retropds.log, can the system live without it?

[jmedley]

Hello All,

 

I backup a server and 10 clients to a LaCie 1 TB external drive attached to my iMac G5. The server is a simple mail server with about 12 mailboxes (Mac OS 10.2.8 sendmail/qpopper), but I've notice at each backup it takes up in the neighborhood off 500 MB. I new the mailboxes were not responsible and when I finally took a look at what was being backed up, I found this retropds.log file that is 436 MB. So I have about 40 GB of backups that are mostly the retropds.log file. Can Retrospect Client live without this file? If I delete it, will I still be able to restore from backups?

 

Thanks for any help,

Jim

[rshrieve]

I just realized that this file, retropds.log, represents nearly 1.5-2.0gb per day of backup. The file sits in

~/private/var/log/ and sems to get backed up every day.

 

It seems illogical that a Retrospect file would be the largest part of my daily backup. (I am backing up 6 computers daily.)

 

I also would appreciate any help on this.

 

Rich

 

BTW - I was not able to find anything on retropds.log using the search function in these forums. I found Jim's post using Google...

[CallMeDave]

Trash the file, and configure the client software not to keep a log (it's in the options window of the Retrospect Client application).

 

Dantz has posted something recently about having a fix for this soon; probably in the same build that they've said will be released shortly after Tiger's release (04-29-2005).

 

Dave

[rshrieve]

Hi Dave,

Pls excuse my ignorance but...

1.) How do I trash an invisible file such as this one?

 

2.) My version of the client software [6.0.109 for Mac OS X] does not have an "Options" window that I can find. Only "Preferences" and that has no choice for logging or not.

 

3.) Do you recall where Dantz has posted anything about this retropds.log file?

 

Thanks

Rich

[twickland]

Why don't you just create a selector that will always exclude files named "retropds.log?" You don't really care that the files exist on the client hard drives; you just don't want to back them up.

[rshrieve]

Great idea! Why didn't I think of that?

Thanks.

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

---

How do I trash an invisible file such as this one?

 

---

 

It's not invisible.

 

It's in /var/log/

 

From the Finder, select Go to Folder... from the go menu. Type in /var/log and press return.

 

When the log window opens, find the file and drag it to the trash. Assuming you're running Panther, the OS will ask you to authenticate as an administrator before allowing you to trash the file.

 

As to my belief that there was a switch for this, well, I must have been insane. I even posted a message September 14, 2004 to the RetroTALK mailing list assailing Dantz for not having a way to control this file, either directly through a preference or at least with a cron entry. Oops.

[derek500]

From the RetroTALK mailing list, July 19, 2004, posted by Derek Chee (that isn't me even though we have the same first name):

 

Awhile back, I asked about rotating the Retrospect log files. I rolled my own rotating scripts based on the ones in Mac OS X 10.3. I thought somebody might find them useful.

 

Add to /etc/daily.local and change ownership and privileges to root:wheel and rwxr-xr-x, respectively

 

: daily.local :

 

#!/bin/sh -

#

# @(#)daily 8.2 (Berkeley) 1/25/94

#

PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin

 

echo ""

echo -n "Rotating log files:"

cd /var/log

for i in retropds.log; do

if [ -f "${i}" ]; then

echo -n " ${i}"

if [ -x /usr/bin/gzip ]; then gzext=".gz"; else gzext=""; fi

if [ -f "${i}.6${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.6${gzext}" "${i}.7${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.5${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.5${gzext}" "${i}.6${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.4${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.4${gzext}" "${i}.5${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.3${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.3${gzext}" "${i}.4${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.2${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.2${gzext}" "${i}.3${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.1${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.1${gzext}" "${i}.2${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.0${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.0${gzext}" "${i}.1${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}" ]; then mv -f "${i}" "${i}.0" && if [ -x /usr/bin/gzip ]; then gzip -9 "${i}.0"; fi; fi

touch "${i}" && chmod 640 "${i}" && chown root:admin "${i}"

fi

done

echo ""

 

Add to /etc/monthly.local and change ownership and privileges to root:wheel and rwxr-xr-x, respectively

 

: monthly.local :

 

#!/bin/sh -

#

# @(#)monthly 8.2 (Berkeley) 1/25/94

#

PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin

 

echo ""

echo -n "Rotating log files:"

cd /var/log

for i in retroclient.log; do

if [ -f "${i}" ]; then

echo -n " ${i}"

if [ -x /usr/bin/gzip ]; then gzext=".gz"; else gzext=""; fi

if [ -f "${i}.6${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.6${gzext}" "${i}.7${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.5${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.5${gzext}" "${i}.6${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.4${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.4${gzext}" "${i}.5${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.3${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.3${gzext}" "${i}.4${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.2${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.2${gzext}" "${i}.3${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.1${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.1${gzext}" "${i}.2${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}.0${gzext}" ]; then mv -f "${i}.0${gzext}" "${i}.1${gzext}"; fi

if [ -f "${i}" ]; then mv -f "${i}" "${i}.0" && if [ -x /usr/bin/gzip ]; then gzip -9 "${i}.0"; fi; fi

touch "${i}" && chmod 640 "${i}" && chown root:admin "${i}"

fi

done

echo ""

 

 

-- Derek

 

At 6:59 PM -0700 5/26/04, I asked the list:

I just noticed that the retropds.log file in /var/log has grown to over 90MB. Has Dantz considered adding rotation of the retropds.log to the Mac OS X daily/weekly/monthly log rotation scripts?

 

Has anybody else added their own rotation scripts? If so, would you be willing to post what and where you dropped the scripts? I'm leery of modifying the system scripts as on OS X upgrade later, my customized scripts will be wiped.

 

-- Derek

 

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[derek500]

The clapping hands that appeared to me should be 3 colons in a row, NOT ":hands "