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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | CONFIGURATION FILE | CONFIGURATION FILE DIRECTIVES | SCRIPTS | USER AND GROUP | FILES | SEE ALSO | AUTHORS | COLOPHON |
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LOGROTATE(8) System Administrator's Manual LOGROTATE(8)
logrotate ‐ rotates, compresses, and mails system logs
logrotate [--force] [--debug] [--state file] [--skip-state-lock]
[--wait-for-state-lock] [--verbose] [--log file] [--mail command]
config_file [config_file2 ...]
logrotate is designed to ease administration of systems that
generate large numbers of log files. It allows automatic
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 more than once in one day unless the criterion for
that log is based on the log's size and logrotate is being run
more than once 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
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, although the state file will be
updated.
-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 a logrotate config file, or if old
log files have been removed by hand, as the new files will
be created, and logging will continue correctly.
-d, --debug
Turn on debug mode, which means that no changes are made to
the logs and the logrotate state file is not updated. Only
debug messages are printed.
-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. To prevent parallel execution
logrotate by default acquires a lock on the state file, if
it cannot be acquired logrotate will exit with value 3.
The default state file is /var/lib/logrotate.status. If
/dev/null is given as the state file, then logrotate will
not try to lock or write the state file.
--skip-state-lock
Do not lock the state file, for example if locking is
unsupported or prohibited.
--wait-for-state-lock
Wait until lock on the state file is released by another
logrotate process. This option may cause logrotate to wait
indefinitely. Use with caution.
-v, --verbose
Turns on verbose mode, for example to display messages
during rotation.
-l, --log file
Tells logrotate to log verbose output into the log_file.
The verbose output logged to that file is the same as when
running logrotate with -v switch. The log file is
overwritten on every logrotate execution.
-m, --mail command
Tells logrotate which command to use when mailing logs.
This command should accept the following arguments:
1) the subject of the message given with '-s subject'
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.
--usage
Prints a short usage message.
-?, --help
Prints help message.
--version
Display version information.
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 logfiles to rotate. Global
options do not affect preceding include directives. A simple
configuration file looks like this:
# 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 recipient@example.org
size 100k
sharedscripts
postrotate
/usr/bin/killall -HUP httpd
endscript
}
/var/log/news/* {
monthly
rotate 2
olddir /var/log/news/old
missingok
sharedscripts
postrotate
kill -HUP $(cat /var/run/inn.pid)
endscript
nocompress
}
~/log/*.log {}
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 #.
Values are separated from directives by whitespace and/or an
optional =. Numbers must be specified in a format understood by
strtoul(3).
The next section of the config file defines 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 /usr/bin/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. Each is
rotated whenever it grows over 100 kilobytes in size, and the old
logs files are mailed (uncompressed) to recipient@example.org
after going through 5 rotations, rather than being removed. The
sharedscripts means that the postrotate script will only be run
once for this section, not once for each log which is rotated.
Note that log file names may be enclosed in quotes (and that
quotes are required if the name contains spaces). Normal shell
quoting rules apply, with ', ", and \ characters supported.
The next section defines the parameters for all of the files in
/var/log/news. Each file is rotated on a monthly basis.
The last section uses tilde expansion to rotate log files in the
home directory of the current user. This is only available, if
your glob library supports tilde expansion. GNU glob does support
this.
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).
Please note, by default when using systemd(1), the option
ProtectSystem=full is set in the logrotate.service file. This
prevents logrotate from modifying logs in /etc and /usr.
Here is more information on the directives which may be included
in a logrotate configuration file:
These directives may be included in a logrotate configuration
file:
Rotation
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.
If count is -1, old logs are not removed at all, except
they are affected by maxage (use with caution, may waste
performance and disk space). Default is 0.
olddir directory
Logs are moved into directory for rotation. The directory
must be on the same physical device as the log file being
rotated, unless copy, copytruncate or renamecopy option is
used. The directory 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.
noolddir
Logs are rotated in the directory they normally reside in
(this overrides the olddir option).
su user group
Rotate log files set under this user and group instead of
using default user/group (usually root). user specifies
the user used for rotation and group specifies the group
used for rotation (see the section USER AND GROUP for
details). If the user/group you specify here does not have
sufficient privilege to make files with the ownership
you've specified in a create directive, it will cause an
error. If logrotate runs with root privileges, it is
recommended to use the su directive to rotate files in
directories that are directly or indirectly in control of
non-privileged users.
