ORIGINAL QUESTION:
The file /var/adm/wtmpx grows very fast in my Solaris 2.3 systems
and make my /var file system full. It can grow several megabytes
each day!!
Does anyone know what is this file used for and can I just simply
use a cron job to remove it periodically?
SOLUTIONS:
1.
Thanks to Casper Dik. Both /var/adm/wtmp and /var/adm/wtmpx
must be removed at the same time; otherwise, /var/adm/wtmpx
will be recreated from /var/adm/wtmpx automatically. Now I
use a cron jobs to truncate the two files simultaneously.
In my Solaris 2.3, the size of wtmpx is about 10 times
larger than wtmp, it is also the case for utmp and utmpx. In
my case, wtmp is about 500k and wtmpx is 5MB huge!!
2.
Thanks to S. Cowles. The files can automatically be managed
if you start System V's accounting sub-system.
THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING RESPONSES:
> From casper@fwi.uva.nl Sat Jun 18 19:32:01 1994
> >To: mdlhk!andrew
> Date: Sat Jun 18 13:04:12 +0200 1994
> From: casper@fwi.uva.nl (Casper Dik)
> Subject: Re: /var/adm/wtmpx in Solaris 2.3
>
>
> It's a log file that logs all logins to your systems.
> If you have removed it, it will probably grow back to its
> original size, the same instance. If you remove it,
> you need to remove wtmp at the same moment.
> (Or the wtmpx file will be recreated from the wtmp file,
> adding a 256 byte hostname field for each record.)
>
> A several MB/day growth seems highly unlikely in normal
> circumstances. Each entry takes about 300 bytes, each
> login/logout add one record, so each session has two records.
> 1MB would equal 1500 sessions. That is a bit high
> for normal use. So I guess it has grown back from wtmp.
> Such use is not impossible though.
>
> Casper
>
> From scowles@scheffer.Stanford.EDU Mon Jun 20 10:13:38 1994
> Message-Version: 2
> >To: mdlhk!andrew
> Date: Sat Jun 18 12:00:54 -0700 1994
> From: scowles@scheffer.Stanford.EDU (S. Cowles)
> Subject: Re: /var/adm/wtmpx in Solaris 2.3
>
> I started running the accounting procedures and the [uw]tmp[x] files are now
> managed automatically. The tradeoff is that I now must manage the accouting
> files, but this just means that I need to periodically dump these off to
> tape.
>
> sid
>
> S. Cowles
> voice: +1 415 812 1917
> fax: +1 415 812 1916
> email: scowles@toolik.stanford.edu
> email: scowles@llnl.gov
>
>
> From kalle@cs.wvu.edu Mon Jun 20 10:13:34 1994
> Message-Version: 2
> >To: mdlhk!andrew
> Date: Sat Jun 18 14:35:19 -0400 1994
> From: kalle@cs.wvu.edu (Narendranath Kalle)
> Email-Version: 2
> Subject: Re: /var/adm/wtmpx in Solaris 2.3
>
>
> This file is created to store the login information of users
> for other commands like 'w' and 'who'. It has a very huge data structure
> to store all the details including process id and time ...etc. For more
> details do 'man wtmpx'.
>
> Narendra
>
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