Log files - where, what, why ??

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

As a noob, can someone give me a summary of log files? Piaware, Dump1090, Dump1090 Mutability, FR24, collectd etc. assuming a default installation :slight_smile:

Where they live
How to turn them on.
How to turn them off.
How to delete them.
Will they fill my SD card.

Many thanks

2

/tmp/piaware.out

Dump1090

Doesn’t log

Dump1090 Mutability

/var/log/dump1090-mutability.log

FR24

No idea

collectd

syslog (/var/log/syslog and /var/log/messages)

How to turn them on.
How to turn them off.
How to delete them.
Will they fill my SD card.

None of the above are designed to be turned off, AFAIK.
The ones in /var/log are rotated with logrotate (see /etc/logrotate.conf and /etc/logrotate.d/*) so won’t grow without bound.
The piaware logs in /tmp only keeps todays/yesterdays logs

3

Many thanks obj :smiley: :smiley:

4

FR24

/var/log/fr24feed.log

I have Version: 1.0.11-3/generic
The log DOES NOT switch. Instead it just keeps growing :angry: Mine is currently 38MB (since 14th May). Going to delete it now. Perhaps a cron job with periodic deletion would be a good idea for this.

5

If the FR24 feeder has the logfile open in append mode then you can probably use logrotate with the “copytruncate” option to rotate it.

6

Just to confirm, yes that works!

Created new file /etc/logrotate.d/fr24feed with the following content:


/var/log/fr24feed.log {
  daily
  rotate 4
  copytruncate
}

Now I have 4 smallish logs that keep rotating. Thank you obj for the tip!

7

collectd will also drop in /var/log/daemon.log