Re: Removing old records from log files

[idnopheq]

Is there a specific reason you want to edit/truncate it in place? Seems like it maybe a lot of work and risky at that. It may be easier to simply rotate the log throughout the day, compressing the older ones to save space. Have you checked out rotating files, is there a better way?? Are these files flat text, or something else? A search on google may be a good idea. I seem to run across log rotation scripts every few weeks.

NON-perl: I recall in *nix copying the whole file into a new one (filename.0), then something like echo /dev/null > filename. Finally, I'd gzip or bzip2 the logfile.0. YMMV.

HTH
--
idnopheq
Apply yourself to new problems without preparation, develop confidence in your ability to to meet situations as they arrise.

~ Shunryu Suzuki

[claree0]

This log file is in fact an extract of a much larger log file. I do the extraction so that the bare minimum (!) is kept in this file so that it is available to other processes, and archive the originals. It is not possible to rotate this 'extract' log file, but as it updates every 6 hours I do not run into problems with file locking while I trim it, as I ensure that the two do not overlap.