Frequency
hourly Log files are rotated every hour. Note that usually
logrotate is configured to be run by cron daily (or by
logrotate.timer when using systemd(1)). You have to change
this configuration and run logrotate hourly to be able to
really rotate logs hourly.
daily Log files are rotated every day.
weekly [weekday]
Log files are rotated once each weekday, or if the date is
advanced by at least 7 days since the last rotation (while
ignoring the exact time). The weekday interpretation is
following: 0 means Sunday, 1 means Monday, ..., 6 means
Saturday; the special value 7 means each 7 days,
irrespectively of weekday. Defaults to 0 if the weekday
argument is omitted.
monthly [monthday]
Log files are rotated the first time logrotate is run in a
month (this is normally on the first day of the month) by
default. If monthday is specified log files will be
rotated either if not rotated for 31 days, on the day of
the month specified (1 means 1st), or on the last day of
the month (e.g. on the 30th if 31 was specified).
yearly Log files are rotated if the current year is not the same
as the last rotation.
minutes minutes
Log files are rotated the first time logrotate is run after
minutes have expired.
size size
Log files are rotated only if they grow bigger than size
bytes. If size is followed by k, the size is assumed to be
in kilobytes. If 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. This option
is mutually exclusive with the time interval options, and
it causes log files to be rotated without regard for the
last rotation time, if specified after the time criteria
(the last specified option takes the precedence).
File selection
missingok
If the log file is missing, go on to the next one without
issuing an error message. See also nomissingok.
nomissingok
If a log file does not exist, issue an error. This is the
default.
ignoreduplicates
Ignore any following matches of a log file.
ifempty
Rotate the log file even if it is empty, overriding the
notifempty option (ifempty is the default).
notifempty
Do not rotate the log if it is empty (this overrides the
ifempty option).
minage count
Do not rotate logs which are less than <count> days old.
maxage count
Remove rotated logs older than <count> days. The age is
only checked if the logfile is to be rotated. rotate -1
does not hinder removal. 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, if
specified after the time criteria (the last specified
option takes the precedence). When minsize is used, both
the size and timestamp of a log file are considered.
maxsize size
Log files are rotated when they grow bigger than size bytes
even 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, if
specified after the time criteria (the last specified
option takes the precedence). When maxsize is used, both
the size and timestamp of a log file are considered.
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 ,v, .bak, .cfsaved,
.disabled, .dpkg-bak, .dpkg-del, .dpkg-dist, .dpkg-new,
.dpkg-old, .dpkg-tmp, .new, .old, .orig, .pacnew, .pacorig,
.pacsave, .rhn-cfg-tmp-*, .rpmnew, .rpmorig, .rpmsave,
.swp, .ucf-dist, .ucf-new, .ucf-old, ~
taboopat [+] list
The current taboo glob pattern list is changed (see the
include directive for information on the taboo extensions
and patterns). If a + precedes the list of patterns, the
current taboo pattern list is augmented, otherwise it is
replaced. At startup, the taboo pattern list is empty.
Files and Folders
create mode owner group, create 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 who will own the log file, and group specifies the
group the log file will belong to (see the section USER AND
GROUP for details). 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.
nocreate
New log files are not created (this overrides the create
option).
createolddir mode [owner [group]], createolddir [owner [group]]
If the directory specified by olddir directive does not
exist, it is created. mode specifies the mode for the
olddir directory in octal (the same as chmod(2)), owner
specifies the user who will own the olddir directory, and
group specifies the group the olddir directory will belong
to (see the section USER AND GROUP for details). If mode
is not specified, 0755 is assumed. This option can be
disabled using the nocreateolddir option.
nocreateolddir
olddir directory is not created by logrotate when it does
not exist.
