Name	Size	Mode	Actions
amazon/	-	0700	rm
apt/	-	0755	rm
chrony/	-	0750	rm
dist-upgrade/	-	0755	rm
journal/	-	2755	rm
landscape/	-	0755	rm
letsencrypt/	-	0700	rm
mysql/	-	0750	rm
nginx/	-	0755	rm
private/	-	0700	rm
sysstat/	-	0755	rm
unattended-upgrades/	-	0750	rm
alternatives.log	1109	0644	editdlrm
alternatives.log.1	15837	0644	editdlrm
alternatives.log.2.gz	800	0644	editdlrm
alternatives.log.3.gz	1067	0644	editdlrm
alternatives.log.4.gz	658	0644	editdlrm
alternatives.log.5.gz	1136	0644	editdlrm
apport.log	0	0640	editdlrm
auth.log	626857	0640	editdlrm
auth.log.1	1236599	0640	editdlrm
auth.log.2.gz	87534	0640	editdlrm
auth.log.3.gz	124334	0640	editdlrm
auth.log.4.gz	105071	0640	editdlrm
btmp	1143552	0660	editdlrm
btmp.1	2066688	0660	editdlrm
cloud-init-output.log	7061	0640	editdlrm
cloud-init.log	240079	0640	editdlrm
dmesg	49268	0640	editdlrm
dmesg.0	93187	0640	editdlrm
dmesg.1.gz	13856	0640	editdlrm
dpkg.log	57943	0644	editdlrm
dpkg.log.1	69427	0644	editdlrm
dpkg.log.2.gz	6109	0644	editdlrm
dpkg.log.3.gz	5845	0644	editdlrm
dpkg.log.4.gz	3066	0644	editdlrm
dpkg.log.5.gz	12732	0644	editdlrm
kern.log	2038	0640	editdlrm
kern.log.1	259	0640	editdlrm
kern.log.2.gz	309	0640	editdlrm
kern.log.3.gz	13377	0640	editdlrm
kern.log.4.gz	445	0640	editdlrm
lastlog	292292	0664	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log	7297234	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.1	17015757	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.2.gz	237827	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.3.gz	184253	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.4.gz	173228	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.5.gz	193770	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.6.gz	250581	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.7.gz	142980	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.8.gz	131083	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.9.gz	157668	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.10.gz	242354	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.11.gz	94454	0600	editdlrm
php7.4-fpm.log.12.gz	75564	0600	editdlrm
README	1041	0644	editdlrm
syslog	1311674	0640	editdlrm
syslog.1	1972426	0640	editdlrm
syslog.2.gz	163804	0640	editdlrm
syslog.3.gz	188621	0640	editdlrm
syslog.4.gz	166258	0640	editdlrm
ubuntu-advantage-apt-hook.log	0	0644	editdlrm
wtmp	8448	0664	editdlrm

You are looking for the traditional text log files in /var/log, and they are gone? Here's an explanation on what's going on: You are running a systemd-based OS where traditional syslog has been replaced with the Journal. The journal stores the same (and more) information as classic syslog. To make use of the journal and access the collected log data simply invoke "journalctl", which will output the logs in the identical text-based format the syslog files in /var/log used to be. For further details, please refer to journalctl(1). Alternatively, consider installing one of the traditional syslog implementations available for your distribution, which will generate the classic log files for you. Syslog implementations such as syslog-ng or rsyslog may be installed side-by-side with the journal and will continue to function the way they always did. Thank you! Further reading: man:journalctl(1) man:systemd-journald.service(8) man:journald.conf(5) https://0pointer.de/blog/projects/the-journal.html