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logrotate

logrotate is a service that allows log files to be rotated and compressed depending on when they meet a specified criteria. It's an important tool to use to ensure that growing log files do not fill a filesystem.

logrotate is called via a scheduled task, normally located within /etc/cron.daily.

The configuration files can be found within /etc/logrotate.d and you'll generally find each service has its own configuration file to handle its specific log files.

Common options you may see used in a configuration file include:

  • compress - this indicates the log files should be compressed once rotated. gzip is used by default.

  • daily / weekly / monthly / yearly - this specifies that the log file should be rotated every day, week, or month.

  • ifempty / notifempty - these specify whether to either rotate the log file even if it's empty, or to not rotate the log file if it's empty, respectively.

  • missingok / notmissingok - these options will either not generate an error, or will generate an error if the log file does not exist. notmissingok is the default.

  • rotate - this is supplied with a number argument, which specifies how many times the log files are rotated before being removed.

  • size - this specifies the size a log file has to reach before it is rotated.

Most services will generate a standard logrotate file in /etc/logrotate.d when installed, however you may wish to implement custom ones such as the following example.

Magento log files:

/var/www/vhosts/example.com/var/log/*log {
    rotate 7
    daily
    compress
    missingok
    notifempty
}