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Sidharth R
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Linux Journalctl Command Cheat Sheet

Updated: 28 Apr 2026 ⚬ Page views: loading...

I recently needed to free up disk space by removing old system logs, so I collected the command I used and other useful journalctl commands for future reference.

Disk usage & vacuum (remove old logs)

Show journal disk usage:

sudo journalctl --disk-usage

Remove archived journal files until total size is below X:

sudo journalctl --vacuum-size=500M

Remove archived journal files older than a time:

sudo journalctl --vacuum-time=3d

Remove archived journal files, keeping only the most recent N files:

sudo journalctl --vacuum-files=3

Maintenance & troubleshooting

Show journalctl help:

journalctl --help

Show journald service status:

systemctl status systemd-journald

Check journal file integrity:

sudo journalctl --verify

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