The disk that contains Ubuntu on my computer is 115GB
in size.
When the disk was 114.7GB
full.
I started deleting some files here and there to free up around 5GB
.
But I noticed the disk was 114GB
filled again. I thought it was some cache or swap thingy so didn't give it much thought and went ahead and freed around 40GB
by shifting some media files out of the disk.
I have a notification in an hour or so that the disk is full yet again!!
40GB
!!! All gone!
So I debugged the problem down to the /var/log/syslog
file which was initially definitely less than 20GB
. I know this because /var
folder was 17GB
before I cleared the memory.
/var/log/syslog
file is currently 55.9GB
!
Could someone be so gracious to explain this anomaly?
Is this a bug?
Or am I affected with some malware or virus?
Best Answer
This indefinite growth generally occurs due to repeated log of one or more errors from the same source. In my case it was due to continual report of connection error from the wifi monitoring interface
mon0
I have used to monitor my wifi traffic. There have been error reports of such overflow occurring in various other interfaces liketun0
from VPN etc.I have resolved my issue by clearing the
/var/log/syslog
fileTo tackle this error
var/log/syslog
fileProblems you might face doing the same
var/log/syslog
: due to massive size any editor is bound to crash/var/log/syslog
: Again due to massive size clearing is a challenge tooSo, for viewing the error that caused the overflow
For clearing use: