1LOGROTATE(8) System Administrator's Manual LOGROTATE(8)
2
6 logrotate ‐ rotates, compresses, and mails system logs
7
10 logrotate [--force] [--debug] [--state file] [--skip-state-lock]
11 [--verbose] [--log file] [--mail command] config_file [config_file2
12 ...]
13
16 logrotate is designed to ease administration of systems that generate
17 large numbers of log files. It allows automatic rotation, compression,
18 removal, and mailing of log files. Each log file may be handled daily,
19 weekly, monthly, or when it grows too large.
20 Normally, logrotate is run as a daily cron job. It will not modify a
22 log more than once in one day unless the criterion for that log is
23 based on the log's size and logrotate is being run more than once each
24 day, or unless the -f or --force option is used.
25 Any number of config files may be given on the command line. Later
27 config files may override the options given in earlier files, so the
28 order in which the logrotate config files are listed is important.
29 Normally, a single config file which includes any other config files
30 which are needed should be used. See below for more information on how
31 to use the include directive to accomplish this. If a directory is
32 given on the command line, every file in that directory is used as a
33 config file.
34 If no command line arguments are given, logrotate will print version
36 and copyright information, along with a short usage summary. If any
37 errors occur while rotating logs, logrotate will exit with non-zero
38 status.
39
42 -f, --force
43 Tells logrotate to force the rotation, even if it doesn't think
44 this is necessary. Sometimes this is useful after adding new
45 entries to a logrotate config file, or if old log files have
46 been removed by hand, as the new files will be created, and log‐
47 ging will continue correctly.
48 -d, --debug
51 Turn on debug mode, which means that no changes are made to the
52 logs and the logrotate state file is not updated. Only debug
53 messages are printed.
54 -s, --state statefile
57 Tells logrotate to use an alternate state file. This is useful
58 if logrotate is being run as a different user for various sets
59 of log files. To prevent parallel execution logrotate by
60 default acquires a lock on the state file, if it cannot be
61 acquired logrotate will exit with value 3. The default state
62 file is /var/lib/logrotate/logrotate.status.
63 --skip-state-lock
66 Do not lock the state file, for example if locking is unsup‐
67 ported or prohibited.
68 -v, --verbose
71 Turns on verbose mode, for example to display messages during
72 rotation.
73 -l, --log file
76 Tells logrotate to log verbose output into the log_file. The
77 verbose output logged to that file is the same as when running
78 logrotate with -v switch. The log file is overwritten on every
79 logrotate execution.
80 -m, --mail command
83 Tells logrotate which command to use when mailing logs. This
84 command should accept the following arguments:
85 1) the subject of the message given with '-s subject'
87 2) the recipient.
88 The command must then read a message on standard input and mail
90 it to the recipient. The default mail command is /bin/mail.
91 --usage
94 Prints a short usage message.
95 -?, --help
98 Prints help message.
99 --version
102 Display version information.
103
107 logrotate reads everything about the log files it should be handling
108 from the series of configuration files specified on the command line.
109 Each configuration file can set global options (local definitions over‐
110 ride global ones, and later definitions override earlier ones) and
111 specify logfiles to rotate. Global options do not affect preceding
112 include directives. A simple configuration file looks like this:
113 # sample logrotate configuration file
115 compress
116 /var/log/messages {
118 rotate 5
119 weekly
120 postrotate
121 /usr/bin/killall -HUP syslogd
122 endscript
123 }
124 "/var/log/httpd/access.log" /var/log/httpd/error.log {
126 rotate 5
127 mail recipient@example.org
128 size 100k
129 sharedscripts
130 postrotate
131 /usr/bin/killall -HUP httpd
132 endscript
133 }
134 /var/log/news/* {
136 monthly
137 rotate 2
138 olddir /var/log/news/old
139 missingok
140 postrotate
141 kill -HUP $(cat /var/run/inn.pid)
142 endscript
143 nocompress
144 }
145 ~/log/*.log {}
147 The first few lines set global options; in the example, logs are com‐
151 pressed after they are rotated. Note that comments may appear anywhere
152 in the config file as long as the first non-whitespace character on the
153 line is a #.
154 Values are separated from directives by whitespace and/or an optional
156 =. Numbers must be specified in a format understood by strtoul(3).
