LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
NAME
logrotate - rotates, compresses, and mails system logs
SYNOPSIS
logrotate [--debug] [--verbose] [--log file] [--force] [--state file]
[--mail command] config_file [config_file2 ...]
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
-?, --help
Prints help message.
-d, --debug
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.
- 1 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
-l, --log file
Tells logrotate to log verbose output into the log_file. The
verbose output logged to that file is the same as when running
logrotate with -v switch. The log file is overwritten on every
logrotate execution.
-m, --mail command
Tells logrotate which command to use when mailing logs. This
command should accept two arguments:
1) the subject of the message
2) the recipient.
The command must then read a message on standard input and mail
it to the recipient. The default mail command is /usr/bin/mailx.
-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.
-v, --verbose
Turns on verbose mode, for example to 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 logfiles to rotate. A simple configuration file looks like
this:
# sample logrotate configuration file
compress
/var/log/messages {
rotate 5
weekly
postrotate
/usr/bin/killall -HUP syslogd
- 2 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
endscript
}
"/var/log/httpd/access.log" /var/log/httpd/error.log {
rotate 5
mail recipient@example.org
size 100k
sharedscripts
postrotate
/usr/bin/killall -HUP httpd
endscript
}
/var/log/news/* {
monthly
rotate 2
olddir /var/log/news/old
missingok
postrotate
kill -HUP $(cat /var/run/inn.pid)
endscript
nocompress
}
~/log/*.log {}
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 #.
Values are separated from directives by whitespace and/or an optional
=. Numbers must be specified in a format understood by strtoul(3).
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
/usr/bin/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 example.orghafter goingfthrough
5rrotations,uratherethan)beingeremoved. 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
- 3 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
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 next 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
than one file, the log files are not compressed.
The last section uses tilde expansion to rotate log files in the home
directory of the current user. This is only available, if your glob
library supports tilde expansion. GNU glob does support this.
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:
DIRECTIVES
These directives 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
- 4 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
one is in use. The default, for gzip(1), is "-6" (biased towards
high compression at the expense of speed). If you use a
different compression command, you may need to change the
compressoptions to match.
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 parse the file. When this option is used, the create
option will have no effect, as the old log file stays in place.
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, create 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.
createolddir mode owner group
If the directory specified by olddir directive does not exist, it
is created. mode specifies the mode for the olddir directory in
octal (the same as chmod(2)), owner specifies the user name who
will own the olddir directory, and group specifies the group the
olddir directory will belong to. This option can be disabled
using the nocreateolddir option.
daily
- 5 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
Log files are rotated every day.
dateext
Archive old versions of log files adding a date extension like
YYYYMMDD instead of simply adding a number. The extension may be
configured using the dateformat and dateyesterday options.
dateformat format_string
Specify the extension for dateext using the notation similar to
strftime(3) function. Only %Y %m %d %H %M %S %V and %s specifiers
are allowed. The default value is -%Y%m%d except hourly, which
uses -%Y%m%d%H as default value. Note that also the character
separating log name from the extension is part of the dateformat
string. The system clock must be set past Sep 9th 2001 for %s to
work correctly. Note that the datestamps generated by this
format must be lexically sortable (that is first the year, then
the month then the day. For example 2001/12/01 is ok, but
01/12/2001 is not, since 01/11/2002 would sort lower while it is
later). This is because when using the rotate option, logrotate
sorts all rotated filenames to find out which logfiles are older
and should be removed.
dateyesterday
Use yesterday's instead of today's date to create the dateext
extension, so that the rotated log file has a date in its name
that is the same as the timestamps within it.
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 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.
hourly
Log files are rotated every hour. Note that usually logrotate is
- 6 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
configured to be run by cron daily. You have to change this
configuration and run logrotate hourly to be able to really
rotate logs hourly.
addextension ext
Log files are given the final extension ext after rotation. If
the original file already ends with ext, the extension is not
duplicated, but merely moved to the end, that is both filename
and filenameext would get rotated to filename.1ext. 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 in alphabetic order
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 or patterns, as specified by the tabooext
or taboopat directives, respectively.
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).
minage count
Do not rotate logs which are less than <count> days old.
- 7 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
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.
maxsize size
Log files are rotated when they grow bigger than size bytes even
before the additionally specified time interval (daily, weekly,
monthly, or yearly). The related size option is similar except
that it is mutually exclusive with the time interval options, and
it causes log files to be rotated without regard for the last
rotation time. When maxsize is used, both the size and timestamp
of a log file are considered.
minsize size
Log files are rotated when they grow bigger than size bytes, but
not before the additionally specified time interval (daily,
weekly, monthly, or yearly). The related size option is similar
except that it is mutually exclusive with the time interval
options, and it causes log files to be rotated without regard for
the last rotation time. When minsize is used, both the size and
timestamp of a log file are considered.
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.
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).
- 8 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
nocreate
New log files are not created (this overrides the create option).
nocreateolddir
olddir directory is not created by logrotate when it does not
exist.
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
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 file which is
rotated (this is the default, and overrides the sharedscripts
option). The absolute path to the log file is passed as first
argument to the script. If the scripts exit with error, the
remaining actions will not be executed for the affected log only.
noshred
Do not use shred when deleting old log files. See also shred.
notifempty
Do not rotate the log if it is empty (this overrides the ifempty
option).
