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LOGROTATE !!!LOGROTATE NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION OPTIONS CONFIGURATION FILE FILES SEE ALSO NOTES AUTHORS ---- !!NAME logrotate - rotates, compresses, and mails system logs !!SYNOPSIS __logrotate__ [[__-dv__] [[__-f__|__--force__] [[__-s__|__--state__ ''statefile''] ''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 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. !!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 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. !!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 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 } 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 www@my.org 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 __logrotate__ to report an error. This error cannot be stopped with the __missingok__ 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 __ __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, .dpkg-new, .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. !!FILES ''/var/lib/logrotate/status'' Default state file. ''/etc/logrotate.conf'' Configuration options. !!SEE ALSO gzip(1) !!NOTES The killall(1) program in Debian is found in the ''psmisc'' package. !!AUTHORS Erik Troan ----
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logrotate(8)
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