157 The next section of the config file defines how to handle the log file
159 /var/log/messages. The log will go through five weekly rotations
160 before being removed. After the log file has been rotated (but before
161 the old version of the log has been compressed), the command
162 /usr/bin/killall -HUP syslogd will be executed.
163 The next section defines the parameters for both
165 /var/log/httpd/access.log and /var/log/httpd/error.log. Each is
166 rotated whenever it grows over 100 kilobytes in size, and the old logs
167 files are mailed (uncompressed) to recipient@example.org after going
168 through 5 rotations, rather than being removed. The sharedscripts
169 means that the postrotate script will only be run once (after the old
170 logs have been compressed), not once for each log which is rotated.
171 Note that log file names may be enclosed in quotes (and that quotes are
172 required if the name contains spaces). Normal shell quoting rules
173 apply, with ', ", and \ characters supported.
174 The next section defines the parameters for all of the files in
176 /var/log/news. Each file is rotated on a monthly basis. This is con‐
177 sidered a single rotation directive and if errors occur for more than
178 one file, the log files are not compressed.
179 The last section uses tilde expansion to rotate log files in the home
181 directory of the current user. This is only available, if your glob
182 library supports tilde expansion. GNU glob does support this.
183 Please use wildcards with caution. If you specify *, logrotate will
185 rotate all files, including previously rotated ones. A way around this
186 is to use the olddir directive or a more exact wildcard (such as
187 *.log).
188 Here is more information on the directives which may be included in a
190 logrotate configuration file:
191
194 These directives may be included in a logrotate configuration file:
195 Rotation
198 rotate count
199 Log files are rotated count times before being removed or mailed
200 to the address specified in a mail directive. If count is 0,
201 old versions are removed rather than rotated. If count is -1,
202 old logs are not removed at all, except they are affected by
203 maxage (use with caution, may waste performance and disk space).
204 Default is 0.
205 olddir directory
208 Logs are moved into directory for rotation. The directory must
209 be on the same physical device as the log file being rotated,
210 unless copy, copytruncate or renamecopy option is used. The
211 directory is assumed to be relative to the directory holding the
212 log file unless an absolute path name is specified. When this
213 option is used all old versions of the log end up in directory.
214 This option may be overridden by the noolddir option.
215 noolddir
218 Logs are rotated in the directory they normally reside in (this
219 overrides the olddir option).
220 su user group
223 Rotate log files set under this user and group instead of using
224 default user/group (usually root). user specifies the user name
225 used for rotation and group specifies the group used for rota‐
226 tion. If the user/group you specify here does not have suffi‐
227 cient privilege to make files with the ownership you've speci‐
228 fied in a create directive, it will cause an error. If logro‐
229 tate runs with root privileges, it is recommended to use the su
230 directive to rotate files in directories that are directly or
231 indirectly in control of non-privileged users.
232 Frequency
235 hourly Log files are rotated every hour. Note that usually logrotate
236 is configured to be run by cron daily. You have to change this
237 configuration and run logrotate hourly to be able to really
238 rotate logs hourly.
239 daily Log files are rotated every day.
242 weekly [weekday]
245 Log files are rotated once each weekday, or if the date is
246 advanced by at least 7 days since the last rotation (while
247 ignoring the exact time). The weekday interpretation is follow‐
248 ing: 0 means Sunday, 1 means Monday, ..., 6 means Saturday; the
249 special value 7 means each 7 days, irrespectively of weekday.
250 Defaults to 0 if the weekday argument is omitted.
251 monthly
254 Log files are rotated the first time logrotate is run in a month
255 (this is normally on the first day of the month).
256 yearly Log files are rotated if the current year is not the same as the
259 last rotation.
260 size size
263 Log files are rotated only if they grow bigger than size bytes.
264 If size is followed by k, the size is assumed to be in kilo‐
265 bytes. If the M is used, the size is in megabytes, and if G is
266 used, the size is in gigabytes. So size 100, size 100k, size
267 100M and size 100G are all valid. This option is mutually
268 exclusive with the time interval options, and it causes log
269 files to be rotated without regard for the last rotation time,
270 if specified after the time criteria (the last specified option
271 takes the precedence).
272 File selection
275 missingok
276 If the log file is missing, go on to the next one without issu‐
277 ing an error message. See also nomissingok.
278 nomissingok
281 If a log file does not exist, issue an error. This is the
282 default.
283 ifempty
286 Rotate the log file even if it is empty, overriding the
287 notifempty option (ifempty is the default).
