Clomparison Feature /var/log systemd Journal Compatibility Good for legacy systems Better for modern, systemd-based systems Access Simple text files, easy access Requires journalctl but offers powerful features Log Management Managed by logrotate Automatic management with systemd Security Plain text, easier to tamper with More secure, tamper-resistant Filtering and Searching Basic text processing tools Advanced filtering with journalctl Centralization Logs scattered across multiple files Centralized logging Metadata Limited metadata Rich metadata Disk Usage Manual configuration and management Automatic disk usage management Persistence Requires manual setup with logrotate Configurable persistent storage Practical Recommendations Hybrid Approach: Use both /var/log and the systemd journal to take advantage of the strengths of each.