Provided by: apache2-utils_2.4.29-1ubuntu4.27_amd64 bug

NAME

       rotatelogs - Piped logging program to rotate Apache logs

SYNOPSIS

       rotatelogs  [  -l ] [ -L linkname ] [ -p program ] [ -f ] [ -t ] [ -v ] [ -e ] [ -c ] [ -n
       number-of-files ] logfile rotationtime|filesize(B|K|M|G) [ offset ]

SUMMARY

       rotatelogs is a simple program for use in conjunction with Apache's piped logfile feature.
       It supports rotation based on a time interval or maximum size of the log.

OPTIONS

       -l     Causes  the  use  of local time rather than GMT as the base for the interval or for
              strftime(3) formatting with size-based rotation.

       -L linkname
              Causes a hard link to be made from the current logfile to the specified link  name.
              This  can  be  used  to watch the log continuously across rotations using a command
              like tail -F linkname.

       -p program
              If given, rotatelogs will execute the specified program every time a new  log  file
              is opened. The filename of the newly opened file is passed as the first argument to
              the program. If executing after a rotation, the old  log  file  is  passed  as  the
              second  argument.  rotatelogs  does not wait for the specified program to terminate
              before continuing to  operate,  and  will  not  log  any  error  code  returned  on
              termination.  The  spawned  program  uses  the  same  stdin,  stdout, and stderr as
              rotatelogs itself, and also inherits the environment.

       -f     Causes the logfile to be opened immediately, as soon as rotatelogs starts,  instead
              of waiting for the first logfile entry to be read (for non-busy sites, there may be
              a substantial delay between when the server is started and when the  first  request
              is  handled, meaning that the associated logfile does not "exist" until then, which
              causes problems from some automated logging tools)

       -t     Causes the logfile to be truncated instead of rotated. This is useful when a log is
              processed  in  real  time by a command like tail, and there is no need for archived
              data. No suffix will be added to the filename, however  format  strings  containing
              '%' characters will be respected.

       -v     Produce   verbose  output  on  STDERR.  The  output  contains  the  result  of  the
              configuration parsing, and all file open and close actions.

       -e     Echo logs through to stdout. Useful when logs need to be further processed in  real
              time by a further tool in the chain.

       -c     Create log file for each interval, even if empty.

       -n number-of-files
              Use  a  circular list of filenames without timestamps. With -n 3, the series of log
              files  opened  would  be  "logfile",  "logfile.1",  "logfile.2",  then  overwriting
              "logfile". Available in 2.4.5 and later.

       logfile

       rotationtime
              The  time  between  log  file  rotations  in  seconds.  The  rotation occurs at the
              beginning of this interval. For example, if the rotation time is 3600, the log file
              will  be rotated at the beginning of every hour; if the rotation time is 86400, the
              log file will be rotated every night at midnight. (If no data is logged  during  an
              interval, no file will be created.)

       filesize(B|K|M|G)
              The  maximum  file  size  in  followed  by  exactly one of the letters B (Bytes), K
              (KBytes), M (MBytes) or G (GBytes). .PP When time and size are specified, the  size
              must  be  given  after  the  time. Rotation will occur whenever either time or size
              limits are reached.

       offset The number of minutes offset from UTC. If omitted, zero is assumed and UTC is used.
              For  example,  to  use local time in the zone UTC -5 hours, specify a value of -300
              for this argument. In most cases, -l  should  be  used  instead  of  specifying  an
              offset.

EXAMPLES

            CustomLog "|bin/rotatelogs /var/log/logfile 86400" common

       This  creates  the  files /var/log/logfile.nnnn where nnnn is the system time at which the
       log nominally starts (this time will always be a multiple of the rotation time, so you can
       synchronize  cron scripts with it). At the end of each rotation time (here after 24 hours)
       a new log is started.

            CustomLog "|bin/rotatelogs -l /var/log/logfile.%Y.%m.%d 86400" common

       This creates the files /var/log/logfile.yyyy.mm.dd where yyyy  is  the  year,  mm  is  the
       month,  and  dd  is  the  day of the month. Logging will switch to a new file every day at
       midnight, local time.

            CustomLog "|bin/rotatelogs /var/log/logfile 5M" common

       This configuration will rotate the logfile whenever it reaches a size of 5 megabytes.

            ErrorLog "|bin/rotatelogs /var/log/errorlog.%Y-%m-%d-%H_%M_%S 5M"

       This configuration will rotate  the  error  logfile  whenever  it  reaches  a  size  of  5
       megabytes,  and  the suffix to the logfile name will be created of the form errorlog.YYYY-
       mm-dd-HH_MM_SS.

            CustomLog "|bin/rotatelogs -t /var/log/logfile 86400" common

       This creates the file /var/log/logfile, truncating the file at startup and then truncating
       the  file  once  per day. It is expected in this scenario that a separate process (such as
       tail) would process the file in real time.

PORTABILITY

       The following logfile format string substitutions should be supported by  all  strftime(3)
       implementations, see the strftime(3) man page for library-specific extensions.

       • %A - full weekday name (localized)

       • %a - 3-character weekday name (localized)

       • %B - full month name (localized)

       • %b - 3-character month name (localized)

       • %c - date and time (localized)

       • %d - 2-digit day of month

       • %H - 2-digit hour (24 hour clock)

       • %I - 2-digit hour (12 hour clock)

       • %j - 3-digit day of year

       • %M - 2-digit minute

       • %m - 2-digit month

       • %p - am/pm of 12 hour clock (localized)

       • %S - 2-digit second

       • %U - 2-digit week of year (Sunday first day of week)

       • %W - 2-digit week of year (Monday first day of week)

       • %w - 1-digit weekday (Sunday first day of week)

       • %X - time (localized)

       • %x - date (localized)

       • %Y - 4-digit year

       • %y - 2-digit year

       • %Z - time zone name

       • %% - literal `%'