Provided by: logrotate_3.21.0-2build1_amd64 bug

NAME

       logrotate ‐ rotates, compresses, and mails system logs

SYNOPSIS

       logrotate  [--force]  [--debug] [--state file] [--skip-state-lock] [--wait-for-state-lock]
       [--verbose] [--log 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, although the state file will be updated.

OPTIONS

       -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.

       -d, --debug
              Turn on debug mode, which means that no changes  are  made  to  the  logs  and  the
              logrotate state file is not updated.  Only debug messages are printed.

       -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.  To  prevent  parallel
              execution  logrotate  by default acquires a lock on the state file, if it cannot be
              acquired  logrotate  will  exit  with  value  3.   The  default   state   file   is
              /var/lib/logrotate/status.  If /dev/null is given as the state file, then logrotate
              will not try to lock or write the state file.

       --skip-state-lock
              Do not lock the state file, for example if locking is unsupported or prohibited.

       --wait-for-state-lock
              Wait until lock on the state file is released by another logrotate  process.   This
              option may cause logrotate to wait indefinitely.  Use with caution.

       -v, --verbose
              Turns on verbose mode, for example to display messages during rotation.

       -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
              the following arguments:

              1) the subject of the message given with '-s subject'
              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/mail.

       --usage
              Prints a short usage message.

       -?, --help
              Prints help message.

       --version
              Display version information.

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.  Global options  do  not  affect  preceding  include
       directives.  A simple configuration file looks like this:

       # sample logrotate configuration file
       compress

       /var/log/messages {
           rotate 5
           weekly
           postrotate
               /usr/bin/killall -HUP syslogd
           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
           sharedscripts
           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 100 kilobytes  in  size,
       and  the  old  logs  files  are mailed (uncompressed) to recipient@example.org after going
       through 5 rotations,  rather  than  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 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.

       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).

       Please note, by default when using systemd(1), the option ProtectSystem=full is set in the
       logrotate.service file.  This prevents logrotate from modifying logs in /etc and /usr.

       Here is more  information  on  the  directives  which  may  be  included  in  a  logrotate
       configuration file:

CONFIGURATION FILE DIRECTIVES

       These directives may be included in a logrotate configuration file:

   Rotation
       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.  If count is -1, old logs are not removed at all, except they are affected
              by maxage (use with caution, may waste performance and disk space).  Default is 0.

       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.

       noolddir
              Logs  are  rotated  in  the  directory  they normally reside in (this overrides the
              olddir option).

       su user group
              Rotate log files set under this user and group instead of using default  user/group
              (usually  root).  user specifies the user used for rotation and group specifies the
              group used for rotation (see the section USER  AND  GROUP  for  details).   If  the
              user/group  you  specify here does not have sufficient privilege to make files with
              the ownership you've specified in a create directive, it will cause an  error.   If
              logrotate  runs  with root privileges, it is recommended to use the su directive to
              rotate files in directories that are directly or  indirectly  in  control  of  non-
              privileged users.

   Frequency
       hourly Log  files are rotated every hour.  Note that usually logrotate is configured to be
              run by cron daily (or by logrotate.timer  when  using  systemd(1)).   You  have  to
              change this configuration and run logrotate hourly to be able to really rotate logs
              hourly.

       daily  Log files are rotated every day.

       weekly [weekday]
              Log files are rotated once each weekday, or if the date is advanced by at  least  7
              days  since  the  last  rotation  (while  ignoring  the  exact  time).  The weekday
              interpretation 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.

       monthly
              Log files are rotated the first time logrotate is run in a month (this is  normally
              on the first day of the month).

       yearly Log files are rotated if the current year is not the same as the last rotation.

       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 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.  This option is mutually exclusive with  the
              time interval options, and it causes log files to be rotated without regard for the
              last rotation time, if specified after the time criteria (the last specified option
              takes the precedence).

   File selection
       missingok
              If the log file is missing, go on to the next one without issuing an error message.
              See also nomissingok.

       nomissingok
              If a log file does not exist, issue an error.  This is the default.

       ignoreduplicates
              Ignore any following matches of a log file.

       ifempty
              Rotate the log file even if it is empty, overriding the notifempty option  (ifempty
              is the default).

       notifempty
              Do not rotate the log if it is empty (this overrides the ifempty option).

       minage count
              Do not rotate logs which are less than <count> days old.

       maxage count
              Remove  rotated  logs  older  than  <count>  days.   The age is only checked if the
              logfile is to be rotated.  rotate -1 does not hinder removal.  The files are mailed
              to the configured address if maillast and mail are configured.

       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,  if  specified  after  the time criteria (the last specified option
              takes the precedence).  When minsize is used, both the size and timestamp of a  log
              file are considered.

       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,  if  specified  after  the time criteria (the last specified option
              takes the precedence).  When maxsize is used, both the size and timestamp of a  log
              file are considered.

       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-bak, .dpkg-del, .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.

