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HowTo: The Ultimate Logrotate Command Tutorial

with 10 Examples
by B A L A K R I S H N A N
on J U L Y
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Managing log files effectively is an essential task for Linux sysadmin.

In this article, let us discuss how to perform following log file operations using UNIX
logrotate utility.
Rotate the log file when file size reaches a specific size
Continue to write the log information to the newly created file after rotating the old
log file
Compress the rotated log files
Specify compression option for the rotated log files
Rotate the old log files with the date in the filename
Execute custom shell scripts immediately after log rotation
Remove older rotated log files

1. Logrotate Configuration files

Following are the key files that you should be aware of for logrotate to work properly.
/usr/sbin/logrotate The logrotate command itself.

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/etc/cron.daily/logrotate This shell script executes the logrotate command

everyday.

$ cat /etc/cron.daily/logrotate
#!/bin/sh
/usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf
EXITVALUE=$?
if [ $EXITVALUE != 0 ]; then
/usr/bin/logger -t logrotate "ALERT exited abnormally with [$EXITVALUE]"
fi
exit 0

/etc/logrotate.conf Log rotation configuration for all the log files are specified in
this file.

$ cat /etc/logrotate.conf
weekly
rotate 4
create
include /etc/logrotate.d
/var/log/wtmp {
monthly
minsize 1M
create 0664 root utmp
rotate 1
}

/etc/logrotate.d When individual packages are installed on the system, they drop
the log rotation configuration information in this directory. For example, yum log
rotate configuration information is shown below.

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$ cat /etc/logrotate.d/yum
/var/log/yum.log {
missingok
notifempty
size 30k
yearly
create 0600 root root
}

2. Logrotate size option: Rotate the log file when file size reaches
a specific limit
If you want to rotate a log file (for example, /tmp/output.log) for every 1KB, create
the logrotate.conf as shown below.

$ cat logrotate.conf
/tmp/output.log {
size 1k
create 700 bala bala
rotate 4
}

This logrotate configuration has following three options:

size 1k logrotate runs only if the filesize is equal to (or greater than) this size.
create rotate the original file and create the new file with specified permission,
user and group.
rotate limits the number of log file rotation. So, this would keep only the recent 4
rotated log files.
Before the logrotation, following is the size of the output.log:

$ ls -l /tmp/output.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 bala bala 25868 2010-06-09 21:19 /tmp/output.log

Now, run the logrotate command as shown below. Option -s specifies the filename to
write the logrotate status.

$ logrotate -s /var/log/logstatus logrotate.conf

Note : whenever you need of log rotation for some files, prepare the logrotate
configuration and run the logroate command manually.
After the logrotation, following is the size of the output.log:

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$ ls -l /tmp/output*
-rw-r--r-- 1 bala bala 25868 2010-06-09 21:20 output.log.1
-rwx------ 1 bala bala

0 2010-06-09 21:20 output.log

Eventually this will keep following setup of rotated log files.

output.log.4.
output.log.3
output.log.2
output.log.1
output.log
Please remember that after the log rotation, the log file corresponds to the service
would still point to rotated file (output.log.1) and keeps on writing in it. You can use
the above method, if you want to rotate the apache access_log or error_log
every 5 MB.
Ideally, you should modify the /etc/logrotate.conf to specify the logrotate information
for a specific log file.
Also, if you are having huge log files, you can use: 10 Awesome Examples for Viewing
Huge Log Files in Unix

3. Logrotate copytruncate option: Continue to write the log

information in the newly created file after rotating the old log file.
$ cat logrotate.conf
/tmp/output.log {
size 1k
copytruncate
rotate 4
}

copytruncate instruct logrotate to creates the copy of the original file (i.e rotate the
original log file) and truncates the original file to zero byte size. This helps the
respective service that belongs to that log file can write to the proper file.
While manipulating log files, you might find the sed substitute, sed delete tips helpful.

4. Logrotate compress option: Compress the rotated log files

If you use the compress option as shown below, the rotated files will be compressed
with gzip utility.

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$ cat logrotate.conf
/tmp/output.log {
size 1k
copytruncate
create 700 bala bala
rotate 4
compress
}

Output of compressed log file:

$ ls /tmp/output*
output.log.1.gz output.log

5. Logrotate dateext option: Rotate the old log file with date in the
log filename
$ cat logrotate.conf
/tmp/output.log {
size 1k
copytruncate
create 700 bala bala
dateext
rotate 4
compress
}

After the above configuration, youll notice the date in the rotated log file as shown
below.

