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LOGROTATE(8)             System Administrator's Manual            LOGROTATE(8)

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]  con-
       fig_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 log-
              ging 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 de-
              fault acquires a lock on the state file, if  it  cannot  be  ac-
              quired 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  unsup-
              ported or prohibited.

       --wait-for-state-lock
              Wait  until lock on the state file is released by another logro-
              tate process.  This option may cause logrotate to  wait  indefi-
              nitely.  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 over-
       ride global ones, and later  definitions  override  earlier  ones)  and
       specify logfiles to rotate.  Global options do not affect preceding in-
       clude 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  com-
       pressed 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 be-
       fore 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/ac-
       cess.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 rota-
       tions, 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 ProtectSys-
       tem=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 di-
              rectory 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 di-
              rectories 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 ad-
              vanced by at least 7 days since the last rotation (while  ignor-
              ing 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 kilo-
              bytes.  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  ex-
              clusive  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  issu-
              ing an error message.  See also nomissingok.

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

       ignoreduplicates
              Ignore any following matches of a log file.

       ifempty
              Rotate the log file even if it  is  empty,  overriding  the  no-
              tifempty 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  op-
              tions,  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  consid-
              ered.

       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 di-
              rective  for  information on the taboo extensions).  If a + pre-
              cedes 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, .rp-
              morig, .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  at-
              tributes for the new file will use the same values as the origi-
              nal 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 op-
              tion).

       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  nocreate-
              olddir 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 cre-
              ate 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 cre-
              ating 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  (ap-
              pending) 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 re-
              namecopy option allows storing rotated log files on the  differ-
              ent  devices  using olddir directive.  The renamecopy option im-
              plies 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 copytrun-
              cate.  Use with caution, especially when the log files  are  ro-
              tated as root.

       noallowhardlink
              Do  not  rotate  files  with  multiple hard links.  See also al-
              lowhardlink.

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

       nocompress
              Old  versions  of  log  files are not compressed.  See also com-
              press.

       compresscmd
              Specifies which command to use to compress log files.   The  de-
              fault is gzip(1).  See also compress.

       uncompresscmd
              Specifies which command to use to uncompress log files.  The de-
              fault is gunzip(1).

       compressext
              Specifies which extension to use on compressed logfiles, if com-
              pression 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 to-
              wards high compression at the expense of speed).  If you  use  a
              different  compression  command, you may need to change the com-
              pressoptions to match.

       delaycompress
              Postpone compression of the previous log file to the next  rota-
              tion  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 previ-
              ous 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 my-
              log.foo and want to rotate it to mylog.1.foo.gz instead  of  my-
              log.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 compres-
              sion  is  used, the compression extension (normally .gz) appears
              after ext.

       start count
              This is the number to use as the base for rotation.   For  exam-
              ple, if you specify 0, the logs will be created with a .0 exten-
              sion 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 speci-
              fiers are allowed.  The default value is -%Y%m%d except  hourly,
              which uses -%Y%m%d%H as default value.  Note that also the char-
              acter 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  gener-
              ated  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  op-
              tion,  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  ex-
              tension,  so  that  the  rotated log file has a hour in its name
              that is the same as the timestamps within it.  Useful  with  ro-
              tate 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,  in-
              stead 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  ac-
              tions  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 sec-
              tion.  See sharedscripts and nosharedscripts for error handling.

       postrotate
           script
       endscript
              The script is executed after the log file is rotated.  These di-
              rectives  may  only  appear  inside a log file definition.  Nor-
              mally, the absolute path to the log file is passed as the  first
              argument  to  the  script and the absolute path to the final ro-
              tated 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, irrespec-
       tive of any su directive.  If the --log flag was  specified,  file  de-
       scriptor  3 is the log file.  The current working directory is unspeci-
       fied.

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), str-
       toul(3), <https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate>

AUTHORS
       Erik Troan, Preston Brown, Jan Kaluza.

       <https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate>

Linux                               3.21.0                        LOGROTATE(8)

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