logrotate - rotates, compresses, and mails system logs
logrotate [-dv] [-f|--force] [-s|--state statefile] config_file ..
logrotate is designed to ease administration of systems that generate
large numbers of log files. It allows automatic rotation, compression,
removal, and mailing of log files. Each log file may be handled daily,
weekly, monthly, or when it grows too large.
Normally, logrotate is run as a daily cron job. It will not modify a
log more than once in one day unless the criterion for that log is
based on the log's size and logrotate is being run more than once each
day, or unless the -f or --force option is used.
Any number of config files may be given on the command line. Later config
files may override the options given in earlier files, so the order
in which the logrotate config files are listed is important. Normally,
a single config file which includes any other config files which are
needed should be used. See below for more information on how to use
the include directive to accomplish this. If a directory is given on
the command line, every file in that directory is used as a config
file.
If no command line arguments are given, logrotate will print version
and copyright information, along with a short usage summary. If any
errors occur while rotating logs, logrotate will exit with non-zero
status.
-d Turns on debug mode and implies -v. In debug mode, no changes
will be made to the logs or to the logrotate state file.
-f, --force
Tells logrotate to force the rotation, even if it doesn't think
this is necessary. Sometimes this is useful after adding new
entries to a logrotate config file, or if old log files have
been removed by hand, as the new files will be created, and logging
will continue correctly.
-s, --state statefile
Tells logrotate to use an alternate state file. This is useful
if logrotate is being run as different users for various sets of
log files. The default state file is /var/lib/logrotate/status.
--usage
Prints a short usage message.
-v, --verbose
Display messages during rotation.
logrotate reads everything about the log files it should be handling
from the series of configuration files specified on the command line.
Each configuration file can set global options (local definitions override
global ones, and later definitions override earlier ones) and
specify some logfiles to rotate. A simple configuration file looks like
this:
# sample logrotate configuration file
compress
/var/log/messages {
rotate 5
weekly
postrotate
/sbin/killall -HUP syslogd
endscript
}
"/var/log/httpd/access.log" /var/log/httpd/error.log {
rotate 5
mail [email protected]
size=100k
sharedscripts
postrotate
/sbin/killall -HUP httpd
endscript
}
/var/log/news/* {
monthly
rotate 2
missingok
postrotate
kill -HUP `cat /var/run/inn.pid`
endscript
nocompress
}
The first few lines set global options; in the example, logs are compressed
after they are rotated. Note that comments may appear anywhere
in the config file as long as the first non-whitespace character on the
line is a #.
The next section of the config file defines how to handle the log file
/var/log/messages. The log will go through five weekly rotations before
being removed. After the log file has been rotated (but before the old
version of the log has been compressed), the command /sbin/killall -HUP
syslogd will be executed.
The next section defines the parameters for both
/var/log/httpd/access.log and /var/log/httpd/error.log. Each is
rotated whenever it grows over 100k in size, and the old logs files are
mailed (uncompressed) to [email protected] after going through 5 rotations,
rather then being removed. The sharedscripts means that the postrotate
script will only be run once, not once for each log which is rotated.
Note that log file names may be enclosed in quotes (and that quotes are
required if the name contains spaces). Normal shell quoting rules
apply, with ', ", and \ characters supported.
The last section defines the parameters for all of the files in
/var/log/news. Each file is rotated on a monthly basis. This is considered
a single rotation directive and if errors occur for more then
one file, the log files are not compressed.
If the directory /var/log/news does not exist, this will cause logro-
tate to report an error. This error cannot be stopped with the missin-
gok directive.
Here is more information on the directives which may be included in a
logrotate configuration file:
compress
Old versions of log files are compressed with gzip(1) by
default. See also nocompress.
compresscmd
Specifies which command to use to compress log files. The
default is gzip(1). See also compress.
uncompresscmd
Specifies which command to use to uncompress log files. The
default is gunzip(1).
compressext
Specifies which extension to use on compressed logfiles, if compression
is enabled. The default follows that of the configured
compression command.
compressoptions
Command line options may be passed to the compression program,
if one is in use. The default, for gzip, is "-9" (maximum compression).
copytruncate
Truncate the original log file to zero size in place after creating
a copy, instead of moving the old log file and optionally
creating a new one. It can be used when some program cannot be
told to close its logfile and thus might continue writing
(appending) to the previous log file forever. Note that there
is a very small time slice between copying the file and truncating
it, so some logging data might be lost. When this option is
used, the create option will have no effect, as the old log file
stays in place.
create mode owner group
Immediately after rotation (before the postrotate script is run)
the log file is created (with the same name as the log file just
rotated). mode specifies the mode for the log file in octal
(the same as chmod(2)), owner specifies the user name who will
own the log file, and group specifies the group the log file
will belong to. Any of the log file attributes may be omitted,
in which case those attributes for the new file will use the
same values as the original log file for the omitted attributes.
