Servers and Mac OS X itself creates report and log files in system directories. These log files can be used to
analyze, monitor or troubleshooting Mac OS X. Cocktail provides different tools to help the workflow
when working with reports and logs. Cocktail provides tools for working with log files as well as clearing them. One
can use Cocktail to view, archive, print, rotate, clear or save a copy of the log files. Besides regular view of
log files Cocktail provides the possibility to view log files in reversed ordering and to show a limited number of
rows. These two features can drastically enhance how you work with you log files.
Cocktail has support for 24 system logs. There is also a possibility to open and view third party logs. These logs
can however not be rotated or cleared. You can also use Cocktail to free up disk space by deleting rotated log files.
Mac OS X log files can be found in the system directory /private/var/log/ and /Library/Logs/ .
Logs:
Cups Access
/private/var/log/cups/access_log
Cups Error
/private/var/log/cups/error_log
Cups Page
/private/var/log/cups/page_log
Directory Service Server
/Library/Logs/DirectoryService/DirectoryService.server.log
Directory Service Error
/Library/Logs/DirectoryService/DirectoryService.error.log
File Sharing Access
/Library/Logs/AppleFileService/AppleFileServiceAccess.log
File Sharing Error
/Library/Logs/AppleFileService/AppleFileServiceError.log
Firewall
/private/var/log/appfirewall.log
Fsck
/private/var/log/fsck_hfs.log
FTP
/private/var/log/ftp.log
Install
/private/var/log/install.log
Kerberos Admin
/private/var/log/krb5kdc/kadmin.log
Kerberos Client
/private/var/log/krb5kdc/kdc.log
Mail
/private/var/log/mail.log
PPP
/private/var/log/ppp.log
Secure
/private/var/log/secure.log
SMB Sharing File
/private/var/log/samba/log.smbd
SMB Sharing Name
/private/var/log/samba/log.nmbd
Software Update
/Library/Logs/Software Update.log
System
/private/var/log/system.log
Web Sharing Access
/private/var/log/apache2/access_log
Web Sharing Error
/private/var/log/apache2/error_log
Window Server
/private/var/log/windowserver.log
Window Server Last
/private/var/log/windowserver_last.log
Crash and hang reports are created by Mac OS X when either an application or the operating system encounters an error and must close. In addition to the local reports iTunes will also synchronise logs from Apple's iOS devices in case they have crashed. Crash and hang reports are used to debug problems and improve the overall stability of the system and are stored in both the user's and system's directories. Choosing to clear the logs with the everyone option includes the current user's log files.
In addition to this Cocktail can also clear the Apple System Logs which contains general and diagnostic system messages produced by Mac OS X. These files can occasionally contain useful information for debugging problems with the operating system, however a new log file is created daily so the system logs can take up considerable disk space if they are not cleared regularly.
Reports:
Clear CrashReporter logs
User: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter
Everyone:
/Library/Logs/CrashReporter
/private/var/root/Library/Logs/CrashReporter
Clear Apple mobile devices CrashReporter logs
User: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/*
Everyone:
/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/*
/private/var/root/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/*
Clear HangReporter logs
Everyone: Library/Logs/HangReporter
Clear Apple System logs and diagnostic messages
Everyone:
/private/var/log/asl
/private/var/log/DiagnosticMessages
Online information