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. The copy option allows
storing rotated log files on the different devices using
olddir directive.
nocopy Do not copy the original log file and leave it in place.
(this overrides the copy option).
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
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. The copytruncate option allows storing rotated log
files on the different devices using olddir directive. The
copytruncate option implies norenamecopy.
nocopytruncate
Do not truncate the original log file in place after
creating a copy (this overrides the copytruncate option).
renamecopy
Log file is renamed to temporary filename in the same
directory by adding ".tmp" extension to it. After that,
postrotate script is run and log file is copied from
temporary filename to final filename. In the end,
temporary filename is removed. The renamecopy option
allows storing rotated log files on the different devices
using olddir directive. The renamecopy option implies
nocopytruncate.
norenamecopy
Do not rename and copy the original log file (this
overrides the renamecopy 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.
noshred
Do not use shred when deleting old log files. See also
shred.
shredcycles count
Asks GNU shred(1) to overwrite log files count times before
deletion. Without this option, shred's default will be
used.
allowhardlink
Rotate files with multiple hard links; this is off by
default. The target file might get emptied, e.g. with
shred or copytruncate. Use with caution, especially when
the log files are rotated as root.
noallowhardlink
Do not rotate files with multiple hard links. See also
allowhardlink.
Compression
compress
Old versions of log files are compressed with /bin/gzip(1)
by default. See also nocompress.
nocompress
Old versions of log files are not compressed. See also
compress.
compresscmd
Specifies which command to use to compress log files. The
default is /bin/gzip(1). See also compress. See
compressext to update the extension if necessary.
uncompresscmd
Specifies which command to use to uncompress log files.
The default is /bin/gunzip(1).
compressext
Specifies which extension to use on compressed logfiles, if
compression is enabled. The default extension is .gz but
logrotate will attempt to match to the specified
compresscmd (currently supports gzip=.gz, bzip2=.bz2,
xz=.xz, zstd=.zst, compress=.Z and zip=.zip).
compressoptions
Command line options may be passed to the compression
program, if one is in use. The default, for gzip(1), is
"-6" (biased towards high compression at the expense of
speed). If you use a different compression command, you
may need to change the compressoptions to match.
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.
nodelaycompress
Do not postpone compression of the previous log file to the
next rotation cycle (this overrides the delaycompress
option).
Filenames
extension ext
Log files with ext extension can keep it after the
rotation. If compression is used, the compression
extension (normally .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.
addextension ext
Log files are given the final extension ext after rotation.
If the original file already ends with ext, the extension
is not duplicated, but merely moved to the end, that is
both filename and filenameext would get rotated to
filename.1ext. If compression is used, the compression
extension (normally .gz) appears after ext.
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 rotate directive.
dateext
Archive old versions of log files adding a date extension
like YYYYMMDD instead of simply adding a number. The
extension may be configured using the dateformat and
dateyesterday options.
nodateext
Do not archive old versions of log files with date
extension (this overrides the dateext option).
dateformat format_string
Specify the extension for dateext using the notation
similar to strftime(3) function. Only %Y %m %d %H %M %S %G
%V %U %W %u %w %y %g %j %s and %z specifiers are allowed.
The default value is -%Y%m%d except hourly, which uses
-%Y%m%d%H as default value. 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. Note that the
datestamps generated by this format must be lexically
sortable (that is first the year, then the month then the
day. For example 2001/12/01 is ok, but 01/12/2001 is not,
since 01/11/2002 would sort lower while it is later). This
is because when using the rotate option, logrotate sorts
all rotated filenames to find out which logfiles are older
and should be removed.
dateyesterday
Use yesterday's instead of today's date to create the
dateext extension, so that the rotated log file has a date
in its name that is the same as the timestamps within it.
nodateyesterday
Do not use yesterday's instead of today's date to create
the dateext extension. See also dateyesterday.
datehourago
Use hour ago instead of current date to create the dateext
extension, so that the rotated log file has a hour in its
name that is the same as the timestamps within it. Useful
with rotate hourly.
nodatehourago
Do not use hour ago instead of current date to create the
dateext extension. See also datehourago.
