Question

62

How can I free space from a massive 39.5GB /var/log/ folder?

rated 0 times [ 62] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 247402 / 3 Years ago, tue, august 3, 2021, 1:20:43

I just got a message from the default disk analyses software (Baobab)
that I only have 1GB left on the hard drive. After some search, I found that the /var/log/ folder is the cause of this.

Some file/sizes in /var/log/:

kern.log = 12.6 GB

ufw.log = 12.5 GB

kern.log.1 = 6.1 GB

ufw.log.1 = 6.0 GB

Et cetera et cetera. /var/log is huge.

Can I delete those files or the entire /var/log folder? Or is that a BIG NO NO in Ubuntu?

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pilun

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3 Years ago

answered 3 Years ago olltea · Accepted Answer

You must not remove the entire folder but you can remove "Old-Packed" log files without harming your system.

For a typical home user, it's safe to remove any log file that is compressed and has a .gz extension (as you can see in the picture).

These compressed log files are old logs that are gzipped to reduce storage space, and as an average user, you don't need them.

Select .gz extention