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(1) by default. See also nocompress.
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 con‐
figured compression command.
compressoptions
Command line options may be passed to the compression program, if one is in use. The default, for gzip(1), is "-9" (max‐
imum compression).
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.
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 con‐
tinue 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.
dateext
Archive old versions of log files adding a daily extension like YYYYMMDD instead of simply adding a number. The extension
may be configured using the dateformat option.
dateformat format_string
Specify the extension for dateext using the notation similar to strftime(3) function. Only %Y %m %d and %s specifiers are
allowed. The default value is -%Y%m%d. 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.
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.
extension ext
Log files with ext extension can keep it after the rotation. If compression is used, the compression extension (nor‐
mally .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.
ifempty
Rotate the log file even if it is empty, overriding 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 contin‐
ues. 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 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).
maxage count
Remove rotated logs older than <count> days. The age is only checked if the logfile is to be rotated. 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. When minsize is
used, both the size and timestamp of a log file are considered.
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. 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).
nodateext
Do not archive old versions of log files with date extension (this overrides the dateext option).
nomail Do not 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 directory they normally reside in (this overrides the olddir option).
nosharedscripts
Run prerotate and postrotate scripts for every log file which is rotated (this is the default, and overrides the shared‐
scripts option). If the scripts exit with error, the remaining actions will not be executed for the affected log only.
noshred
Do not use shred when deleting old log files. See also shred.
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, and 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.
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 a log file definition. See also prerotate. See sharedscripts
and nosharedscripts for error handling.
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 a log file defini‐
tion. See also postrotate. See sharedscripts and nosharedscripts for error handling.
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 a log file definition. If the script exits with error,
no further processing is done. See also lastaction.
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 directives may only appear inside a log file definition. If the script exits with error, just an error
message is shown (as this is the last action). See also firstaction.
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.
size size
Log files are rotated when they grow bigger than size bytes. If size is followed by k, the size is assumed to be in kilo‐
bytes. If the 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.
sharedscripts
Normally, prerotate and postrotate 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. If the scripts exit with error, the remaining
actions will not be executed for any logs. This option overrides the nosharedscripts option and implies create 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.
shredcycles count
Asks GNU shred(1) to overwite log files count times before deletion. Without this option, shred's default will be used.
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, skip‐
ping 0-8. Files will still be rotated the number of times specified with the rotate 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, ~, .cfsaved, .rhn-cfg-tmp-*,
.dpkg-dist, .dpkg-old, .dpkg-new, .disabled.
weekly Log files are rotated if the current weekday is less than the weekday of the last rotation or if more than a week has
passed since the last rotation. This is normally the same as rotating logs on the first day of the week, but if logrotate
is not being run every night a log rotation will happen at the first valid opportunity.
yearly Log files are rotated if the current year is not the same as the last rotation.
weekly The files should be rotated every week. Opposite: daily rotate nn We should keep no more than nn files. <ul> compress Compress older files with gzip. Opposite: nocompress delaycompress Don't compress yesterdays files. Opposite: compress <ul> notifempty Don't do any rotation if the logfile is empty. Opposite: ifempty create xx user group If we have to create the new file give it the given mode, owner, and group. <ul> sharedscripts Run any given prerotate or postrotate script for each logfile individually. Opposite: nosharedscripts. postrotate + endscript Anything between these is executed after the rotation process. Opposite : prerotate Hopefully that should have made sense!
exemple
# 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 www@my.org
size 100k
sharedscripts
postrotate
/usr/bin/killall -HUP httpd
endscript
}
/var/log/news/* {
monthly
rotate 2
olddir /var/log/news/old
missingok
postrotate
kill -HUP `cat /var/run/inn.pid`
endscript
nocompress
}
/var/log/apache/*.log {
weekly
missingok
rotate 52
compress
delaycompress
notifempty
create 640 root adm
sharedscripts
postrotate
if [ -f /var/run/apache.pid ]; then
/etc/init.d/apache restart > /dev/null
fi
endscript
}