Ubuntu Manpage: logrotate ‐ rotates, compresses, and mails system logs

Provided by: logrotate_3.8.7-1ubuntu1.2_amd64

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, 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.

       -m, --mail <command>
              Tells logrotate which command to use when mailing logs. This command should  accept
              two  arguments:  1)  the  subject of the message, and 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 -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/logrotate/status.

       --usage
              Prints a short usage message.

       -v, --verbose
              Turns on verbose mode, ie. 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
endscript
}

"/var/log/httpd/access.log" /var/log/httpd/error.log {
rotate 5
mail www@my.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 #.

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 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. 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).

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(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.

daily 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 and %s specifiers are allowed. The default value is
-%Y%m%d. 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 (i.e., first the year, then the month then the day. e.g.,
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 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.

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, as specified by the tabooext directive.

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.

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).

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 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).

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
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 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.

size size
Log files are rotated only if they grow bigger then 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.

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 contains .rpmsave, .rpmorig, ~, .disabled, .dpkg-old,
.dpkg-dist, .dpkg-new, .cfsaved, .ucf-old, .ucf-dist, .ucf-new, .rpmnew, .swp,
.cfsaved, .rhn-cfg-tmp-*

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 it works
better if logrotate is not run every night.

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

FILES

       /var/lib/logrotate.status  Default state file.
       /etc/logrotate.conf        Configuration options.

NOTES

       The killall(1) program in Debian is found in the psmisc package.

AUTHORS

       Erik Troan, Preston Brown, Jan Kaluza.

       <logrotate-owner@fedoraproject.org>
       <http://fedorahosted.org/logrotate/>

       Corrections and changes for Debian by Paul Martin <pm@debian.org>