   Files and Folders
       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 who will
              own the log file, and group specifies the group the log file will  belong  to  (see
              the  section  USER  AND  GROUP for details).  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.

       nocreate
              New log files are not created (this overrides the create 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 who will own the olddir directory, and group specifies the group
              the olddir directory will belong to (see the section USER AND GROUP
               for details).  This option can be disabled using the nocreateolddir option.

       nocreateolddir
              olddir directory is not created by logrotate when it does not exist.

       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.   The  copy
              option  allows  storing  rotated  log  files  on the different devices using olddir
              directive.

       nocopy Do not copy the original log file and leave it in place.  (this overrides the  copy
              option).

       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.  The copytruncate option allows storing rotated log files
              on the different devices using olddir directive.  The copytruncate  option  implies
              norenamecopy.

       nocopytruncate
              Do  not  truncate  the  original  log  file  in  place  after creating a copy (this
              overrides the copytruncate option).

       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.  In the end, temporary filename  is  removed.
              The  renamecopy  option  allows  storing rotated log files on the different devices
              using olddir directive.  The renamecopy option implies nocopytruncate.

       norenamecopy
              Do not rename and copy  the  original  log  file  (this  overrides  the  renamecopy
              option).

       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.

       noshred
              Do not use shred when deleting old log files.  See also shred.

       shredcycles count
              Asks GNU shred(1) to overwrite log files count times before deletion.  Without this
              option, shred's default will be used.

       allowhardlink
              Rotate files with multiple hard links; this is off by  default.   The  target  file
              might  get  emptied, e.g. with shred or copytruncate.  Use with caution, especially
              when the log files are rotated as root.

       noallowhardlink
              Do not rotate files with multiple hard links.  See also allowhardlink.

   Compression
       compress
              Old versions of log files  are  compressed  with  gzip(1)  by  default.   See  also
              nocompress.

       nocompress
              Old versions of log files are not compressed.  See also compress.

       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(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.

       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.

       nodelaycompress
              Do  not  postpone  compression  of the previous log file to the next rotation cycle
              (this overrides the delaycompress option).

   Filenames
       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.

       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.

       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.

       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.

       nodateext
              Do not archive old versions of log files with date extension  (this  overrides  the
              dateext option).

       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.

       datehourago
              Use hour ago instead of current date to create the dateext extension, so  that  the
              rotated  log  file has a hour in its name that is the same as the timestamps within
              it.  Useful with rotate hourly.

   Mail
       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.

       nomail Do not mail old log files to any address.

       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).

   Additional config files
       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.   The  given  path  may start with ~/ to make it relative to the home
              directory of the executing user.  For security reasons configuration files must not
              be group-writable nor world-writable.

   Scripts
       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 (or any log fails to rotate), the  remaining  actions  will
              not be executed for any logs.  This option overrides the nosharedscripts 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.  The absolute path to the final
              rotated log file is passed as the second argument to the postrotate script.  If the
              scripts  exit  with  error,  the  remaining  actions  will  not be executed for the
              affected log only.

       firstaction
           script
       endscript
              The script is executed once before all log files that match the wildcarded  pattern
              are  rotated,  before the 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.   The  whole  pattern is passed to the script as its first argument. If
              the script exits with an error, no further processing is done.  See also lastaction
              and the SCRIPTS section.

       lastaction
           script
       endscript
              The  script  is executed once after all log files that match the wildcarded pattern
              are rotated, after the postrotate script is run and only if at  least  one  log  is
              rotated.  These directives may only appear inside a log file definition.  The whole
              pattern is passed to the script as its first argument.  If the script exits with an
              error,  just  an  error  message  is  shown (as this is the last action).  See also
              firstaction and the SCRIPTS section.

       prerotate
           script
       endscript
              The script is executed 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  the  first
              argument to the script.  If sharedscripts is specified, the whole pattern is passed
              to the script.  See also postrotate and the SCRIPTS section.  See sharedscripts and
              nosharedscripts for error handling.

       postrotate
           script
       endscript
              The  script  is  executed 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  the first argument to the script and the absolute path to the final
              rotated log file is passed as the second argument to the script.  If  sharedscripts
              is  specified, the whole pattern is passed as the first argument to the script, and
              the second argument is omitted.  See also prerotate and the SCRIPTS  section.   See
              sharedscripts and nosharedscripts for error handling.

       preremove
           script
       endscript
              The script is executed once just before removal of a log file.  logrotate will pass
              the name of file which is soon to be removed as the first argument to  the  script.
              See also firstaction and the SCRIPTS section.

SCRIPTS

       The  lines between the starting keyword (e.g. prerotate) and endscript (both of which must
       appear on lines by themselves) are executed (using /bin/sh).   The  script  inherits  some
       traits  from  the  logrotate process, including stderr, stdout, the current directory, the
       environment, and the umask.  Scripts are run as the invoking user and group,  irrespective
       of  any su directive.  If the --log flag was specified, file descriptor 3 is the log file.
       The current working directory is unspecified.

USER AND GROUP

       User and group identifiers are resolved first by trying the textual representation and, in
       case it fails, afterwards by the numeric value.

FILES

       /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>