288 notifempty
291 Do not rotate the log if it is empty (this overrides the ifempty
292 option).
293 minage count
296 Do not rotate logs which are less than <count> days old.
297 maxage count
300 Remove rotated logs older than <count> days. The age is only
301 checked if the logfile is to be rotated. rotate -1 does not
302 hinder removal. The files are mailed to the configured address
303 if maillast and mail are configured.
304 minsize size
307 Log files are rotated when they grow bigger than size bytes, but
308 not before the additionally specified time interval (daily,
309 weekly, monthly, or yearly). The related size option is similar
310 except that it is mutually exclusive with the time interval
311 options, and it causes log files to be rotated without regard
312 for the last rotation time, if specified after the time criteria
313 (the last specified option takes the precedence). When minsize
314 is used, both the size and timestamp of a log file are consid‐
315 ered.
316 maxsize size
319 Log files are rotated when they grow bigger than size bytes even
320 before the additionally specified time interval (daily, weekly,
321 monthly, or yearly). The related size option is similar except
322 that it is mutually exclusive with the time interval options,
323 and it causes log files to be rotated without regard for the
324 last rotation time, if specified after the time criteria (the
325 last specified option takes the precedence). When maxsize is
326 used, both the size and timestamp of a log file are considered.
327 tabooext [+] list
330 The current taboo extension list is changed (see the include
331 directive for information on the taboo extensions). If a + pre‐
332 cedes the list of extensions, the current taboo extension list
333 is augmented, otherwise it is replaced. At startup, the taboo
334 extension list ,v, .cfsaved, .disabled, .dpkg-bak, .dpkg-del,
335 .dpkg-dist, .dpkg-new, .dpkg-old, .rhn-cfg-tmp-*, .rpmnew,
336 .rpmorig, .rpmsave, .swp, .ucf-dist, .ucf-new, .ucf-old, ~
337 taboopat [+] list
340 The current taboo glob pattern list is changed (see the include
341 directive for information on the taboo extensions and patterns).
342 If a + precedes the list of patterns, the current taboo pattern
343 list is augmented, otherwise it is replaced. At startup, the
344 taboo pattern list is empty.
345 Files and Folders
348 create mode owner group, create owner group
349 Immediately after rotation (before the postrotate script is run)
350 the log file is created (with the same name as the log file just
351 rotated). mode specifies the mode for the log file in octal
352 (the same as chmod(2)), owner specifies the user name who will
353 own the log file, and group specifies the group the log file
354 will belong to. Any of the log file attributes may be omitted,
355 in which case those attributes for the new file will use the
356 same values as the original log file for the omitted attributes.
357 This option can be disabled using the nocreate option.
358 nocreate
361 New log files are not created (this overrides the create
362 option).
363 createolddir mode owner group
366 If the directory specified by olddir directive does not exist,
367 it is created. mode specifies the mode for the olddir directory
368 in octal (the same as chmod(2)), owner specifies the user name
369 who will own the olddir directory, and group specifies the group
370 the olddir directory will belong to. This option can be dis‐
371 abled using the nocreateolddir option.
372 nocreateolddir
375 olddir directory is not created by logrotate when it does not
376 exist.
377 copy Make a copy of the log file, but don't change the original at
380 all. This option can be used, for instance, to make a snapshot
381 of the current log file, or when some other utility needs to
382 truncate or parse the file. When this option is used, the cre‐
383 ate option will have no effect, as the old log file stays in
384 place.
385 nocopy Do not copy the original log file and leave it in place. (this
388 overrides the copy option).
389 copytruncate
392 Truncate the original log file to zero size in place after cre‐
393 ating a copy, instead of moving the old log file and optionally
394 creating a new one. It can be used when some program cannot be
395 told to close its logfile and thus might continue writing
396 (appending) to the previous log file forever. Note that there
397 is a very small time slice between copying the file and truncat‐
398 ing it, so some logging data might be lost. When this option is
399 used, the create option will have no effect, as the old log file
400 stays in place.
401 nocopytruncate
404 Do not truncate the original log file in place after creating a
405 copy (this overrides the copytruncate option).
406 renamecopy
409 Log file is renamed to temporary filename in the same directory
410 by adding ".tmp" extension to it. After that, postrotate script
411 is run and log file is copied from temporary filename to final
412 filename. This allows storing rotated log files on the differ‐
413 ent devices using olddir directive. In the end, temporary file‐
414 name is removed.
