5.3. Finding Logs
The /private/var/log directory is where OS X stores most of its important log files. If you write an application or script that builds its own log file, then you can write these logs to /private/var/log and they will automatically appear in Console under /private/var/log. Many developers put their logs here because the /private/var directory is used in most Unix distributions (flavors) to house logs that are not user-specific. This includes logs for open source software that has been installed by Apple such as the firewall (ipfw), the Windows sharing component (samba), the web server (apache), and many other items.
The Finder is intentionally designed to not make these folders easily accessible. To get to the /private/var
Get Enterprise Mac Security: Mac OS X Snow Leopard now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
