Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site sdcrdcf.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!jonab From: jonab@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Jonathan Biggar) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: /usr/adm/messages craziness Message-ID: <1144@sdcrdcf.UUCP> Date: Fri, 15-Jun-84 19:34:54 EDT Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.1144 Posted: Fri Jun 15 19:34:54 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 22-Jun-84 04:37:10 EDT References: <659@aplvax.UUCP> Reply-To: jonab@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Jonathan Biggar) Organization: System Development Corporation, Santa Monica Lines: 38 In article <659@aplvax.UUCP> eric@aplvax.UUCP writes: > > I have a VAX 11/780 running 4.1 that has decided to start dumping >garbage into /usr/adm/messages. First off, none of this garbage is coming >out to the console. But every ten minutes, the system appends about 40 lines >to /usr/adm/messages, and the data is usually the same (currently a >concatenation of a couple of boot sequences). Originally it was mostly >a bunch of debug messages from a driver, but the debug messages have since >been disabled and, as I said, the message is now just a couple of boot >sequences. Further, since this started, we have re-booted a couple of >times. I will gladly take any recommendations on how to stop this, or what >caused it in the first place. Funny thing. I had just noticed the exact same problem. The file /usr/adm/messages is written to by a the program /etc/dmesg which is run every ten minutes from crontab. The crontab entry should look like this: 0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /etc/dmesg - >>/usr/adm/messages The '-' as an argument instructs dmesg to compute the kernel error messages incrementally, i. e. only write to /usr/adm/messages those error messages that are new. I thought that this would fix the problem, but our crontab was correct. However, there is an answer! After staring at the code for dmesg for a while, I discovered that the file /usr/adm/msgbuf must exist for dmesg to determine the new messages. So there are to things you should check: 1) That the crontab entry is correct. 2) That the file /usr/adm/msgbuf exists. Jon Biggar {allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,sdccsu3}!sdcrdcf!jonab