On Sunday 05 February 2006 23:54, Patrick Boutilier wrote: > Peter Arremann wrote: > > ... > > dmesg is a command not a file. Also, the content of dmesg can't be > > guaranteed - if you execute the command on a server that's been up for a > > longer time, none of that information will still be there. > > > > Peter. > > /var/log/dmesg The /var/log/dmesg file is very RedHat specific. On my OpenSUSE 10.0 this file doesn't exist, but on my FC4 there is, so I belive it's distribution specific in general. Regarding the issue of an interview, I don't belive it was a FC/RHEL centered interview, so in my opinion they should reffer to dmesg command rather than file. But... The content of the /var/log/dmesg file is different than the output of the dmesg command (on the FC4 machine), because the file is the stored output of dmesg in the intialisation of the system (done probably in some script at startup), while the dmesg command outputs a limited kernel-side buffer, meaning the older messages are deleted in case the buffer is full. If the system is running long enough and there are applications polluting the dmesg buffer with various messages you might end with the impossibility of reading the start of the content... including memory or CPU information, that forcing us to appeal to the stored file. Bogdan