$ ls -lrt /tmp/output*
-rw-r--r-- 1 bala bala 8980 2010-06-09 22:10 output.log-20100609.gz
-rwxrwxrwx 1 bala bala

0 2010-06-09 22:11 output.log

This would work only once in a day. Because when it tries to rotate next time on the
same day, earlier rotated file will be having the same filename. So, the logrotate wont
be successful after the first run on the same day.
Typically you might use tail -f to view the output of the log file in realtime. You can
even combine multiple tail -f output and display it on single terminal.

6. Logrotate monthly, daily, weekly option: Rotate the log file

weekly/daily/monthly
For doing the rotation monthly once,

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$ cat logrotate.conf
/tmp/output.log {
monthly
copytruncate
rotate 4
compress
}

Add the weekly keyword as shown below for weekly log rotation.

$ cat logrotate.conf
/tmp/output.log {
weekly
copytruncate
rotate 4
compress
}

Add the daily keyword as shown below for every day log rotation. You can also rotate
logs hourly.

$ cat logrotate.conf
/tmp/output.log {
daily
copytruncate
rotate 4
compress
}

7. Logrotate postrotate endscript option: Run custom shell scripts

immediately after log rotation
Logrotate allows you to run your own custom shell scripts after it completes the log file
rotation. The following configuration indicates that it will execute myscript.sh after the
logrotation.

$ cat logrotate.conf
/tmp/output.log {
size 1k
copytruncate
rotate 4
compress
postrotate
/home/bala/myscript.sh
endscript
}

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8. Logrotate maxage option: Remove older rotated log files

Logrotate automatically removes the rotated files after a specific number of days. The
following example indicates that the rotated log files would be removed after 100
days.

$ cat logrotate.conf
/tmp/output.log {
size 1k
copytruncate
rotate 4
compress
maxage 100
}

9. Logrotate missingok option: Dont return error if the log file is

missing
You can ignore the error message when the actual file is not available by using this
option as shown below.

$ cat logrotate.conf
/tmp/output.log {
size 1k
copytruncate
rotate 4
compress
missingok
}

10. Logrotate compresscmd and compressext option: Sspecify

compression command for the log file rotation
$ cat logrotate.conf
/tmp/output.log {
size 1k
copytruncate
create
compress
compresscmd /bin/bzip2
compressext .bz2
rotate 4
}

Following compression options are specified above:

compress Indicates that compression should be done.
compresscmd Specify what type of compression command should be used. For
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example: /bin/bzip2
compressext Specify the extension on the rotated log file. Without this option,
the rotated file would have the default extension as .gz. So, if you use bzip2
compressioncmd, specify the extension as .bz2 as shown in the above example.
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Tagged as: Apache Logrotate, CentOS Logrotate, Debian Logrotate, FreeBSD Logrotate, Logrotate Conf, Logrotate Extension,
Logrotate for Windows, Logrotate Scripts, Logrotate Ubuntu, Syslog Logrotate, Syslog rotate

{ 35 comments add one }

Alawishis
If Im not mistaken the permissions in your example would be the result of
create 644 not create 700. 700 would produce -rwx not -rw-rr as shown,
that is unless Ive missed something.
L I N K

rf
Any ideas on how to use logrotate when the file name is dynamic, example:
messages_03956-20101208153330Z-345df1e000.log

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Where 20101208153330Z is the date, but I think the other numbers are related to
PIDs.
Thanks.
L I N K

Bruce
rf assuming the numbers are the dynamic part of the name, simply replace
that portion with an *. For instance, messages_*.log
L I N K

Andy Alt
And a user doesnt have to be root to use logrotate: this is from the logrotate
man page:
-s, state
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. The default state file is /var/lib/logrotate.status.
One could use find . -name *.log in his or her $HOME directory and then add them
to their own logrotate scripts in their own $HOME directory.
L I N K

Kjetil Pettersson
Thanks. Just what I was looking for
L I N K

jalal hajigholamali
thanks a lot
L I N K

Tim
This article does cover FreeBSD log rotation
L I N K

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Arvind
Excellent, it works like a charm.
L I N K

Bernd Adamowicz
Good quick start into logrotate for me. Thanks a lot!
L I N K

jaxxm
As usual the easiest and most comprehensive tutorial on the subject. Thank
you very much.
L I N K

praveen
Hi:
should postrotate need to be used for stopping and running the application ? or does
logrotate process the new log file after rotation ?
L I N K

gokulnath
Hello,
Have anyone tried houly log rotation, from what I heard the log rotation is done by a
script in cron.daily and cant be done for lesser frequencies.
Any comments ?
L I N K