This option can be disabled using the nocreate option.
daily Log files are rotated every day.
delaycompress
Postpone compression of the previous log file to the next rotation
cycle. This only has effect when used in combination with
compress. It can be used when some program cannot be told to
close its logfile and thus might continue writing to the previous
log file for some time.
extension ext
Log files are given the final extension ext after rotation. If
compression is used, the compression extension (normally .gz)
appears after ext.
ifempty
Rotate the log file even if it is empty, overriding the
notifempty option (ifempty is the default).
include file_or_directory
Reads the file given as an argument as if it was included inline
where the include directive appears. If a directory is given,
most of the files in that directory are read before processing
of the including file continues. The only files which are
ignored are files which are not regular files (such as directories
and named pipes) and files whose names end with one of the
taboo extensions, as specified by the tabooext directive. The
include directive may not appear inside a log file definition.
mail address
When a log is rotated out of existence, it is mailed to address.
If no mail should be generated by a particular log, the nomail
directive may be used.
mailfirst
When using the mail command, mail the just-rotated file, instead
of the about-to-expire file.
maillast
When using the mail command, mail the about-to-expire file,
instead of the just-rotated file (this is the default).
missingok
If the log file is missing, go on to the next one without issuing
an error message. See also nomissingok.
monthly
Log files are rotated the first time logrotate is run in a month
(this is normally on the first day of the month).
nocompress
Old versions of log files are not compressed. See also compress.
nocopytruncate
Do not truncate the original log file in place after creating a
copy (this overrides the copytruncate option).
nocreate
New log files are not created (this overrides the create
option).
nodelaycompress
Do not postpone compression of the previous log file to the next
rotation cycle (this overrides the delaycompress option).
nomail Do not mail old log files to any address.
nomissingok
If a log file does not exist, issue an error. This is the
default.
noolddir
Logs are rotated in the directory they normally reside in (this
overrides the olddir option).
nosharedscripts
Run prerotate and postrotate scripts for every log that is
rotated (this is the default, and overrides the sharedscripts
option).
notifempty
Do not rotate the log if it is empty (this overrides the ifempty
option).
olddir directory
Logs are moved into directory for rotation. The directory must
be on the same physical device as the log file being rotated.
When this option is used all old versions of the log end up in
directory. This option may be overridden by the noolddir
option.
postrotate/endscript
The lines between postrotate and endscript (both of which must
appear on lines by themselves) are executed after the log file
is rotated. These directives may only appear inside a log file
definition. See also prerotate.
prerotate/endscript
The lines between prerotate and endscript (both of which must
appear on lines by themselves) are executed before the log file
is rotated. These directives may only appear inside a log file
definition. See also postrotate.
rotate count
Log files are rotated count times before being removed or mailed
to the address specified in a mail directive. If count is 0, old
versions are removed rather then rotated.
sharedscripts
Normally, prerotate and postrotate scripts are run for each log
which is rotated, meaning that a single script may be run multiple
times for log file entries which match multiple files (such
as the /var/log/news/* example). If sharedscript is specified,
the scripts are only run once, no matter how many logs match the
wildcarded pattern. A side effect of this option is that the
scripts are always executed, even if no logs are rotated. If
this directive is not specified, the scripts are run only if
logs are actually rotated. This overrides the nosharedscripts
option.
size size[M|k]
Log files are rotated when they grow bigger than size bytes. If
size is followed by M, the size is assumed to be in megabytes.
If k is used, the size is in kilobytes. So size 100, size 100k,
and size 100M are all valid.
tabooext [+] list
The current taboo extension list is changed (see the include
directive for information on the taboo extensions). If + precedes
list, the current taboo extension list is augmented by
list, otherwise it is replaced. At startup, the taboo extension
list contains .rpmorig, .rpmsave, .dpkg-dist, .dpkg-old, .dpkgnew,
.disabled, ,v, .swp, .rpmnew, and ~. The members of the
list are separated by spaces, not commas.
weekly Log files are rotated if the current weekday is less than the
weekday of the last rotation or if more than a week has passed
since the last rotation. This is normally the same as rotating
logs on the first day of the week, but works better if logrotate
is not run every night.
/var/lib/logrotate/status Default state file.
/etc/logrotate.conf Configuration options.
gzip(1)
The killall(1) program in Debian is found in the psmisc package.
Erik Troan <[email protected]>
Preston Brown <[email protected]>
4th Berkeley Distribution Thu Aug 02 2001 LOGROTATE(8)
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