LOGROTATE(8)						   System Administrator's Manual					      LOGROTATE(8)

NAME

       logrotate - rotates, compresses, and mails system logs

SYNOPSIS

       logrotate [-dv] [-f|--force] [-s|--state file] config_file+

DESCRIPTION

       logrotate  is  designed to ease administration of systems that generate large numbers of log files.  It allows automatic rotation, compres-
       sion, 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 multiple times in one day unless the criterium for  that  log	is
       based on the log's size and logrotate is being run multiple times 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 in 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.

OPTIONS

       -d     Turns on debug mode and implies -v.  In debug mode, no changes will be made to the logs or to the logrotate state file.

       -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 logrotate, or if old log files have been removed by hand, as the new files will be created,  and  logging  will  continue
	      correctly.

       -m, --mail <command>
	      Tells logrotate which command to use when mailing logs. This command should accept two arguments: 1) the subject of the message, and
	      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 -s.

       -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.  The default state file is /var/lib/logrotate/status.

       --usage
	      Prints a short usage message.

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 a logfile to rotate. A simple configuration file looks like this:

       # sample logrotate configuration file
       compress

       /var/log/messages {
	   rotate 5
	   weekly
	   postrotate
				     /sbin/killall -HUP syslogd
	   endscript
       }

       "/var/log/httpd/access.log" /var/log/httpd/error.log {
	   rotate 5
	   mail www@my.org
	   size=100k
	   sharedscripts
	   postrotate
				     /sbin/killall -HUP httpd
	   endscript
       }

       /var/log/news/news.crit {
	   monthly
	   rotate 2
	   olddir /var/log/news/old
	   missingok
	   postrotate
				     kill -HUP `cat /var/run/inn.pid`
	   endscript
	   nocompress
       }

       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 #.

       The  next  section  of the config files defined 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
       /sbin/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.  They are rotated whenever is
       grows over 100k is size, and the old logs files are mailed (uncompressed) to www@my.org after going through 5 rotations, rather then  being
       removed.  The  sharedscripts  means that the postrotate script will only be run once, not once for each log which is rotated. Note that the
       double quotes around the first filename at the beginning of this section allows logrotate to rotate logs with spaces in	the  name.  Normal
       shell quoting rules apply, with ', ", and  characters supported.

       The last section defines the parameters for all of the files in /var/log/news. Each file is rotated on a monthly basis.	This is considered
       a single rotation directive and if errors occur for more then one file, the log files are not compressed.

       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).

       Here is more information on the directives which may be included in a logrotate configuration file:

       compress
	      Old versions of log files are compressed with gzip by default. See also nocompress.

       compresscmd
	      Specifies which command to use to compress log files.  The default is gzip.  See also compress.

       uncompresscmd
	      Specifies which command to use to uncompress log files.  The default is gunzip.

       compressext
	      Specifies which extension to use on compressed logfiles, if compression is enabled.  The default follows that of the configured com-
	      pression command.

       compressoptions
	      Command line options may be passed to the compression program, if one is in use.	The default, for gzip, is "-9"	(maximum  compres-
	      sion).

       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 pare the file.	When this option is used, the create  option  will
	      have no effect, as the old log file stays in place.

       copytruncate
	      Truncate the original log file 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 can not 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.

       create mode 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 name who will own the
	      log file, and group specifies the group the log file will belong to. 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.

       daily  Log files are rotated every day.

       delaycompress
	      Postpone compression of the previous log file to the next rotation cycle.  This has only effect when used in combination	with  com-
	      press.   It  can	be used when some program can not be told to close its logfile and thus might continue writing to the previous log
	      file for some time.

       extension ext
	      Log files are given the final extension ext after rotation. If compression is used, the compression extension (normally .gz) appears
	      after ext.

       ifempty
	      Rotate the log file even if it is empty, overiding the notifempty option (ifempty is the default).