415 shred Delete log files using shred -u instead of unlink(). This
418 should ensure that logs are not readable after their scheduled
419 deletion; this is off by default. See also noshred.
420 noshred
423 Do not use shred when deleting old log files. See also shred.
424 shredcycles count
427 Asks GNU shred(1) to overwrite log files count times before
428 deletion. Without this option, shred's default will be used.
429 Compression
432 compress
433 Old versions of log files are compressed with gzip(1) by
434 default. See also nocompress.
435 nocompress
438 Old versions of log files are not compressed. See also com‐
439 press.
440 compresscmd
443 Specifies which command to use to compress log files. The
444 default is gzip(1). See also compress.
445 uncompresscmd
448 Specifies which command to use to uncompress log files. The
449 default is gunzip(1).
450 compressext
453 Specifies which extension to use on compressed logfiles, if com‐
454 pression is enabled. The default follows that of the configured
455 compression command.
456 compressoptions
459 Command line options may be passed to the compression program,
460 if one is in use. The default, for gzip(1), is "-6" (biased
461 towards high compression at the expense of speed). If you use a
462 different compression command, you may need to change the com‐
463 pressoptions to match.
464 delaycompress
467 Postpone compression of the previous log file to the next rota‐
468 tion cycle. This only has effect when used in combination with
469 compress. It can be used when some program cannot be told to
470 close its logfile and thus might continue writing to the previ‐
471 ous log file for some time.
472 nodelaycompress
475 Do not postpone compression of the previous log file to the next
476 rotation cycle (this overrides the delaycompress option).
477 Filenames
480 extension ext
481 Log files with ext extension can keep it after the rotation. If
482 compression is used, the compression extension (normally .gz)
483 appears after ext. For example you have a logfile named
484 mylog.foo and want to rotate it to mylog.1.foo.gz instead of
485 mylog.foo.1.gz.
486 addextension ext
489 Log files are given the final extension ext after rotation. If
490 the original file already ends with ext, the extension is not
491 duplicated, but merely moved to the end, that is both filename
492 and filenameext would get rotated to filename.1ext. If compres‐
493 sion is used, the compression extension (normally .gz) appears
494 after ext.
495 start count
498 This is the number to use as the base for rotation. For exam‐
499 ple, if you specify 0, the logs will be created with a .0 exten‐
500 sion as they are rotated from the original log files. If you
501 specify 9, log files will be created with a .9, skipping 0–8.
502 Files will still be rotated the number of times specified with
503 the rotate directive.
504 dateext
507 Archive old versions of log files adding a date extension like
508 YYYYMMDD instead of simply adding a number. The extension may
509 be configured using the dateformat and dateyesterday options.
510 nodateext
513 Do not archive old versions of log files with date extension
514 (this overrides the dateext option).
515 dateformat format_string
518 Specify the extension for dateext using the notation similar to
519 strftime(3) function. Only %Y %m %d %H %M %S %V and %s speci‐
520 fiers are allowed. The default value is -%Y%m%d except hourly,
521 which uses -%Y%m%d%H as default value. Note that also the char‐
522 acter separating log name from the extension is part of the
523 dateformat string. The system clock must be set past Sep 9th
524 2001 for %s to work correctly. Note that the datestamps gener‐
525 ated by this format must be lexically sortable (that is first
526 the year, then the month then the day. For example 2001/12/01
527 is ok, but 01/12/2001 is not, since 01/11/2002 would sort lower
528 while it is later). This is because when using the rotate
529 option, logrotate sorts all rotated filenames to find out which
530 logfiles are older and should be removed.
531 dateyesterday
534 Use yesterday's instead of today's date to create the dateext
535 extension, so that the rotated log file has a date in its name
536 that is the same as the timestamps within it.
537 datehourago
540 Use hour ago instead of current date to create the dateext
541 extension, so that the rotated log file has a hour in its name
542 that is the same as the timestamps within it. Useful with
543 rotate hourly.
544 Mail
547 mail address
548 When a log is rotated out of existence, it is mailed to address.
549 If no mail should be generated by a particular log, the nomail
550 directive may be used.
551 nomail Do not mail old log files to any address.
554 mailfirst
557 When using the mail command, mail the just-rotated file, instead
558 of the about-to-expire file.
559 maillast
562 When using the mail command, mail the about-to-expire file,
563 instead of the just-rotated file (this is the default).
