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] config_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 logging
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 default
acquires a lock on the state file, if it cannot be acquired
logrotate will exit with value 3. The default state file is
/opt/local/var/run/logrotate/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 unsupported
or prohibited.
--wait-for-state-lock
Wait until lock on the state file is released by another logrotate
process. This option may cause logrotate to wait indefinitely.
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 /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 override
global ones, and later definitions override earlier ones) and specify
logfiles to rotate. Global options do not affect preceding include
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
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 #.
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 before
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/access.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
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.
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
ProtectSystem=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 directory 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 directories
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
advanced by at least 7 days since the last rotation (while
ignoring 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 kilobytes.
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 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).
File selection
missingok
If the log file is missing, go on to the next one without issuing
an error message. See also nomissingok.
nomissingok
If a log file does not exist, issue an error. This is the
default.
ignoreduplicates
Ignore any following matches of a log file.
ifempty
Rotate the log file even if it is empty, overriding the notifempty
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
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 minsize is
used, both the size and timestamp of a log file are considered.
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
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 ,v, .cfsaved, .disabled, .dpkg-bak, .dpkg-del,
.dpkg-dist, .dpkg-new, .dpkg-old, .rhn-cfg-tmp-*, .rpmnew,
.rpmorig, .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 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.
nocreate
New log files are not created (this overrides the create option).
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 nocreateolddir
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 create 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
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. 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
renamecopy option allows storing rotated log files on the
different devices using olddir directive. The renamecopy option
implies 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
copytruncate. Use with caution, especially when the log files are
rotated as root.
noallowhardlink
Do not rotate files with multiple hard links. See also
allowhardlink.
Compression
compress
Old versions of log files are compressed with gzip(1) by default.
See also nocompress.
nocompress
Old versions of log files are not compressed. See also compress.
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.
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.
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 mylog.foo
and want to rotate it to mylog.1.foo.gz instead of mylog.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 compression is
used, the compression extension (normally .gz) appears after ext.
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.
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 specifiers
are allowed. The default value is -%Y%m%d except hourly, which
uses -%Y%m%d%H as default value. 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 (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 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.
datehourago
Use hour ago instead of current date to create the dateext
extension, so that the rotated log file has a hour in its name
that is the same as the timestamps within it. Useful with rotate
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,
instead 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 actions 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 section. See
sharedscripts and nosharedscripts for error handling.
postrotate
script
endscript
The script is executed 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 the first
argument to the script and the absolute path to the final rotated
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, irrespective of
any su directive. If the --log flag was specified, file descriptor 3 is
the log file. The current working directory is unspecified.
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
/opt/local/var/run/logrotate/logrotate.status Default state file.
/etc/logrotate.conf Configuration options.
SEE ALSO
chmod(2), gunzip(1), gzip(1), mail(1), shred(1), strftime(3), strtoul(3),
<https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate>
AUTHORS
Erik Troan, Preston Brown, Jan Kaluza.
<https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate>
Linux 3.21.0 logrotate(8)
logrotate 3.21.0 - Generated Tue Jan 3 09:06:00 CST 2023