System information

Analyzing and Managing System Log Files 61
Analyzing and Managing
System Log Files
4
System log file analysis is one of the most important tasks when analyzing the system.
In fact, looking at the system log files should be the first thing to do when maintaining
or troubleshooting a system. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server automatically logs almost
everything that happens on the system in detail. Normally, system log files are written
in plain text and therefore, can be easily read using an editor or pager. They are also
parsable by scripts, allowing you to easily filter their content.
4.1 System Log Files in /var/log/
System log files are always located under the /var/log directory. The following
list presents an overview of all system log files from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
present after a default installation. Depending on your installation scope, /var/log
also contains log files from other services and applications not listed here. Some files
and directories described below are “placeholders” and are only used, when the corre-
sponding application is installed. Most log files are only visible for the user root.
acpid
Log of the advanced configuration and power interface event daemon (acpid),
a daemon to notify user-space programs of ACPI events. acpid will log all of its
activities, as well as the STDOUT and STDERR of any actions to syslog.
apparmor
AppArmor log files. See Part“Confining Privileges with AppArmor” (↑Security
Guide) for details of AppArmor.