Summary: Is there a log-trimming utility in Bookworm?
Keywords: log cleanup truncate

Is there some utility that will truncate accumulated log
file in Bookworm? I set up an 8GB microSD for a Pi2 and
have ended up using it much longer than expected.

It might not help, but a housecleaning utility seems like
a good thing to know about in any case.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska


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On Sun, 14 Sep 2025 03:16:33 -0000 (UTC), bp wrote:

Is there some utility that will truncate accumulated log file in
Bookworm?

You can control this and other aspects of logfile usage via journald.conf <https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/journald.conf.html>.

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On 14/09/2025 04:16, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

Is there some utility that will truncate accumulated log
file in Bookworm? I set up an 8GB microSD for a Pi2 and
have ended up using it much longer than expected.

It might not help, but a housecleaning utility seems like
a good thing to know about in any case.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

man logrotate ?

--
Chris

--- MBSE BBS v1.1.2 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

On 14/09/2025 04:16, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

Is there some utility that will truncate accumulated log
file in Bookworm? I set up an 8GB microSD for a Pi2 and
have ended up using it much longer than expected.

It might not help, but a housecleaning utility seems like
a good thing to know about in any case.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

Umm.
Are these old style logs or the dreaded systemd?

I maintained a log/script of how to get the best out of a pi Zero and
never ever write to its SD card...

echo "tmpfs /var/ramlog tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec,nodiratime,size=25M
0 0" >> /etc/fstab

# /var/ramlog is used for everything except systemd. Logrotate keeps it
tidy.
# various entties that create log files have to be configured to dump
stuff in it.

## fuck with shitsemd

sed -i "s/#Storage=auto/Storage=volatile/" /etc/systemd/journald.conf
sed -i "s/#RuntimeMaxUse=/RuntimeMaxUse=25M/" /etc/systemd/journald.conf
sed -i "s/#ForwardToConsole=yes/ForwardToConsole=no/" /etc/systemd/journald.conf
sed -i "s/#ForwardToWall=yes/ForwardToWall=no/" //etc/systemd/journald.conf

#Using volatile storage puts it in /var/run/systemd and /var/run is
created as a ram
# based file system by the operating system

Naturally systemd doesn't use logrotate. Wheels must be constantly reinvented, but RuntimeMaxUse=25M does most of what you want

--
"I guess a rattlesnake ain't risponsible fer bein' a rattlesnake, but ah
puts mah heel on um jess the same if'n I catches him around mah chillun".



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The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Are these old style logs or the dreaded systemd?

This is a systemd machine, but after looking around in response to
suggestions made above it seems less than 5 MB is used by journals.
That's not enough to matter.

Evidently I've just added too many packages.

Is there some way to coax the Add/Remove Programs application
to list installed packages, ideally by size? Then I can clean
house manually. The chromium browser will likely be the first
to go 8-)

Thanks to all for replying, and apologies for the misguided question!

bob prohaska


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On Sun, 14 Sep 2025 20:04:50 -0000 (UTC), bp wrote:

Evidently I've just added too many packages.

One occasional problem I had on my previous laptop was it would fill up
the root partition every now and then with old cached package files. These
are normally not needed after the package is actually installed.

Check your disk usage for this cache with

du -ks /var/cache/apt/archives/

and see if it looks excessive. Anything you delete from there should be automatically downloadable again if itΓÇÖs needed. ;)

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Lawrence DΓÇÖOliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Sun, 14 Sep 2025 20:04:50 -0000 (UTC), bp wrote:

Evidently I've just added too many packages.

One occasional problem I had on my previous laptop was it would fill up
the root partition every now and then with old cached package files. These are normally not needed after the package is actually installed.

Check your disk usage for this cache with

du -ks /var/cache/apt/archives/

and see if it looks excessive. Anything you delete from there should be automatically downloadable again if itΓÇÖs needed. ;)

Bingo! It's over one GB. Not my whole problem, but a big chunk of it.

Thank you!

bob prohaska


--- MBSE BBS v1.1.2 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

On 9/14/25 15:04, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Are these old style logs or the dreaded systemd?

This is a systemd machine, but after looking around in response to suggestions made above it seems less than 5 MB is used by journals.
That's not enough to matter.

Evidently I've just added too many packages.

Is there some way to coax the Add/Remove Programs application
to list installed packages, ideally by size? Then I can clean
house manually. The chromium browser will likely be the first
to go 8-)

Thanks to all for replying, and apologies for the misguided question!

bob prohaska

Edit /etc/systemd/journald.conf file to enable SystemMaxUse and set it
equal to some value that will give you enough but not too much logs. I
use 128M. If you have files building up in /var/log, every month I
delete all the .gz archived logs. This is an example script:

#!/bin/bash

echo "delete-old-logs"

rm -v /var/log/*.gz
rm -v /var/log/apache2/*.gz
rm -v /var/log/apt/*.gz
rm -v /var/log/cups/*.gz
rm -v /var/log/lightdm/*.gz
rm -v /var/log/unattended-upgrades/*.gz

Change or add to the list above according to you actual needs.

8GB if you have a desktop installed is probably a little small for
Bookworm. I tell my employer he needs to use a 16GB uSD for Bookworm
with a desktop. 8GB was fine on Buster but just isn't enough any more.

--

Knute Johnson

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