panic logs

[norbi99]

Hi every1!
Two questions:
1. Does SCO unix (open server 5.0.4) keep a log about the panic errors/warnings/messages?
syslog or messages has nothing about that...

2. Can I clear the syslog file in such manner that it will keep the entries for the last couple of weeks, and clear anything before that?

thank you

 

[pcunix]

When and OS panics, the only thing that it thinks is safe is to dump an image of itself to swap. Consider that a panic represents a highly unexpected situation- it's like you driving your car at night and suddenly all the lights go out everywhere- the only safe thing to do is to stop as quickly as possible. So no log, no.

It's not easy to do what you ask without a possible loss of data, but something like this "works":

tail -20 syslog > t
# get more sophisticated grepping for date etc.
mv t syslog

The problem is that something can sneak in there in between. Normally that wouldn't overly concern modst systems, but it could be something important. If you really needed to be perfect about it, you'd need a custom syslog that could be paused momentarily while it did this.

Tony Lawrence
SCO Unix/Linux Resources

http://pcunix.com

tony@pcunix.com