On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 9:16 AM, Philip Webb <[email protected]> wrote: > 110325 Alex Schuster wrote: >> Philip Webb writes: >>> In /var/log/ there is a file wtmp , which is 24 MB & owned by utmp >>> . It is in binary format & is updated when I reboot. >>> Can anyone explain what it's for & whether it cb safely deleted ? >> It tracks logins, you can use the 'last' command to show its contents. >> I'm pretty sure it's safe to delete it, >> but you should create it as empty file afterwards >> -- 'touch /var/log/wtmp' -- , >> otherwise the system will not make use of it again. >> If wou want to get the space, I suggest compressing the file, >> it will be much much smaller then: >> >> bzip2 -v /var/log/wtmp >> touch /var/log/wtmp >> >> Also see the man pages for wtmp and last. > > Thanks & to the other respondent. I'll decide how to handle it.
"man wtmp" will also give you much detailed info about what's in the file, which programs write to it, how to use it in your own programs, etc. in case you're interested in that.
