syslog 2G file limit?

[Shane Hockings]

I've got a process writing to local6.info under syslog. Syslog stops writing to the file (though largefiles is enabled on the filesystem) after 2G. I can prove this is syslog because echo "test" >> [logfile] increases the file by 4 bytes over the 2G file size.
Any ideas how to let syslog keep apending to a 2G+ file (there is a business requirement for having this so large).

Thanks!
Shane

[Bharat Katkar]

I would suggest to recheck the entry in /etc/fstab for /var filesystem to see largefiles options.
It should look something like this:
/dev/vg00/lvolx /var vxfs delaylog,nodatainlog,largefiles,rw,suid 0 2

[Shane Hockings]

The filesystem is definately mounted with largefiles turned on - I can append to the file with cat [text] >> [file].

[Michael Tully]

I find it strange that syslog has a problem after 2Gb, but you can append to the file. I would suggest you first look at patches for your version.

[Francesco Campalastri]

Try to use logger.
Do not use echo "text" >> syslog.log, use logger "text"
What happens?

Francesco

[Shane Hockings]

logger -p local6.info "testing"
does not alter the file size (return code = 0)

[Francesco Campalastri]

Excuse me Shane,
what HP-UX is running?

[Shane Hockings]

HPUX 11i

Cheers!
Shane

[Bharat Katkar]

Shane,
Now that it is not appending syslog file, could u monitor the console for any error messages reported in this regards. I think it should help us to proceed further.

All the best.

[Shane Hockings]

I have made sure the system would write to the syslog file - no error (or anything else) gets written to the console when it tried to do so.

Thanks
Shane

[Francesco Campalastri]

Hi shane
Just to discover error messages, did you try to stop the sylogd daemon and restart it?

Francesco

[Shane Hockings]

Francesco,
It doesn't seem to report any errors at all (syslog gets restarted daily to rotate the logs), it just stops appending to the file at the 2G mark. I would imagine that it uses the 32-bit seek / read commands, but can't find any documentation to suggest how to get around it.

Cheers
Shane

[Francesco Campalastri]

Hi shane,
this is my last message, I do not have anymore idea.
It seems to be something like a problem I had in the past.
No more than 2 GB in stdout.
Probably there is a 32 bit addressing in some streams or in some portion of the shell code.

Actually syslog is started by a posix shell. Try to specify some different shell to test it.

Unfortunatly I cannot help you more.


Bye Francesco