Guide to Linux status and log files

This is an incomplete list of status files created by the Linux kernel, Linux Distributions, and various Linux applications

/proc/
/proc/ contains the status of just about everything going on with your system, but the files are often hard to read

Kernel

 * /proc/version - kernel version
 * /proc/modules - loaded kernel modules

System

 * /proc/cpuinfo - CPU details and status
 * /proc/meminfo - memory, RAM, swap, etc.
 * /proc/devices - device files created by kernel in /dev/

Filesystems/Harddrives

 * /etc/mtab - list of mounted devices
 * /proc/partitions - list of partitions currently available for mounting
 * /proc/filesystems - partion types that can be mounted by your kernel
 * /proc/diskstats
 * /proc/mounts
 * /proc/swaps - swap partitions

Logs
Most logs are found in /var/log/
 * /var/log/messages - kernel and boot up log
 * /var/log/dmesg - kernel and boot up log
 * /var/log/Xorg.0.log - X Windows (x.org) log

Gentoo

 * /var/log/emerge.log - log of packages being installed
 * /var/log/emerge-fetch.log- log of packages being downloaded
 * /var/lib/portage/world - list of packages install specifically by user
 * /var/lib/portage/config