Alexander
And what will be if I specify both size and daily (or another period) options?
I would like that logrotate rotate files immediatelt after they reach specified size, but,
if not, at the specified period of time.
L I N K

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Xitron
gokulnath: you could probably put the script into /etc/cron.hourly to get
your hourly.
L I N K

Lorraine Tighe
I need to run a command every time the logrotate is attempted regardless of
whether anything was rotated. Lastaction, firstaction, postrotate and prerotate only
appear to work if at least one log file was rotated. Any ideas?
L I N K

Tony Archuleta
Why do you need the command to run when logrotate runs? You should just
be able to crontab the command with crontab -e
L I N K

Ram
What is the difference between
CREATE 644 & 700
and what is the use of it
L I N K

ssm
hi, thanks for the valuable info posted here about log rotation,
i was just interested to know is their any third party tool that handles all this
i mean my requirement is
archive(compress) the log files and then delete the old log files
and this should be done weekly i.e archiving and deleting of log files
so is their any third party tool for log rotation that makes task lil bit easy other then
linux logrotate command ?
thanks
L I N K

info
how to setup logrotate for a multi year daily compress of messages
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/secure/cron ?
/tmp/output.log {
yearly
monthly
daily
copytruncate
create 700 bala bala
rotate 4
compress
dateext
L I N K

Nimal
hi, using create .. command along with copytruncate will not have any
effect. This is because copytruncate itself creates a copy of the original log file before
truncatnig that original file to zero size (according to MAN page). my ref is this.
L I N K

stp
hi
quick question
I have a centralized log server, where I need to keep ALL logs, would the following
work :
in /etc/logrotate.conf I have :
daily
rotate 4
create
dateext
compress
and in /etc/logrotate.d/syslog:
/var/log/messages
/var/log/secure
/var/log/spooler
{
yearly
monthly
daily
sharedscripts
postrotate
/bin/kill -HUP `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid 2> /dev/null` 2> /dev/null || true
endscript
}
Thanks in advance !

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L I N K

Michael
Hi,
Many thanks for this. I found it really useful and it had more or less everything. One
thing I found out with section 3 involving copytruncate is that the original file went
back to its original size for me. This is because the process that was writing to the log
file was oblivious to any logrotate and just continued at the last offset. This is also
described here.
My solution was to turn off logging in this case.
L I N K

Michael
I should add of course that the log file went back to its original size only in
certain circumstances and that copytruncate usually does the trick very well indeed.
L I N K

Ryan
I dont have logrotate on my FreeBSD box. (Noob alert) How do I install this
so that I can set up what you are talking about. Further, what Im really interested in
to use this for FreeRADIUS, and then export to a jumpbox elsewhere, where someone
can ftp the particular log files. Is that possible?
L I N K

aix
Ryan My friend, you have a tall hill to climb!
assuming terminal as root:
cd /usr/ports/sysutils/logrotate
make install
make clean
cd /usr/local/etc/
nano logrotate.conf
the article basically picks up from here.
L I N K

