Project 10-3

In this hands-on project, you view the configuration of the System Log Daemon and the logrotate

utility on Ubuntu Server Linux.

1. Boot your Ubuntu Server Linux virtual machine. After your Linux system has been

loaded, log into tty1 using the user name of root and the password of LNXrocks!.

2. At the command prompt, type ls l /dev/log and press Enter. What is the file type?

Which daemon on Ubuntu Server Linux uses this file and what is its purpose?

3. At the command prompt, type less /etc/rsyslog.conf and press Enter to view

the configuration file for the System Log Daemon. Are there any entries that specify

facilities, priorities, or log file locations? What does the last line of the file specify?

Press q when finished to quit the less utility.

4. At the command prompt, type less /etc/rsyslog.d/50-default.conf and

press Enter. Where do kernel messages of any priority get logged to by default? What

does the character next to the filename indicate? Press q when finished to quit the

less utility.

5. At the command prompt, type tail /var/log/kern.log and press Enter. Observe

the entries.

6. At the command prompt, type ls /var/log/cups and press Enter. What daemon creates

the log files within the /var/log/cups directory?

7. At the command prompt, type cat /etc/cron.daily/logrotate and press Enter

to observe the logrotate command that is run each day.

8. At the command prompt, type less /etc/logrotate.conf and press Enter to view

the configuration file for the logrotate command. How many copies of old log files

are kept by default? When finished, press q to quit the less utility.

9. At the command prompt, type ls /etc/logrotate.d and press Enter. How many

files are in this directory? Will entries in these files override the same entries in /etc/logrotate.conf?

10. At the command prompt, type cat /etc/logrotate.d/cups-daemon and press

Enter. How many copies of old log files are kept for the log files in the /var/log/cups

directory? Will the log files be rotated if they contain no contents?

11. Type exit and press Enter to log out of your shell.