empty /var/adm/syslog/mail.log

[TMcB]

Hi

I've created a cron job to clear down the mail log file :

/sbin/init.d/sendmail stop
cp /var/adm/syslog/mail.log /var/adm/syslog/mail.old
cat /dev/null > /var/adm/syslog/mail.log
/sbin/init.d/sendmail start

My problem is that nothing is being logged in mail.log anymore.
The file permissions are a sfollows :
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 1 19:20 mail.log
-r--r--r-- 1 root sys 2034117 Mar 1 19:20 mail.old

Has anyone any ideas how I've gone wrong?
Thanks

[Fred Ruffet · Accepted solution]

Maybe because this is not sendmail who is writing to this file but syslogd.

I would make the script this way :
cp /var/adm/syslog/mail.log /var/adm/syslog/mail.old
> /var/adm/syslog/mail.log
kill -1 $(cat /var/run/syslog.pid)

then try to send a mail...

Regards,

Fred

[Eric Antunes]

Hi,

Maybe it's because your "cat /dev/null > /var/adm/syslog/mail.log" command...

I think you should do this the same way does it (see attachment). See "Options -> View SAM Log..." to check SAM commands...

Best Regards,

Eric Antunes

[B. Hulst]

Hi,

Instead of

cat /dev/null > /var/adm/syslog/mail.log

use:

touch /var/adm/syslog/mail.log

Regards,
Bob

[Alex Lavrov.]

You don't have write permitions on the file. Chck he user that sendmail uses and give it write permissions on the file.

[TMcB]

restarting syslogd resolved the issue

thanks