How does logrotate work

The file is commented, so you can skim it to see how the configuration is set up. Several of the specific commands in that file are described later in this article. Use the following command to list contents of the directory that stores application-specific log settings:. Depending on how much is installed on your server, this directory might contain no files or several. Usually the directory contains a configuration file for your syslog service, which logrotate reads when it rotates the system logs.

This file contains an entry for various system logs, along with some commands similar to those contained in logrotate. As an example, consider the contents of a logrotate configuration file that might be put in place when you install Apache on a Fedora system:. This example file does not contain some settings that are included in the logrotate. The commands in logrotate.

You can specify different settings for any application when you want to override the defaults. The next section describes some of the more commonly-used commands actually do in a logrotate configuration file. You can get a full list of commands used in logrotate configuration files by checking the man page:.

A log file and its rotation behavior are defined by listing the log file or files followed by a set of commands enclosed in curly brackets. You can list more than one log file for a block by using a wildcard in the name or by separating log files in the list with spaces.

Set proper permissions. Create cron configuration to execute logrotate every hour and read main hourly configuration file.

Log rotation, a normal thing on Linux systems, keeps any particular log file from becoming too large, yet ensures that sufficient details on system activities are still available for proper system monitoring and troubleshooting. Any number of config files may be given on the command line. Modify it as you want and save it. Also, a folder is created for service-specific snap-in configuration files for tailor-made log rotation requests.

Logrotate is a program to automate rotation, compression, and deletion of log-files. It is really useful in systems that generate lots of log-files, like most systems do these days.

Each log file may be handled daily, weekly, monthly, and in our example weekly. But to summarise, it's possible to redirect stderr only or merged with stdout into a pipe.

These is examples use the older bash syntax, bash v4 has a modern less verbose variant. Python Javascript Linux Cheat sheet Contact. Email Required, but never shown. The Overflow Blog. Podcast Explaining the semiconductor shortage, and how it might end. Does ES6 make JavaScript frameworks obsolete?

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