Mail
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.
nomail Do not mail old log files to any address.
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).
Additional config files
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 or patterns, as specified by the tabooext or
taboopat directives, respectively. The given path may
start with ~/ to make it relative to the home directory of
the executing user. For security reasons configuration
files must not be group-writable nor world-writable.
Scripts
sharedscripts
Normally, prerotate and postrotate scripts are run for each
log which is rotated and the absolute path to the log file
is passed as first argument to the script. That means a
single script may be run multiple times for log file
entries which match multiple files (such as the
/var/log/news/* example). If sharedscripts is specified,
the scripts are only run once, no matter how many logs
match the wildcarded pattern, and whole pattern is passed
to them. 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 (or any log fails to rotate),
the remaining actions will not be executed for any logs.
This option overrides the nosharedscripts option.
nosharedscripts
Run prerotate and postrotate scripts for every log file
which is rotated (this is the default, and overrides the
sharedscripts option). The absolute path to the log file
is passed as first argument to the script. The absolute
path to the final rotated log file is passed as the second
argument to the postrotate script. If the scripts exit
with error, the remaining actions will not be executed for
the affected log only.
firstaction
script
endscript
The script is executed once before all log files that match
the wildcarded pattern are rotated, before the 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. The whole pattern is passed to the script
as its first argument. If the script exits with an error,
no further processing is done. See also lastaction and the
SCRIPTS section.
lastaction
script
endscript
The script is executed once after all log files that match
the wildcarded pattern are rotated, after the postrotate
script is run and only if at least one log is rotated.
These directives may only appear inside a log file
definition. The whole pattern is passed to the script as
its first argument. If the script exits with an error,
just an error message is shown (as this is the last
action). See also firstaction and the SCRIPTS section.
prerotate
script
endscript
The script is executed before the log file and its old logs
are rotated and only if the log will actually be rotated.
These directives may only appear inside a log file
definition. Normally, the absolute path to the log file is
passed as the first argument to the script. If
sharedscripts is specified, the whole pattern is passed to
the script. See also postrotate and the SCRIPTS section.
See sharedscripts and nosharedscripts for error handling.
postrotate
script
endscript
The script is executed after the log file is rotated and
before the log file is being compressed. These directives
may only appear inside a log file definition. Normally,
the absolute path to the log file is passed as the first
argument to the script and the absolute path to the final
rotated log file is passed as the second argument to the
script. If sharedscripts is specified, the whole pattern
is passed as the first argument to the script, and the
second argument is omitted. See also prerotate and the
SCRIPTS section. See sharedscripts and nosharedscripts for
error handling.
preremove
script
endscript
The script is executed once just before removal of a log
file. logrotate will pass the name of file which is soon
to be removed as the first argument to the script. See also
firstaction and the SCRIPTS section.
The lines between the starting keyword (e.g. prerotate) and
endscript (both of which must appear on lines by themselves) are
executed (using /bin/sh). The script inherits some traits from
the logrotate process, including stderr, stdout, the current
directory, the environment, and the umask. Scripts are run as the
invoking user and group, irrespective of any su directive. If the
--log flag was specified, file descriptor 3 is the log file. The
current working directory is unspecified.
User and group identifiers are resolved first by trying the
textual representation and, in case it fails, afterwards by the
numeric value. The numeric value can be prepended by a colon to
force the usage of a non-existent user or group.
/var/lib/logrotate.status Default state file.
/etc/logrotate.conf Configuration options.
chmod(2), gunzip(1), gzip(1), mail(1), shred(1), strftime(3),
strtoul(3), <https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate>
Erik Troan, Preston Brown, Jan Kaluza.
<https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate>
This page is part of the logrotate (simplify the administration of
log files) project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate⟩. If you have a bug
report for this manual page, see
⟨https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate/issues⟩. This page was
obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At
that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
the repository was 2025-06-06.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
Linux 3.22.0.37_73ae LOGROTATE(8)
Pages that refer to this page: daemon(3)
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