Unfortunately, newsyslog does not do the trick.  Do you have any other 
ideas?

    raq2: {10} cd /var/log
    raq2: {11} ls -l maillog
    -rw-------  1 root  wheel  36217006 Mar  3 04:36 maillog
    raq2: {12} newsyslog maillog
    raq2: {13} ls -l maillog
    -rw-------  1 root  wheel  36217006 Mar  3 04:36 maillog

    raq2: {40} uname -a
    NetBSD raq2 3.99.7 NetBSD 3.99.7 (GENERIC) #0: Sun Jul  3 11:00:03 
CEST 2005  ro
    
ot@netbsd20.diskless.s-zone.org:/Data/NetBSD/cobalt/obj/sys/arch/cobalt/compile/
    GENERIC cobalt

Thanks and regards,
Dave

Izumi Tsutsui wrote:
> david_albert@comcast.net wrote:
>
>   
>> -rw-------  1 root  wheel  36183077 Mar  2 22:44 /var/log/maillog
>> -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  23935707 Mar  2 08:39 /var/log/messages
>>     
>  :
>   
>> What is the trick to moving or deleting files in /var/log?
>>     
>
> newsyslog(8) does the trick.
>
> Make sure you have:
> - /etc/newsyslog.conf (in etc.tgz)
> - "0 * * * * /usr/bin/newsyslog" entry in crontab(5) file for root
>   (or use /var/cron/tabs/root in etc.tgz)
> ---
> Izumi Tsutsui
>
>