Ryan

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Hi Aix,
Thanks. when I tried to to the make install, etc I get:
serv01# make clean
===> Cleaning for logrotate-3.8.7
serv01# make depend
serv01# make install clean
===> Fetching all distfiles required by logrotate-3.8.7 for building
===> Extracting for logrotate-3.8.7
=> SHA256 Checksum OK for logrotate-3.8.7.tar.gz.
===> Patching for logrotate-3.8.7
===> Applying FreeBSD patches for logrotate-3.8.7
===> logrotate-3.8.7 depends on executable: gmake found
===> logrotate-3.8.7 depends on shared library: libpopt.so found
===> Configuring for logrotate-3.8.7
===> Building for logrotate-3.8.7
cc -E -Wall -D_GNU_SOURCE -DFreeBSD -DVERSION=\3.8.7\ I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include -g -M logrotate.c log.c config.c basenames.c >
.depend
cc -Wall -D_GNU_SOURCE -DFreeBSD -DVERSION=\3.8.7\ -I/usr/local/include I/usr/local/include -g -c -o logrotate.o logrotate.c
cc -Wall -D_GNU_SOURCE -DFreeBSD -DVERSION=\3.8.7\ -I/usr/local/include I/usr/local/include -g -c -o log.o log.c
cc -Wall -D_GNU_SOURCE -DFreeBSD -DVERSION=\3.8.7\ -I/usr/local/include I/usr/local/include -g -c -o config.o config.c
cc -Wall -D_GNU_SOURCE -DFreeBSD -DVERSION=\3.8.7\ -I/usr/local/include I/usr/local/include -g -c -o basenames.o basenames.c
echo 0 > ./test/test.ACL ;
echo 0 > ./test/test.SELINUX ;
cc -g logrotate.o log.o config.o basenames.o -lpopt -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/local/lib -o
logrotate
===> Staging for logrotate-3.8.7
===> Generating temporary packing list
[ -d /usr/local/sbin ] || mkdir -p /usr/local/sbin
[ -d /usr/local/man ] || mkdir -p /usr/local/man
[ -d /usr/local/man/man8 ] || mkdir -p /usr/local/man/man8
[ -d /usr/local/man/man5 ] || mkdir -p /usr/local/man/man5
if [ FreeBSD = HP-UX ]; then \
logrotate /usr/local/sbin 0755 bin bin; \
logrotate.8 /usr/local/man/man`echo logrotate.8 | sed s/.*\.//` 0644 bin bin; \
logrotate.conf.5 /usr/local/man/man`echo logrotate.conf.5 | sed s/.*\.//` 0644 bin
bin; \
else if [ FreeBSD = FreeBSD ]; then \
install -s -o root -g wheel -m 555 logrotate
/usr/ports/sysutils/logrotate/work/stage/usr/local/sbin; \
install -o root -g wheel -m 444 logrotate.8
/usr/ports/sysutils/logrotate/work/stage/usr/local/man/man`echo logrotate.8 | sed
s/.*\.//`/logrotate.8; \
install -o root -g wheel -m 444 logrotate.conf.5
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/usr/ports/sysutils/logrotate/work/stage/usr/local/man/man`echo logrotate.conf.5 |
sed s/.*\.//`/logrotate.conf.5; \
else \
-m 755 logrotate /usr/local/sbin; \
-m 644 logrotate.8 /usr/local/man/man`echo logrotate.8 | sed
s/.*\.//`/logrotate.8; \
-m 644 logrotate.conf.5 /usr/local/man/man`echo logrotate.conf.5 | sed
s/.*\.//`/logrotate.conf.5; \
fi; fi
====> Compressing man pages (compress-man)
===> Building package for logrotate-3.8.7
Creating package /usr/ports/sysutils/logrotate/work/logrotate-3.8.7.tbz
Registering depends: popt-1.16 gettext-0.18.1.1 libiconv-1.13.1_1.
Creating bzipd tar ball in /usr/ports/sysutils/logrotate/work/logrotate-3.8.7.tbz
===> Installing for logrotate-3.8.7
===> Checking if sysutils/logrotate already installed
===> logrotate-3.8.7 is already installed
You may wish to make deinstall and install this port again
by make reinstall to upgrade it properly.
If you really wish to overwrite the old port of sysutils/logrotate
without deleting it first, set the variable FORCE_PKG_REGISTER
in your environment or the make install command line.
*** Error code 1
But since it says that it is already installed, then just picking up from here as you say
SHOULD work? right? Thanks in advance for pointing out some obvious stuff.
L I N K

Harsh
In postrotate block, would it be possible to write a ruby script instead of a
shell script? Also, intead of 1 ,2 ,3 as the suffixes to the generated files I want to
rename them with the time stamp and also I want to move all these files to a different
directory.
What is the best way to have these functionality?
L I N K

Ramki
HI,
Can i use $HOSTNAME in the my log rotation configuration file , will it work without
any problem ?
/d/xy/sssnr/$HOSTNAME/trace/ssnr.log {
rotate 5
compress
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size 10M
missingok
create 0600 root root
}
L I N K

Junaid Ali
Thanks Ramesh
L I N K

Rajkumar Yadav
Hi,
Can anybody help me to configure log rotation. I want to rotate /var/log/message
every two minutes and same be compressed
Please provide proper command and file name.
L I N K

baskar
The log file rotated using the script of logrotate.conf.After rotating the new
file the old file not truncated. please any one help this issue.
Thanks
L I N K

Severus Snape
Hi Rajkumar.
Your answer is the following:
/etc/logrotate.conf:
compress
biminutely
then run
expelliarmus /etc/logrotate.conf > harrypotter.txt
make && make clean
alias avadakedavra=rm -rf wizards/
avadakedavra
logout

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Let me know how this goes.

L I N K

lamhaison
Very helpful. Your article help me resolve my problem(After I run command
line logrotate, my service do not write log to server). I using copytruncate option to
resole that. Thank you so much
L I N K

c balraj
error:
logrotate: ALERT exited abnormally with [1]
how to solve this
L I N K

Hak
thank you so much!
L I N K

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