Is there any way to reset or re-zero the Raw Logs to
assess the access to the site (linux/apache server). The client have been using them to see who has accessed the site following a mailing to corporations on a product they're releasing and would like to be able to 'reset' it periodically to make reviewing it a bit easier. Is this possible? Hoping for some input.

Thanks
John

It sounds as if you're talking about the Apache logs. If that's true, you can just "mv" (move) the existing file to a new name and they issue a "graceful" restart to Apache. It will close the renamed log and open a new one.

Frank

or you could also do the 'bad way'

echo "" > log_file_here

:))) But you lose log file content

Originally posted by apollo
or you could also do the 'bad way'

echo "" > log_file_here

:))) But you lose log file content

And you may end up with a very large empty file ;)

Frank

I would find a good logrotate scripts which I think RedHat has one already. You can set it to rotate log every night and only keep the logs for 7 days. That way the script will delete all logs that are older than 7 days. I think this is a better way than deleting content of these logs.

You never know when you will need these old logs .. :)


Cheers,

Thanks alot for your suggestions :). So it can be done. That's great.

John

Just a note:

With some server daemons (or versions) when you physically move a file rather than copy and zero it (with echo > [file]) the file handle is lost, and until that daemon is restarted it will not continue logging.

Depending on the code, this can be sometimes be fixed with a simple "touch filename".

I'd recommend a good logrotate script as well, and just bypass the whole hassle of nuking the large logs. :)