Can I delete all the Linux log files or some of them? They are consuming a lot of disk space

Hi all,

Thanks for all the feedback. Can you tell me what you fellows have for your log configuration? What commands do I use or scripts to rotate logs properly?

@gheist, you mentioned a log rotation pacakge. Which one? Command(s) to run? Still new to the linux admin stuff a bit.
@gheist, you mentioned before I delete any logs then I would need to restart a process? What process? What command(s) before deleting?

@serilalband mentioned run yum clean all. Any other commands suggested?

Thank you.

@serialband, ok. I just deleted all the *.rpm files in the /var/spool/repackage. Also deleted /var/log/brcm-iscsi.log.

I have WHM/cPanel. Are there any know problems/issues with running yum clean all?

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Ok, thanks, NickUpson. Just reading this on the logrotate:
http://articles.slicehost.com/2010/6/30/understanding-logrotate-on-centos-part-1

I have this in the /var folder re. disk usage:

root@ip-184-168-116-73 [/var/log]# du -a /var | sort -n -r | head -n 10         28511228        /var
27194204        /var/lib
26739776        /var/lib/mysql
1049608 /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000024
1049608 /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000022
1049608 /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000021
1049608 /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000020
1049608 /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000019
1049608 /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000018
1049608 /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000017

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Should I delete the files like /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000024, etc?

Looks like I have logrotate.

cd /etc/cron.daily
root@ip-184-168-116-73 [/etc/cron.daily]# ls -al
total 36
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root  4096 Oct 11  2013 ./
drwxr-xr-x 80 root root 12288 Sep 25 17:45 ../
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   180 Jun  4  2012 logrotate*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   418 May 30  2012 makewhatis.cron*
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   137 Jul  6  2011 mlocate.cron
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   296 Feb 25  2013 rpm*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   354 Aug 11  2010 tmpwatch*
root@ip-184-168-116-73 [/etc/cron.daily]#

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My logrotate config settings. Does it look ok? Should I change or add anything in this config file? Considering I had massive logs I would think so but not quite sure what to add.

cd /etc/cron.daily
root@ip-184-168-116-73 [/etc/cron.daily]# ls -al
total 36
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root  4096 Oct 11  2013 ./
drwxr-xr-x 80 root root 12288 Sep 25 17:45 ../
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   180 Jun  4  2012 logrotate*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   418 May 30  2012 makewhatis.cron*
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   137 Jul  6  2011 mlocate.cron
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   296 Feb 25  2013 rpm*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   354 Aug 11  2010 tmpwatch*
root@ip-184-168-116-73 [/etc/cron.daily]# cat logrotate
#!/bin/sh

/usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf
EXITVALUE=$?
if [ $EXITVALUE != 0 ]; then
    /usr/bin/logger -t logrotate "ALERT exited abnormally with [$EXITVALUE]"
fi
exit 0
root@ip-184-168-116-73 [/etc/cron.daily]# cat /etc/logrotate.conf
# see "man logrotate" for details
# rotate log files daily
daily

# keep 14 days worth of backlogs
rotate 14

# create new (empty) log files after rotating old ones
create

# uncomment this if you want your log files compressed
compress

# RPM packages drop log rotation information into this directory
include /etc/logrotate.d

# no packages own wtmp -- we'll rotate them here
/var/log/wtmp {
    monthly
    minsize 1M
    create 0664 root utmp
    rotate 1
}

# system-specific logs may be also be configured here.
root@ip-184-168-116-73 [/etc/cron.daily]#

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@gheist, I deleted the bcrm-iscsi log. Don't know what it was. I backed it up though in case I need it. It's not mentioned in the the /etc/logrotate.conf nor the /etc/logrotate.d/*.conf

@NickUpson, the rotate 14 seems to be set already.

I have WHM/cPanel. Are there any know problems/issues with running yum clean all?

Should I delete the files like /var/lib/mysql/mysql-bin.000024, etc?