Right, well then there you have the scripts of the two huge log files. Can anyone tell me what they mean, and hence what I should be doing differently, and if i am damaging anything in my computer.

Any other advice on the matter, as I have never looked into log files. not sure how many I should have, what size is normal, how long to keep them for and so on.

I am still worried about this peculiar thing my computer occasionally does of some files just suddenly getting huge - well actually i dont know that for a fact, all i do know is that very occasionally, i will just see my free space over the course of a few minutes reduce in size by several GB with no real explanation. I think it comes back but i am not sure.

The purpose of looking at the extracts from the start (via 'head') and the end (via 'tail') of those log files was to see if there was one program that was repeatedly issuing an error message. There are several cases of repeated messages, but the extracts are too short for me to see what if anything is the culprit. Looking at the timestamps at the beginning of the messages, you can see that several have occurred within milliseconds of each other - but then there is a gap of minutes before anything else.

You could look closer at the log files (e.g. by increasing the lines counts given via the "-n" options in those commands to try to see what program is issuing most of the messages, but it might be easier to just remove those older log files (the ones with names ending with a number) and then look closely at the new log files to see what sort of messages are currently appearing. I.e. have a look at the log files every hour or so and see what is there.

The current log files are those without a number at the end of their names. The system automatically (via a maintenance script that runs more or less daily) renames the older files to have a number at the end and then starts a new file. Usually the files for the last 7 days are kept.
So it was probably the maintenance script that resulted in the apparent deletion of that one log file.

Console.app only loads the latest portion of the log. Wouldn't it would be easier to use that? http://i18.tinypic.com/86rs02s.png

If that works with files in the GB range - by all means use it.
But many GUI utilities have difficulty with files in the GB size.

as i mentioned earlier, the computer nearly died when I tried to open the logs with console. I will take your advice and delete the files and see what new ones emerge. I will post any findings here in the next few days....

Interestingly, I can't remove the asl.log file. says it is in use. any suggestions? should i just wait and it will go away?

darn, i also cant restore it to its rightful place, from the trashcan, as it is supposed to be in 'private' which seems to be hidden in finder. it is 2.04 gb. meanwhile it seems according the whatsize, there is a file in the location from which i removed asl.log (private / var...), also called asl.log that is 2.03gb!!! ???

So I dont understand which one is in use etc etc...

this has been one confusing experience.

Restart and then empty the trash with the Option key held down. If that fails, enter the following in a Terminal window: (With no spaces after the tilde! I repeat… NO SPACES AFTER THE TILDE (~)! Deviation will most assuredly delete important files.):

OK it seems to have been sorted. Files are gone and so far have not returned in that size at all.

Generally speaking though, I wonder if you all think any of this could be connected to the problem I was having.

1. I have noted in the last month or two, since installing an extra 1gb of ram from crucial, which the machine has recognised, that things are running a little slower. I dont know if the ram thing is connected. For example, slider bars at the side of firefox windows are sticky far more often, and when using the expose show all windows function the animation is a lot less smooth - juttering a bit.

2. The computer sometimes freezes when I use front row.

3. I use automator to run a process of accessing a web link through safari about every 550 minutes all day. Automator opens the safari window and access the web page, then it uses an applescript to close the window. While I sit at my computer and work this all runs smoothly and the windows close, but if i go out for the day and leave it running at some point pretty quickly it stops closing the windows and after a day there could be as many as 80 open safari windows on my machine - I usually just quit safari to close them.


Let me know if you think any of this could be related to the log errors, and what you think about the other problems.

Your help, my friends, is greatly appreciated and I hope I can return the favour.

Thanks

DDD

It's hard to tell, but you could download "memtest" (http://www.memtestosx.org/) and let it run. Do the FULL test, even though it takes a very long time to run. That should tell you if there's any problems with your memory, and where it might be. If the Crucial memory is faulty, they have a superb return policy.

Joe VanZandt