564 Additional config files
567 include file_or_directory
568 Reads the file given as an argument as if it was included inline
569 where the include directive appears. If a directory is given,
570 most of the files in that directory are read in alphabetic order
571 before processing of the including file continues. The only
572 files which are ignored are files which are not regular files
573 (such as directories and named pipes) and files whose names end
574 with one of the taboo extensions or patterns, as specified by
575 the tabooext or taboopat directives, respectively. The given
576 path may start with ~/ to make it relative to the home directory
577 of the executing user. For security reasons configuration files
578 must not be group-writable nor world-writable.
579 Scripts
582 sharedscripts
583 Normally, prerotate and postrotate scripts are run for each log
584 which is rotated and the absolute path to the log file is passed
585 as first argument to the script. That means a single script may
586 be run multiple times for log file entries which match multiple
587 files (such as the /var/log/news/* example). If sharedscripts
588 is specified, the scripts are only run once, no matter how many
589 logs match the wildcarded pattern, and whole pattern is passed
590 to them. However, if none of the logs in the pattern require
591 rotating, the scripts will not be run at all. If the scripts
592 exit with error (or any log fails to rotate), the remaining
593 actions will not be executed for any logs. This option over‐
594 rides the nosharedscripts option.
595 nosharedscripts
598 Run prerotate and postrotate scripts for every log file which is
599 rotated (this is the default, and overrides the sharedscripts
600 option). The absolute path to the log file is passed as first
601 argument to the script. The absolute path to the final rotated
602 log file is passed as the second argument to the postrotate
603 script. If the scripts exit with error, the remaining actions
604 will not be executed for the affected log only.
605 firstaction
607 script
608 endscript
609 The script is executed once before all log files that match the
610 wildcarded pattern are rotated, before the prerotate script is
611 run and only if at least one log will actually be rotated.
612 These directives may only appear inside a log file definition.
613 The whole pattern is passed to the script as its first argument.
614 If the script exits with an error, no further processing is
615 done. See also lastaction and the SCRIPTS section.
616 lastaction
618 script
619 endscript
620 The script is executed once after all log files that match the
621 wildcarded pattern are rotated, after the postrotate script is
622 run and only if at least one log is rotated. These directives
623 may only appear inside a log file definition. The whole pattern
624 is passed to the script as its first argument. If the script
625 exits with an error, just an error message is shown (as this is
626 the last action). See also firstaction and the SCRIPTS section.
627 prerotate
629 script
630 endscript
631 The script is executed before the log file is rotated and only
632 if the log will actually be rotated. These directives may only
633 appear inside a log file definition. Normally, the absolute
634 path to the log file is passed as the first argument to the
635 script. If sharedscripts is specified, the whole pattern is
636 passed to the script. See also postrotate and the SCRIPTS sec‐
637 tion. See sharedscripts and nosharedscripts for error handling.
638 postrotate
640 script
641 endscript
642 The script is executed after the log file is rotated. These
643 directives may only appear inside a log file definition. Nor‐
644 mally, the absolute path to the log file is passed as the first
645 argument to the script and the absolute path to the final
646 rotated log file is passed as the second argument to the script.
647 If sharedscripts is specified, the whole pattern is passed as
648 the first argument to the script, and the second argument is
649 omitted. See also prerotate and the SCRIPTS section. See
650 sharedscripts and nosharedscripts for error handling.
651 preremove
653 script
654 endscript
655 The script is executed once just before removal of a log file.
656 logrotate will pass the name of file which is soon to be removed
657 as the first argument to the script. See also firstaction and
658 the SCRIPTS section.
659
662 The lines between the starting keyword (e.g. prerotate) and endscript
663 (both of which must appear on lines by themselves) are executed (using
664 /bin/sh). The script inherits some traits from the logrotate process,
665 including stderr, stdout, the current directory, the environment, and
666 the umask. Scripts are run as the invoking user and group, irrespec‐
667 tive of any su directive. If the --log flag was specified, file
668 descriptor 3 is the log file.
669
672 /var/lib/logrotate/logrotate.status Default state file.
673 /etc/logrotate.conf Configuration options.
674
678 chmod(2), gunzip(1), gzip(1), mail(1), shred(1), strftime(3), str‐
679 toul(3), <https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate>
680
683 Erik Troan, Preston Brown, Jan Kaluza.
684 <https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate>
686Linux 3.17.0 LOGROTATE(8)