find a set of lines that repeats continually (or even just one line) which will give you a clue what is causing this. You can copy and paste that line here, and someone can figure out the best way to help.
 
I can't seem to open it. It may be too big. It just blinks for a while. I will just delete it and look out for it growing. Maybe I'll be able to open it at a more reasonable size.

Thanks for your assistance.
 
It's gone. Computer's fine. I was afraid to delete it. Can you tell me what those files are or what can make them grow so big?

Thanks again.
 
The log files actually log events such as opening applications, errors generated, closing applications, etc. You can view the contents of the log files by opening the Console application in the /Applications/Utilities folder. When you do you will discover there is a whole world of log files maintained automatically in Unix/OS X and they can be very helpful in troubleshooting -- if you can read and understand them. Even if you can't they will often provide clues.

Your huge log file most likely contained the same log entry repeated over and over and over again - tens or hundreds of thousands of times. There have been some infamous kernel extensions that generated so many log entries they would fill a drive. It would have been very useful for you to have at least looked at the Console log before you deleted the file.

No harm will come from deleting a log file other than losing the debug information. If your computer is awake 24x7 there are automatic routines that run and clean out the daily, weekly, and monthly log files and if not there are applications you can run to do that manually.
 
Thanks for the explanation. I would have pasted it, but it wasn't opening. Kept flashing data. So I just trashed it. I do leave my computer on 24/7. And I plan to keep an eye on it. Maybe it will go away. If not, maybe I can open it next time to see if it isn't so big.

This all came about due to trouble with my weekly back-up. Not that this was the problem. It was something else, but it got me looking at my drive space. I'm all backed up and that's my biggest concern.

Thanks again for the info. And if it happens again, I will be back and maybe there can be a cure rather than a quick fix.

Jason
 
Jason just download Yasu to clean out those archived log files. Just make sure in the program you also have the "cron" tabs checked marked when you run the program.
 
Friend of mine had the same problem. Most of the log entries were widgets running out of memory:

[350] file:///Library/Widgets/Weather.wdgt/Weather.html:Error - Out of memory
2006-10-24 10:10:35.592 DashboardClient[350] (com.apple.widget.weather) undefined: Error - Out of memory (line: 0)
[350] file:///Library/Widgets/Weather.wdgt/Weather.html:Error - Out of memory
2006-10-24 10:10:35.652 DashboardClient[350] (com.apple.widget.weather) undefined: Error - Out of memory (line: 0)
[350] file:///Library/Widgets/Weather.wdgt/Weather.html:Error - Out of memory
2006-10-24 10:10:35.712 DashboardClient[350] (com.apple.widget.weather) undefined: Error - Out of memory (line: 0)
 
Note that even if your computer is _on_ 24/7, the cron jobs won't get run automatically unless it is _awake_ at the right times. I believe that this is theoretically different in Tiger and they should get run, but usually the places which note this note it in the context of work arounds for the failure of reality to live up to theory.

It is also possible to have the cron jobs run automatically. There are several ways to do this. One is to change the times the jobs run so that they run when your computer is usually awake. The default times are usually in the middle of the night when most people are asleep. How you do this depends on whether you're using Tiger or an earlier system. An alternative is to use something like anacron, which is my preferred method. This runs on startup, but you can also add it to the list of cron jobs to run every hour, say. This will make sure that the daily cron job runs daily, the weekly weekly etc. so long as the computer is awake some time.

Can anyone find the reference for management of the Console logs in the cron scripts? If so, does anyone know why these don't get compressed as the other archived logs do?

- cfr
 
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