# What type of log files are available?
**URL:** https://dietpi.com/forum/t/what-type-of-log-files-are-available/210
**Category:** Troubleshooting
**Created:** [8 December 2015 18:47 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/what-type-of-log-files-are-available/210 "2015-12-08T18:47:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Gord\_W](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/Gord_W)
#### Post date: [8 December 2015 18:47 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/what-type-of-log-files-are-available/210/1 "2015-12-08T18:47:18Z")
Hi,
In /var/log I have a bunch of log files. Are there any system error files that I can turn on or other other reporting type logs?
Running headless through ssh.
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 80 Dec 7 23:33 apt
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 7 23:33 dietpi-apt-get\_update
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root adm 1 Dec 8 00:17 dmesg
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 1 Dec 8 00:17 dpkg.log
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 80 Dec 7 23:33 fsck
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 40 Dec 7 23:33 news
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 1 Dec 8 00:17 ntpd.log
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 120 Dec 8 10:35 ntpstats
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 100 Dec 7 23:33 proftpd
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 40 Dec 7 23:33 samba
Gordon Williams
---
### Author:  [@Fourdee](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/Fourdee)
#### Post date: [8 December 2015 19:01 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/what-type-of-log-files-are-available/210/2 "2015-12-08T19:01:10Z")
> [@Gord\_W](#):
>
> Hi,
>
> In /var/log I have a bunch of log files. Are there any system error files that I can turn on or other other reporting type logs?
>
> Running headless through ssh.
>
> drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 80 Dec 7 23:33 apt
> -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 7 23:33 dietpi-apt-get\_update
> -rwxrwxr-x 1 root adm 1 Dec 8 00:17 dmesg
> -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 1 Dec 8 00:17 dpkg.log
> drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 80 Dec 7 23:33 fsck
> drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 40 Dec 7 23:33 news
> -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 1 Dec 8 00:17 ntpd.log
> drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 120 Dec 8 10:35 ntpstats
> drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 100 Dec 7 23:33 proftpd
> drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 40 Dec 7 23:33 samba
>
> Gordon Williams
Hi Gordon,
It sounds like you need rsyslog. This allows for system logs (And other programs that use it) to be stored.
DietPi-Ramlog does not have rsyslog installed (to improve performance). So you’ll need to either install rsyslog manually, or, use the “Full” logging mode in dietpi-software.
```plaintext
apt-get install rsyslog
```
---
### Author:  [@Gord\_W](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/Gord_W)
#### Post date: [9 December 2015 21:24 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/what-type-of-log-files-are-available/210/3 "2015-12-09T21:24:56Z")
Hi,
3 things:
1. I used your dietpi config to change the logging to rsyslog and logrotate. I noticed during the software install process heirloom-mailx was also installed. What is it’s purpose?
\
2. proftp config
In the proftp log file there are “wtmp /var/log/wtmp: No such file or directory” every few lines which increases the size of the file.
…
Dec 09 15:12:51 DietPi proftpd[2241] DietPi (192.168.1.105[192.168.1.105]): FTP session opened.
Dec 09 15:12:51 DietPi proftpd[2241] DietPi (192.168.1.105[192.168.1.105]): ROOT FTP login successful.
Dec 09 15:12:51 DietPi proftpd[2241] DietPi (192.168.1.105[192.168.1.105]): wtmp /var/log/wtmp: No such file or directory
Dec 09 15:12:51 DietPi proftpd[2241] DietPi (192.168.1.105[192.168.1.105]): USER root: Login successful.
Dec 09 15:13:31 DietPi proftpd[2242] DietPi (192.168.1.105[192.168.1.105]): FTP session opened.
Dec 09 15:13:31 DietPi proftpd[2242] DietPi (192.168.1.105[192.168.1.105]): ROOT FTP login successful.
Dec 09 15:13:31 DietPi proftpd[2242] DietPi (192.168.1.105[192.168.1.105]): wtmp /var/log/wtmp: No such file or directory
Dec 09 15:13:31 DietPi proftpd[2242] DietPi (192.168.1.105[192.168.1.105]): USER root: Login successful.
These can be stopped by making WtmpLog off in the config. I’ve also made a few other
changes to the proftp.conf file:
#Correct time - may be still off due to DST -gw change
TimesGMT off
# to stop logging wtmp /var/log/wtmp: No such file or directory -gw change
WtmpLog off
#This will jail users in one directory -gw change
#DefaultRoot /root
1. /logfile\_storage
When I was using your log option 2 there is an extra directory created with logs in it /logfile\_storage . This is on top of the ones in /root/logfile\_storage.
1. Under /var/log there are many files now - as might be expected
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 alternatives.log
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 9 14:54 apt
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 4596 Dec 9 16:08 auth.log
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 1066 Dec 9 15:42 daemon.log
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 1489 Dec 9 14:54 debug
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 dietpi-apt-get\_update
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root adm 17280 Dec 9 14:54 dmesg
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 dpkg.log
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 9 14:54 fsck
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 25656 Dec 9 15:25 kern.log
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 lpr.log
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 mail.err
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 mail.info
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 mail.log
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 mail.warn
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 23866 Dec 9 14:54 messages
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 9 14:54 news
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 672 Dec 9 15:55 ntpd.log
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 9 15:14 ntpstats
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 9 14:54 proftpd
drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 9 14:54 samba
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 27183 Dec 9 15:42 syslog
-rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 user.log
syslog is the main one while messages, kern.log, dmesg are just large subsets of the syslog. messages, kern.log, dmesg are redundant and taking up space.
