logrotate
LOGROTATE(8) System Administrator’s Manual LOGROTATE(8)
NAME
logrotate - 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, compres-
sion, 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.
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.
OPTIONS
-v Turn on verbose mode.
-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 con-
tinue correctly.
-m, --mail <command>
Tells logrotate which command to use when mailing logs. This
command should accept two arguments: 1) the subject of the mes-
sage, and 2) the recipient. The command must then read a mes-
sage on standard input and mail it to the recipient. The
default mail command is /bin/mail -s.
-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/logro-
tate/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:
# 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 www@my.org
size=100k
sharedscripts
postrotate
/sbin/killall -HUP httpd
endscript
}
/var/log/news/news.crit {
monthly
rotate 2
olddir /var/log/news/old
missingok
postrotate
kill -HUP ‘cat /var/run/inn.pid‘
endscript
nocompress
}
The first few lines set global options; in the example, logs are com-
pressed after they are rotated. Note that comments may appear any-
where 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 both
/var/log/httpd/access.log and /var/log/httpd/error.log. They are
rotated whenever is grows over 100k is size, and the old logs files
are mailed (uncompressed) to www@my.org after going through 5 rota-
tions, rather then being removed. The sharedscripts means that the
postrotate script will only be run once(after the old logs have been
compressed), not once for each log which is rotated. Note that the
double quotes around the first filename at the beginning of this sec-
tion allows logrotate to rotate logs with spaces in the name. 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 con-
sidered a single rotation directive and if errors occur for more then
one file, the log files are not compressed.
Please use wildcards with caution. If you specify *, logrotate will
rotate all files, including previously rotated ones. A way around
this is to use the olddir directive or a more exact wildcard (such as
*.log).
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 by default.
See also nocompress.
compresscmd
Specifies which command to use to compress log files. The
default is gzip. See also compress.
uncompresscmd
Specifies which command to use to uncompress log files. The
default is gunzip.
compressext
Specifies which extension to use on compressed logfiles, if
compression is enabled. The default follows that of the con-
figured 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 com-
pression).
copy Make a copy of the log file, but don’t change the original at
all. This option can be used, for instance, to make a snapshot
of the current log file, or when some other utility needs to
truncate or pare the file. When this option is used, the cre-
ate option will have no effect, as the old log file stays in
place.
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.
dateext
Archive old versions of log files adding a daily extension like
YYYYMMDD instead of simply adding a number.
delaycompress
Postpone compression of the previous log file to the next rota-
tion 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 previ-
ous log file for some time.
extension ext
Log files with ext extension can keep it after the rotation.
If compression is used, the compression extension (normally
.gz) appears after ext. For example you have a logfile named
mylog.foo and want to rotate it to mylog.1.foo.gz instead of
mylog.foo.1.gz.
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 in alpha-
betic order before processing of the including file continues.
The only files which are ignored are files which are not regu-
lar 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).
maxage count
Remove rotated logs older than <count> days. The age is only
checked if the logfile is to be rotated. The files are mailed
to the configured address if maillast and mail are configured.
missingok
If the log file is missing, go on to the next one without issu-
ing 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.
nocopy Do not copy the original log file and leave it in place. (this
overrides the copy option).
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).
nodateext
Do not archive old versions of log files with date extension
(this overrides the dateext 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).
nosharedscripts
Run prerotate and postrotate scripts for every script which 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,
and is assumed to be relative to the directory holding the log
file unless an absolute path name is specified. 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 and only if the log will actually be rotated. These
directives may only appear inside of a log file definition.
See postrotate as well.
firstaction/endscript
The lines between firstaction and endscript (both of which must
appear on lines by themselves) are executed once before all log
files that match the wildcarded pattern are rotated, before
prerotate script is run and only if at least one log will actu-
ally be rotated. These directives may only appear inside of a
log file definition. See lastaction as well.
lastaction/endscript
The lines between lastaction and endscript (both of which must
appear on lines by themselves) are executed once after all log
files that match the wildcarded pattern are rotated, after
postrotate script is run and only if at least one log is
rotated. These directives may only appear inside of a log file
definition. See lastaction 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.
sharedscripts
Normally, prescript and postscript scripts are run for each log
which is rotated, meaning that a single script may be run mul-
tiple times for log file entries which match multiple files
(such as the /var/log/news/* example). If sharedscript is spec-
ified, the scripts are only run once, no matter how many logs
match the wildcarded pattern. However, if none of the logs in
the pattern require rotating, the scripts will not be run at
all. This option overrides the nosharedscripts option and
implies create option.
start count
This is the number to use as the base for rotation. For exam-
ple, if you specify 0, the logs will be created with a .0
extension as they are rotated from the original log files. If
you specify 9, log files will be created with a .9, skipping
0-8. Files will still be rotated the number of times specified
with the count directive.
tabooext [+] list
The current taboo extension list is changed (see the include
directive for information on the taboo extensions). If a + pre-
cedes 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, .swp, .rpmnew,
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
/var/lib/logrotate.status Default state file.
/etc/logrotate.conf Configuration options.
SEE ALSO
gzip(1)
AUTHORS
Erik Troan <ewt@redhat.com>
Preston Brown <pbrown@redhat.com>
4th Berkeley Distribution Wed Nov 5 2002 LOGROTATE(8)
