LOGROTATE (8)
rotates, compresses, and mails system logs
SYNOPSIS
logrotate [-dv] [-f|--force] [-s|--state file] config_file+
DESCRIPTION
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 multiple times in one day unless the criterium for that log is
based on the log's size and logrotate is being run multiple times
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 in 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.
OPTIONS
-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
logrotate, 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 a different user for various sets of
log files. The default state file is /var/lib/logrotate.status.
--usage
Prints a short usage message.
CONFIGURATION FILE
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
a logfile to rotate. A simple configuration file looks like this:
+3i
# sample logrotate configuration file
errors sysadmin@my.org
compress
/var/log/messages {
rotate 5
weekly
postrotate
/sbin/killall -HUP syslogd
endscript
}
"/var/log/httpd/access.log" {
rotate 5
mail www@my.org
errors www@my.org
size=100k
postrotate
/sbin/killall -HUP httpd
endscript
}
/var/log/news/* {
monthly
rotate 2
missingok
errors newsadmin@my.org
postrotate
kill -HUP `cat /var/run/inn.pid`
endscript
nocompress
}
The first few lines set global options; any errors that occur during log
file processing are mailed to sysadmin@my.org and 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 files defined 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 /var/log/httpd/access.log.
It is rotated whenever is grows over 100k is size, and the old logs
files are mailed (uncompressed) to www@my.org after going through 5
rotations, rather then being removed. Likewise, any errors that occur
while processing the log file are also mailed to www@my.org (overriding
the global errors directive). Note that the double quotes around
the filename at the beginning of this section allows logrotate to rotate
logs with spaces in the name.
The last section definest the parameters for all of the files in
/var/log/news. Each file is rotated on a monthly basis, and
the errors are mailed to newsadmin@my.org. This is considered a single
rotation directive and if errors occur for more then one file they are
mailed in a single message. In this case, the log files
are not compressed.
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. See also
nocompress.
copytruncate
Truncate the original log file 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 can not 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 has only effect when used in combination with compress.
It can be used when some program can not be told to close its logfile
and thus might continue writing to the previous log file for some time.
errors address
Any errors that occur during log file processing are mailed to the
given address.
extension ext
Log files are given the final extension ext after rotation. If
compresssion is used, the compression extension (normally .gz)
appears after ext.
ifempty
Rotate the log file even if it is empty, overiding 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 of 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 with gzip. 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
Don't 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 same directory the log normally resides in (this
overrides the olddir 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 overriden 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 of a log file definition.
See prerotate as well.
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 of a log file definition.
See postrotate as well.
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.
size size
Log files are rotated when they grow bigger then size bytes. If
size is followed by M, the size if assumed to be in megabytes.
If the 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 a + precedes the list of
extensions, the current taboo extension list is augmented, otherwise it
is replaced. At startup, the taboo extension list
contains .rpmorig, .rpmsave, ,v and ~.
weekly
Log files are rotated if the current weekday is less then the weekday
of the last rotation or if more then a week has passed since the last
rotation. This is normally the same as rotating logs on the first day
of the week, but it works better if logrotate is not run every
night.
FILES
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
Erik Troan <ewt@redhat.com>
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