I have been trying to use (#debian) #linux with separate partitions for /home and couple of others. However, I have been facing the problem of /var becoming full and thus blocking further updates and installations. Most of the time deleting /var/log/auth.log would help but now I have messed up and can’t startup lightdm and using it from another tty. Can you guys share some tips and tricks as to avoiding this problem? I know keeping everything in one partition is one such trick. Anything else? #linux #foss #gnu #free_software #libre_software #disk #operatingsystems

  • Helix 🧬
    3•2 years ago
    • Make the var partition bigger (how big is it?)
    • use systemd and set a max size of the log files
    • use logrotate to set a max size
    • if auth.log is too big then it’s probably a server so you might want to log to a syslog server instead of storing it on the system
    • or you set the SSH port to something different to reduce noise
    • or you disable logging for nonexistent users
    • or you set up fail2ban to stop bruteforce
    • or you set the SSH daemon spawn settings so it doesn’t allow brute forcing
    • …

    there’s basically endless solutions for this problem based on the actual source of the issue. What’s the reason for you needing to delete the auth.log?