This simple perl script can be used for truncating log files to only show log entries on or after a specified date. It is useful when log files are programmatically generated and could potentially grow very large. Periodic usage of this script prevents excessive space wastage, while allowing us to decide how much log data we want to preserve based on dates, rather than arbitrarily chopping off lines. This script assumes logs line begin with a date in the MM/DD/YYYY format.
- Install Perl if it is not installed (A few different versions of Perl are available. This was written in ActivePerl version 5.16.3.1604)
- Ensure that perl can be run from the command line. Windows users may need to adjust their PATH variables for this.
- Download the script.
From the command-line/terminal window, from the directory containing the script enter the following:
perl truncateLog.perl [path to log file] [cutoff date] > [temporary file]
cp [temporary file] [path to log file]The temporary file can then be deleted. An example run is shown below:
perl truncateLog.perl WebDebug.txt 1/1/2014 > WebDebug.swp
cp WebDebug.swp WebDebug.txtHope this helps!
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