NAME

       shtool-rotate - GNU shtool log file rotation

SYNOPSIS

       shtool rotate [-v|--verbose] [-t|--trace] [-f|--force] [-n|--num-files count] [-s|--size size]
       [-c|--copy] [-r|--remove] [-a|--archive-dir dir] [-z|--compress [tool:]level] [-b|--background]
       [-d|--delay] [-p|--pad len] [-m|--mode mode] [-o|--owner owner] [-g|--group group] [-M|--migrate cmd]
       [-P|--prolog cmd] [-E|--epilog cmd] file [file ...]

DESCRIPTION

       This command rotates a logfile file by subsequently creating up to count (optionally compressed) archive
       files of it. Archive files are named "file.number[compress-suffix]" where number is the version number, 0
       being the newest and "count-1" the oldest.

       A rotation step consists of the following steps

       1. remove last archive file 2. shift archive file numbers 3. create archive file 0 from file 4.
       truncate/recreate file

OPTIONS

       The following command line options are available.

       -v, --verbose
           Display some processing information.

       -t, --trace
           Enable the output of the essential shell commands which are executed.

       -f, --force
           Force silent creation of archive directory if it does not exists. Also skip missing intermediate
           logfiles in the rotation step. Default is to exit with error in both cases. FIXME

       -n, --num-files count
           Create count archive files. Default is 10.

       -s, --size size
           Only rotate if logfile exceeds size. The argument size can be specified also with the trailing units
           "K" (kilo), "M" (mega) or "G" (giga). The "prolog" and "epilog" are only executed if rotation
           actually takes place.

       -c, --copy
           Copy file to archive then truncate original. The default is to move file to archive.

           Unless an application reopens its logfile it will continue to write to the same file. In the default
           move case the application will write to the archive which it had previously opened as file. In the
           copy case the application will write to the original file. The drawback of the copy approach is that
           logfile entries are lost when they are written to file between the execution of the copy and the
           truncation operation. The drawback of the move approach is that the application needs to detect the
           move or must be triggered to reopen its log (i.e.  through epilog).

       -r, --remove
           Removes file after rotation instead of providing a new empty file.

       -a, --archive-dir dir
           Specify the archive directory. Default is to create archives in the same directory as file is
           located.

       -z, --compress [tool:]level
           Enables compression of archive files with compression level level By default, the tools bzip2(1),
           gzip(1) and compress(1) are searched for in $PATH, but one also can override this by prefixing the
           compression level with one of the three particular tool names.

       -b, --background
           Enable background compression.

       -d, --delay
           Delays the compression of archive file number 0. This is useful if ``-c'' is not used, because an
           application might continue to write to archive file 0 through an already open file handle.

       -p, --pad len
           Enables padding with leading zeros in the number part of the filename "file.numbercompress-suffix".
           The default padding len is 1.  This is interesting if more than 10 archive files are used, because it
           leads to still sorted directory listings.

       -m, --mode mode
           The file mode applied to the created files, see chmod(1). Setting mode to "-" skips this step and
           leaves the operating system default which is usually based on umask(1). Some file modes require
           superuser privileges to be set. Default is 0755.

       -o, --owner owner
           The file owner name or id applied to the created files, see chown(1). This option requires superuser
           privileges to execute. Default is to skip this step and leave the operating system default which is
           usually based on the executing uid or the parent setuid directory.

       -g, --group group
           The file group name or id applied to the created files, see chgrp(1). This option requires superuser
           privileges to execute to the fullest extend, otherwise the choice of group is limited on most
           operating systems.  Default is to skip this step and leave the operating system default which is
           usually based on the executing gid or the parent setgid directory.

       -M, --migrate cmd
           Execute a "migration" command just before the archive file number count-1 is removed from the
           filesystem. The specified cmd receives the archive filename as command line argument.

       -P, --prolog cmd
           Execute a "prolog" command before the rotation step. Useful in conjunction with -s.

       -E, --epilog cmd
           Execute a "epilog" command after the rotation step. Useful in conjunction with -s.

EXAMPLE

        #   shell script
        shtool rotate -n10 -s1M -zbzip2:9 -d -r /var/log/ap.access.log
        shtool rotate -n5 -s128K -zbzip2:9 -d -r /var/log/ap.error.log
        apachectl graceful

HISTORY

       The GNU shtool rotate command was originally written by Ralf S.  Engelschall <rse@engelschall.com> in
       2001 for GNU shtool.  Its development was prompted by the need to have a flexible logfile rotation
       facility in the OpenPKG project.

SEE ALSO

       shtool(1), BSD newsyslog(8).