- 9 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
olddir directory
Logs are moved into directory for rotation. The directory must be
on the same physical device as the log file being rotated, unless
copy, copytruncate or renamecopy option is used. The directory 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 overridden by the noolddir option.
postrotate/endscript
The lines between postrotate and endscript (both of which must
appear on lines by themselves) are executed (using /bin/sh) after
the log file is rotated. These directives may only appear inside
a log file definition. Normally, the absolute path to the log
file is passed as first argument to the script. If sharedscripts
is specified, whole pattern is passed to the script. See also
prerotate. See sharedscripts and nosharedscripts for error
handling.
prerotate/endscript
The lines between prerotate and endscript (both of which must
appear on lines by themselves) are executed (using /bin/sh)
before the log file is rotated and only if the log will actually
be rotated. These directives may only appear inside a log file
definition. Normally, the absolute path to the log file is passed
as first argument to the script. If sharedscripts is specified,
whole pattern is passed to the script. See also postrotate. See
sharedscripts and nosharedscripts for error handling.
firstaction/endscript
The lines between firstaction and endscript (both of which must
appear on lines by themselves) are executed (using /bin/sh) 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 actually be rotated. These directives may only appear
inside a log file definition. Whole pattern is passed to the
script as first argument. If the script exits with error, no
further processing is done. See also lastaction.
lastaction/endscript
The lines between lastaction and endscript (both of which must
appear on lines by themselves) are executed (using /bin/sh) 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 a log
- 10 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
file definition. Whole pattern is passed to the script as first
argument. If the script exits with error, just an error message
is shown (as this is the last action). See also firstaction.
preremove/endscript
The lines between preremove and endscript (both of which must
appear on lines by themselves) are executed (using /bin/sh) once
just before removal of a log file. The logrotate will pass the
name of file which is soon to be removed. See also firstaction.
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 than rotated. Default is 0.
renamecopy
Log file is renamed to temporary filename in the same directory
by adding ".tmp" extension to it. After that, postrotate script
is run and log file is copied from temporary filename to final
filename. This allows storing rotated log files on the different
devices using olddir directive. In the end, temporary filename is
removed.
size size
Log files are rotated only if they grow bigger than size bytes.
If size is followed by k, the size is assumed to be in kilobytes.
If the M is used, the size is in megabytes, and if G is used, the
size is in gigabytes. So size 100, size 100k, size 100M and size
100G are all valid.
sharedscripts
Normally, prerotate and postrotate scripts are run for each log
which is rotated and the absolute path to the log file is passed
as first argument to the script. That means a single script may
be run multiple times for log file entries which match multiple
files (such as the /var/log/news/* example). If sharedscripts is
specified, the scripts are only run once, no matter how many logs
match the wildcarded pattern, and whole pattern is passed to
them. However, if none of the logs in the pattern require
rotating, the scripts will not be run at all. If the scripts exit
with error, the remaining actions will not be executed for any
logs. This option overrides the nosharedscripts option and
implies create option.
- 11 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
shred
Delete log files using shred -u instead of unlink(). This should
ensure that logs are not readable after their scheduled deletion;
this is off by default. See also noshred.
shredcycles count
Asks GNU shred(1) to overwrite log files count times before
deletion. Without this option, shred's default will be used.
start count
This is the number to use as the base for rotation. For example,
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 rotate
directive.
su user group
Rotate log files set under this user and group instead of using
default user/group (usually root). user specifies the user name
used for rotation and group specifies the group used for
rotation. If the user/group you specify here does not have
sufficient privilege to make files with the ownership you've
specified in a create instruction, it will cause an error.
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 ,v, .cfsaved, .disabled, .dpkg-dist, .dpkg-new,
.dpkg-old, .rhn-cfg-tmp-*, .rpmnew, .rpmorig, .rpmsave, .swp,
.ucf-dist, .ucf-new, .ucf-old, ~
taboopat [+] list
The current taboo glob pattern list is changed (see the include
directive for information on the taboo extensions and patterns).
If a + precedes the list of patterns, the current taboo pattern
list is augmented, otherwise it is replaced. At startup, the
taboo pattern list is empty.
weekly [weekday]
Log files are rotated once each weekday, or if the date is
- 12 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
LOGROTATE(8) Linux LOGROTATE(8)
System Administrator's Manual System Administrator's Manual
3.12.3
advanced by at least 7 days since the last rotation (while
ignoring the exact time). The weekday intepretation is
following: 0 means Sunday, 1 means Monday, ..., 6 means
Saturday; the special value 7 means each 7 days, irrespectively
of weekday. Defaults to 0 if the weekday argument is omitted.
yearly
Log files are rotated if the current year is not the same as the
last rotation.
FILES
tab(:); left l l. /var/lib/logrotate.status:Default state file.
/etc/logrotate.conf:Configuration options.
SEE ALSO
chmod(2), gunzip(1), gzip(1), mail(1), shred(1), strftime(3),
strtoul(3), <https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate>
AUTHORS
Erik Troan, Preston Brown, Jan Kaluza.
<https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate>
- 13 - Formatted: April 26, 2024
