Dealing with logrorate as admins we need to change or add new log-rorate configurations (on most Linux distributions configs are living uder
/etc/logrotate.d/
logrotate uses crontab to work. It's scheduled work, not as daemon, so usually no need to reload its configuration.
When the crontab executes logrotate, it will use your new config file automatically.
Most of the logrotate setups I've seen on various distros runs out of the /etc/cron.daily.
$ ls -l /etc/cron.daily/logrotate
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 180 May 18 2014 /etc/cron.daily/logrotate
Here is content of cron job scheduled script:
$ cat /etc/cron.daily/logrorate
#!/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
Configurations change to lograte configs takes effect on next crontab run,
but what If you need to test your config you can also execute
logrotate
on your own with below ommand:
logrotate -vf /etc/logrotate.conf
If you encounter some issues with just modified or newly added logrorate script to check out the status of last logrorate executing bunch of log-rotate scripts run on Debian / Ubuntu etc. deb based Linux:
cat /var/lib/logrotate/status
Or on RHEL, Fedora, CentOS Linux
cat /var/lib/logrotate.status
logrotate state -- version 2
"/var/log/syslog" 2016-4-9
"/var/log/dpkg.log" 2016-4-1
"/var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades.log" 2012-9-20
"/var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades-shutdown.log" 2013-5-17
"/var/log/apache2/mailadmin.www.pc-freak.net-access.log" 2012-9-19
"/var/log/snort/portscan.log" 2012-9-12
"/var/log/apt/term.log" 2016-4-1
"/var/log/squid/access.log" 2015-3-21
"/var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log" 2016-4-9
"/var/log/debug" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/mysql.log" 2016-4-9
"/var/log/squid/store.log" 2015-3-21
"/var/log/apache2/mailadmin.www.pc-freak.net-error.log" 2012-9-19
"/var/log/daemon.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/munin/munin-update.log" 2016-4-9
"/var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades*.log" 2013-5-16
"/var/log/razor-agent.log" 2015-2-19
"/var/log/btmp" 2016-4-1
"/var/log/squid/*.log" 2014-11-24
"/var/log/munin/munin-graph.log" 2016-4-9
"/var/log/mysql/mysql.log" 2012-9-12
"/var/log/munin/munin-html.log" 2016-4-9
"/var/log/clamav/freshclam.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/munin/munin-node.log" 2016-1-23
"/var/log/mail.info" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/apache2/other_vhosts_access.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/exim4/rejectlog" 2012-9-12
"/var/log/squid/cache.log" 2015-3-21
"/var/log/messages" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/stunnel4/stunnel.log" 2012-9-19
"/var/log/apache2/php_error.log" 2012-10-21
"/var/log/ConsoleKit/history" 2016-4-1
"/var/log/rsnapshot.log" 2013-4-15
"/var/log/iptraf/*.log" 2012-9-12
"/var/log/snort/alert" 2012-10-17
"/var/log/privoxy/logfile" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/auth.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/postgresql/postgresql-8.4-main.log" 2012-10-21
"/var/log/apt/history.log" 2016-4-1
"/var/log/pm-powersave.log" 2012-11-1
"/var/log/proftpd/proftpd.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/proftpd/xferlog" 2016-4-1
"/var/log/zabbix-agent/zabbix_agentd.log" 2016-3-25
"/var/log/alternatives.log" 2016-4-7
"/var/log/mail.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/kern.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/privoxy/errorfile" 2013-5-28
"/var/log/aptitude" 2015-5-6
"/var/log/apache2/access.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/wtmp" 2016-4-1
"/var/log/pm-suspend.log" 2012-9-20
"/var/log/snort/portscan2.log" 2012-9-12
"/var/log/mail.warn" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/bacula/log" 2013-5-1
"/var/log/lpr.log" 2012-12-12
"/var/log/mail.err" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/tor/log" 2016-4-9
"/var/log/fail2ban.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/exim4/paniclog" 2012-9-12
"/var/log/tinyproxy/tinyproxy.log" 2015-3-25
"/var/log/munin/munin-limits.log" 2016-4-9
"/var/log/proftpd/controls.log" 2012-9-19
"/var/log/proftpd/xferreport" 2012-9-19
"/var/spool/qscan/qmail-queue.log" 2013-5-15
"/var/log/user.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/apache2/error.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/exim4/mainlog" 2012-10-16
"/var/log/privoxy/jarfile" 2013-5-28
"/var/log/cron.log" 2016-4-3
"/var/log/clamav/clamav.log" 2016-4-3
The timestamp date next to each of the rotated service log is when the respective log was last rorated
It is also a handy thing to rorate only a certain service log, lets say clamav-server, mysql-server, apache2 and nginx
logrorate /etc/logrorate.d/clamav-server
logrorate /etc/logrorate.d/mysql-server
logrotate /etc/logrotate.d/nginx
