What's a LOG?

[Carol Murphy]

I know this doesn't belong here, but I trust you guys to give me a plausible answer to this question. I downloaded a patch from McAfee for my virus scan software, and after running the exe file, there is now a LOG file in the same folder as the exe file. I like to delete my exe files after I've installed them just to keep things neat, but I've never seen a LOG file produced before. Can I delete this file, or does it serve an important function?

[Johannes de Jong]

Yep you're right this does not belong here. Now if I still was moderator here
The McAfee log file is simply a file that "logs" the scans it did. How many files, which viruses (if it did)n it found, etc. You can open it with Notepad. Throwing it was has no consequences. But it will recreate it every time you run a scan.
Thanks for reminding I must download the latest virus dat file from work to a floppy disk. We all have a copy of MacAfee at home

[jason adam]

Since it doesn't really belong at the Cattle Drive, I will push the discussion towards a direction that includes the Drive so that we can keep it here (don't know if it would really go anywhere else, either ).
Look at the assignment LOG. It's a running record of current attempts. That's all a log is, a record of actions. Some keep all actions that have occured, others only keep a certain amount of actions (the assignment log keeps ONLY the most recent attempt).
Can you delete it? Probably. Never tried it myself, but if the program is written correctly, if there is no log file there, it should automatically create a new one. Kind of like using the FileOutputStream class. If it ain't there, it creates it. If it is, it appends.
There, now it's Java related
Jason