# Searchable Keywords: log rotate 

	Open source log rotating utillity
	Available on linux abd other fine unices

NAME
       logrotate - rotates, compresses, and mails system logs

SYNOPSIS
       logrotate   [-dv]   [-f|--force]  [-s|--state  file]  con­
       fig_file+

DESCRIPTION
       logrotate is designed to ease  administration  of  systems
       that generate large numbers of log files.  It allows auto­
       matic rotation, compression, 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 cri­
       terium for that log is based on the log's size and  logro­
       tate  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 con­
       fig 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.

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.

       -s, --state <statefile>
              Tells  logrotate  to  use  an alternate state file.
              This is useful if logrotate is being run as a  dif­
              ferent  user  for  various  sets of log files.  The
              default state file is /var/lib/logrotate.status.

       --usage
              Prints a short usage message.


------- An example of a live lograte file on pingy  ----------------

# rotate log files weekly
weekly

# keep 4 weeks worth of backlogs
rotate 4

# send errors to root
errors root

# create new (empty) log files after rotating old ones
create

# uncomment this if you want your log files compressed
#compress

# RPM packages drop log rotation information into this directory
include /etc/logrotate.d

# no packages own lastlog or wtmp -- we'll rotate them here
/var/log/wtmp {
    monthly
    create 0664 root utmp
    rotate 1
}

# system-specific logs may be configured here