       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, as specified by the tabooext directive.  The include directive may not appear inside of a log file definition.

       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.

       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).

       missingok
	      If the log file is missing, go on to the next one without issuing an error message. See also nomissingok.

       monthly
	      Log files are rotated the first time logrotate is run in a month (this is normally on the first day of the month).

       nocompress
	      Old versions of log files are not compressed with gzip. See also compress.

       nocopy Do not copy the original log file and leave it in place.	(this overrides the copy option).

       nocopytruncate
	      Do not truncate the original log file in place after creating a copy (this overrides the copytruncate option).

       nocreate
	      New log files are not created (this overrides the create option).

       nodelaycompress
	      Do not postpone compression of the previous log file to the next rotation cycle (this overrides the delaycompress option).

       nomail Don't mail old log files to any address.

       nomissingok
	      If a log file does not exist, issue an error. This is the default.

       noolddir
	      Logs are rotated in the same directory the log normally resides in (this overrides the olddir option).

       nosharedscripts
	      Run  prerotate  and  postrotate  scripts	for  every  script  which is rotated (this is the default, and overrides the sharedscripts
	      option).

       notifempty
	      Do not rotate the log if it is empty (this overrides the ifempty option).

       olddir directory
	      Logs are moved into directory for rotation. The directory must be on the same physical device as the log file  being  rotated.  When
	      this option is used all old versions of the log end up in directory.  This option may be overriden by the noolddir option.

       postrotate/endscript
	      The  lines  between  postrotate  and endscript (both of which must appear on lines by themselves) are executed after the log file is
	      rotated. These directives may only appear inside of a log file definition.  See prerotate as well.

       prerotate/endscript
	      The lines between prerotate and endscript (both of which must appear on lines by themselves) are executed before	the  log  file	is
	      rotated and only if the log will actually be rotated. These directives may only appear inside of a log file definition.  See postro-
	      tate as well.

       firstaction/endscript
	      The lines between firstaction and endscript (both of which must appear on lines by themselves) are  executed  once  before  all  log
	      files  that  match  the wildcarded pattern are rotated, before prerotate script is run and only if at least one log will actually be
	      rotated. These directives may only appear inside of a log file definition. See lastaction as well.

       lastaction/endscript
	      The lines between lastaction and endscript (both of which must appear on lines by themselves) are executed once after all log  files
	      that  match the wildcarded pattern are rotated, after postrotate script is run and only if at least one log is rotated. These direc-
	      tives may only appear inside of a log file definition. See lastaction as well.

       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 then rotated.

       size size
	      Log  files  are rotated when they grow bigger then size bytes. If size is followed by M, the size if assumed to be in megabytes.	If
	      the k is used, the size is in kilobytes. So size 100, size 100k, and size 100M are all valid.

       sharedscripts
	      Normally, prescript and postscript scripts are run for each log which is rotated, meaning that a single script may be  run  multiple
	      times  for  log  file  entries  which  match multiple files (such as the /var/log/news/* example). If sharedscript is specified, the
	      scripts are only run once, no matter how many logs match the wildcarded pattern.	However, if  none  of  the  logs  in  the  pattern
	      require rotating, the scripts will not be run at all. This option overrides the nosharedscripts option.

       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 count directive.

       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
	      contains .rpmorig, .rpmsave, ,v, .swp, .rpmnew, and ~.

       weekly Log  files  are rotated if the current weekday is less then the weekday of the last rotation or if more then a week has passed since
	      the last rotation. This is normally the same as rotating logs on the first day of the week, but it works better if logrotate is  not
	      run every night.

FILES

       /var/lib/logrotate/status  Default state file.
       /etc/logrotate.conf	  Configuration options.

SEE ALSO

       gzip(1)

AUTHORS

       Erik Troan <ewt@redhat.com>
       Preston Brown <pbrown@redhat.com>

4th Berkeley Distribution					  Wed Nov 5 2002						      LOGROTATE(8)