---
title: Purge log files
description: To manage storage space, you can either archive or purge access log, controller log, and audit log files that have been uploaded to API Behavioral Security (ABS). API Security Enforcer (ASE) provides a purge.sh script to remove access log files from the abs_uploaded directory.
component: pingintelligence
version: 5.2
page_id: pingintelligence:pingintelligence_reference_guide:pingintelligence_purge_log_files
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingintelligence/5.2/pingintelligence_reference_guide/pingintelligence_purge_log_files.html
revdate: April 3, 2024
section_ids:
  external-log-archival: External log archival
  related-links: Related links
---

# Purge log files

To manage storage space, you can either archive or purge access log, controller log, and audit log files that have been uploaded to API Behavioral Security (ABS). API Security Enforcer (ASE) provides a `purge.sh` script to remove access log files from the `abs_uploaded` directory.

The `purge` script is part of the `/opt/pingidentity/ase/util` directory.

|   |                                                                                      |
| - | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|   | When the purge script is run, the access log files are permanently deleted from ASE. |

To run the purge script, enter the following in the ASE command-line interface (CLI):

```
/opt/pingidentity/ase/util/purge.sh -d 3
In the above example, purge.sh deletes all the access log files which are older than 3 days. Here is a sample output for the purge script.
admin@pingidentity# ./util/purge.sh -d 3
This will delete logs in /opt/pingidentity/ase/logs/abs_uploaded that is older than 3 days.
Are you sure (yes/no): yes
removing /opt/pingidentity/ase/logs/abs_uploaded/Processed_decoy_pid_278892017-04-01_11-04.log.gz : last changed at Sat Apr 1 11:11:01 IST 2017
removing /opt/pingidentity/ase/logs/abs_uploaded/Processed_http_ws_80_pid_27905access__2017-04-01_11-04.log.gz : last changed at Sat Apr 1 11:11:01 IST 2017
```

## External log archival

The `purge` script can also archive logs to secondary storage for future reference. The purge script provides an option to choose the number of days to archive the log files. Use the `-l` option and the path of the secondary storage to place the archived log files. For example:

```
admin@pingidentity# ./util/purge.sh -d 3 -l /tmp/
```

In the above example, log files older than three days are archived to the `tmp` directory. To automate log archival, add the script to a cron job.

## Related links

* [Changing management log levels](pingintelligence_changing_management_log_levels.html)

* [ASE access, management, and audit logs](pingintelligence_ase_acess_management_audit_logs.html)

* [Configuring a syslog server](pingintelligence_configuring_syslog_server.html)