LOGROTATE(8) LOGROTATE(8)
Thu Feb 27 1997
NAME
logrotate - rotates, compresses, and mails system logs
SYNOPSIS
logrotate [-dv] [-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.
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.
-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 the a short usage, version, and copyright 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
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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
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).
The last section definest the parameters for all of the files in
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/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.
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.
ifempty
Rotate the log file even if it is empty, overiding the notifempty
option (this 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,
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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.
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.
nocreate
New log files are not created (this overrides the create option).
nomail
Don't mail old log files to any address.
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
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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
/var/lib/logrotate.status Default state file.
SEE ALSO
gzip(1)
AUTHOR
Erik Troan <ewt@redhat.com>
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