Gordon Williams
---
### Author:  [@Fourdee](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/Fourdee)
#### Post date: [10 December 2015 13:51 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/what-type-of-log-files-are-available/210/4 "2015-12-10T13:51:54Z")
> [@Gord\_W](#):
>
> Hi,
>
> 3 things:
>
> 1. I used your dietpi config to change the logging to rsyslog and logrotate. I noticed during the software install process heirloom-mailx was also installed. What is it’s purpose?
Hi Gordon,
Some good finds, great stuff!
On Wheezy, heirloom-mailx is pulled in with:
```plaintext
apt-get install logrotate
```
For v103: I’ve updated the installation code to use --no-install-recommends, this will leave the mail package out for new installations.
> [@Gord\_W](#):
>
> 1. proftp config
> In the proftp log file there are “wtmp /var/log/wtmp: No such file or directory” every few lines which increases the size of the file.
Added to v103 patch and new proftpd installations: WtmpLog off
> [@Gord\_W](#):
>
> #Correct time - may be still off due to DST -gw change
> TimesGMT off
Not sure about this one. I vaguely remember a user having timestamp issues with proftpd, not sure if this was related. I’ll look into it a bit more.
> [@Gord\_W](#):
>
> #This will jail users in one directory -gw change
> #DefaultRoot /root
Yep, enabling this will jail the proftpd logins to /root. This is left on by default so that our users dont get “lost” when using proftpd as a file server.
> [@Gord\_W](#):
>
> 1. /logfile\_storage
>
> When I was using your log option 2 there is an extra directory created with logs in it /logfile\_storage . This is on top of the ones in /root/logfile\_storage.
Strange, lets try to find all folders with that name on your system.
Could you run the following for me please and reply with results:
```plaintext
find / -type d -name logfile_storage
```
> [@Gord\_W](#):
>
> 1. Under /var/log there are many files now - as might be expected
> -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 lpr.log
> -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 mail.err
> -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 mail.info
> -rwxrwxr-x 1 root root 0 Dec 9 14:54 mail.log
Try running the following to list all logfiles with 0 filesize, delete, then reboot system. If they reappear, they are being generated by rsyslog:
```plaintext
find /var/log -type f -size 0
```
Thanks Gordon, good stuff.
---
### Author:  [@Gord\_W](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/Gord_W)
#### Post date: [10 December 2015 15:25 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/what-type-of-log-files-are-available/210/5 "2015-12-10T15:25:37Z")
I’m no longer using your option 2 for logs (1hr logs with store) but this is what on my system currently.
root@DietPi:~# find / -type d -name logfile\_storage
/root/logfile\_storage
/logfile\_storage
It was not so much that there were files (eg. mail) that had zero size, but that there were essentially 3 large files that contained almost exactly the same information. The syslog file contains all the information in the other two, making the other 2 redundant and only consuming disk space. I’m sure a tweek to to the rsyslog config file can fix that.
After deleting the 0 size file and rebootng they reappeared.
Gordon Williams
---
### Author:  [@Gord\_W](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/Gord_W)
#### Post date: [10 December 2015 16:48 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/what-type-of-log-files-are-available/210/6 "2015-12-10T16:48:33Z")
Sent email to you with changed rsyslog.conf file changes to remove the redundant logs created.
Gordon Williams
---
### Author:  [@Wolfgan](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/Wolfgan)
#### Post date: [17 July 2016 14:31 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/what-type-of-log-files-are-available/210/7 "2016-07-17T14:31:12Z")
Since a few days ago, I noticed that my ftp service (proftpd) wasn’t starting at boot time. While troubleshooting, I discovered it’s an issue related to logfile folder as per .conf (/var/log/proftpd/) not being created beforehand:
```nohighlight
Jul 13 16:18:53 DietPi proftpd[1158]: 2016-07-13 16:18:53,104 DietPi proftpd[1165]: fatal: ControlsLog: unable to open '/var/log/proftpd/controls.log': No such file or directory on line 66 of '/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf'
```
A simple **“sudo mkdir /var/log/proftpd/”** and **“sudo service proftpd start”** via ssh promptly solves the issue, but I wonder if anything changed lately that may be affecting this behaviour, or someone else suffering this issue as well?
Thx, Wolf
---
### Author:  [@Fourdee](https://dietpi.com/forum/u/Fourdee)
#### Post date: [17 July 2016 16:11 UTC](https://dietpi.com/forum/t/what-type-of-log-files-are-available/210/8 "2016-07-17T16:11:38Z")
> [@Wolfgan](#):
>
> Since a few days ago, I noticed that my ftp service (proftpd) wasn’t starting at boot time. While troubleshooting, I discovered it’s an issue related to logfile folder as per .conf (/var/log/proftpd/) not being created beforehand:
>
> ```plaintext
> Jul 13 16:18:53 DietPi proftpd[1158]: 2016-07-13 16:18:53,104 DietPi proftpd[1165]: fatal: ControlsLog: unable to open '/var/log/proftpd/controls.log': No such file or directory on line 66 of '/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf'
>
> ```
>
> A simple **“sudo mkdir /var/log/proftpd/”** and **“sudo service proftpd start”** via ssh promptly solves the issue, but I wonder if anything changed lately that may be affecting this behaviour, or someone else suffering this issue as well?
>
> Thx, Wolf
Hi Wolf,
Very strange, I just did a fresh installation and it appears everything is in order
```plaintext
root@DietPi:~# cat /var/log/proftpd/proftpd.log
2016-07-17 17:06:10,440 DietPi proftpd[931] DietPi: ProFTPD 1.3.5 (stable) (built Tue May 19 2015 20:09:22 UTC) standalone mode STARTUP
```
I’am not entirely sure what would cause this to be removed. Have you by any chance, used dietpi-cleaner or any other script/program that clears the /var/log directory?