%general-entities; ]> $LastChangedBy: bdubbs $ $Date: 2015-02-21 00:50:01 -0500 (Sat, 21 Feb 2015) $ logrotate The logrotate package allows automatic rotation, compression, removal, and mailing of log files. &lfs77_checked; Package Information Download (HTTP): Download (FTP): Download MD5 sum: &logrotate-md5sum; Download size: &logrotate-size; Estimated disk space required: &logrotate-buildsize; Estimated build time: &logrotate-time; Logrotate Dependencies Required Recommended (runtime) Optional An (runtime) User Notes: Install logrotate by running the following command: ./autogen.sh && ./configure --prefix=/usr && make To test the results, issue: make test. Now, as the root user: make install Logrotate needs a configuration file, which must be passed as an argument to the command when executed. Create the file as the root user: cat > /etc/logrotate.conf << EOF # Begin of /etc/logrotate.conf # Rotate log files weekly weekly # Don't mail logs to anybody nomail # If the log file is empty, it will not be rotated notifempty # Number of backups that will be kept # This will keep the 2 newest backups only rotate 2 # Create new empty files after rotating old ones # This will create empty log files, with owner # set to root, group set to sys, and permissions 644 create 0664 root sys # Compress the backups with gzip compress # No packages own lastlog or wtmp -- rotate them here /var/log/wtmp { monthly create 0664 root utmp rotate 1 } /var/log/lastlog { monthly rotate 1 } # Some packages drop log rotation info in this directory # so we include any file in it. include /etc/logrotate.d # End of /etc/logrotate.conf EOF chmod -v 0644 /etc/logrotate.conf Now create the /etc/logrotate.d directory as the root user: mkdir -p /etc/logrotate.d At this point additional log rotation commands can be entered, typically in the /etc/logrotate.d directory. For example: cat > /etc/logrotate.d/sys.log << EOF /var/log/sys.log { # If the log file is larger than 100kb, rotate it size 100k rotate 5 weekly postrotate /bin/killall -HUP syslogd endscript } EOF chmod -v 0644 /etc/logrotate.d/sys.log You can designate multiple files in one entry: cat > /etc/logrotate.d/example.log << EOF file1 file2 file3 { ... postrotate ... endscript } EOF chmod -v 0644 /etc/logrotate.d/example.log You can use in the same line the list of files: file1 file2 file3. See the logrotate man page or for more examples. The command logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf can be run manually, however, the command should be run daily. Other useful commands are logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.conf for debugging purposes and logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf forcing the logrotate commands to be run immediately. Combining the previous options -df, you can debug the effect of the force command. When debugging, the command is only simulated, not really run, thus, eventual non-existing errors appear, when some intermediate files are expected, because they are not actually created. To set up to run logrotate ... at 3AM daily, root's crontab should be edited to add: 0 3 * * * /usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf Installed Programs Installed Library Installed Directories logrotate None None Short Descriptions logrotate performs the log maintenance functions defined in the configuration files. logrotate