Difference between revisions of "Limit the size of .log files & the journal"

Limit the size of .log files & the journal (view source)

Revision as of 13:09, 16 August 2013

3,782 bytes added , 10 years ago

→‎Some uses for Logrotate

Anonymous user

imported>Handy

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 We can use the above script block as a template, easily removing parts & modifying its relatively simple settings. It can duplicated in a script with each script block specifying custom settings tailored for individual files.
+<br clear="all"/>
+== An Example that you can modify to suit ==
+I'll show how I have my system set, you can use the information already given on this page & other available on the web to fine tune your set up to suit your needs (if you have the need anyway).
+=== Firstly - Be sure this file is here /etc/cron.daily/logrotate ===
+ #!/bin/sh
+ # nicenesses range from -20 (most favorable scheduling) to 19 (least favorable)
+ NICE=19
+ # 0 for none, 1 for real time, 2 for best-effort, 3 for idle
+ IONICE_CLASS=2
+ # 0-7 (for IONICE_CLASS 1 and 2 only), 0=highest, 7=lowest
+ IONICE_PRIORITY=7
+ CMD_LOGROTATE="/usr/bin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf"
+ if [ -x /usr/bin/nice ]; then
+   CMD_LOGROTATE="/usr/bin/nice -n ${NICE:-19} ${CMD_LOGROTATE}"
+ fi
+ if [ -x /usr/bin/ionice ]; then
+   CMD_LOGROTATE="/usr/bin/ionice -c ${IONICE_CLASS:-2} -n ${IONICE_PRIORITY:-7} ${CMD_LOGROTATE}"
+ fi
+ ${CMD_LOGROTATE}
+ exit 0
+<br clear="all"/>
+=== Secondly - Create /etc/logrotate.d/rotate.logs using the following ===
+ ## rotate all /var/log files with names ending in log
+ /var/log/*log {
+ ## cycle through these commands once per day
+  daily
+ ## keep the results of 7 cycles
+  rotate 7
+ ## use gzip to compress each rotated (copied) log file
+  compress
+ ## compress the file on the next cycle
+  delaycompress
+ ## copy the contents of the log file to a new file <name>.log.1
+ ## & then delete the contents of the original log file
+  copytruncate
+ ## do nothing to empty files
+  notifempty
+ ## create no errors if a file is missing
+  missingok
+ ## after the files have been rotated run the following command
+  postrotate
+ ## move any files with the .gz extension to /var/log/old
+     mv /var/log/*.gz /var/log/old
+ ## closes the postrotate section
+  endscript
+ ## ends the command sequence of this block of script
+   }
+You also need to create the /var/log/old directory if it doesn't already exist. This is where the .gzipped daily backup files will be kept.
+<br clear="all"/>
+=== A Summary of the above example thus far ===
+The First step puts a file into '''/etc/cron.daily''' which is an easy way to add the script to a daily cron job. Which means that script will be run everyday.
+It basically runs this command:
+ logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf
+As logrotate.conf goes through its list of commands it calls this one:
+ include /etc/logrotate.d
+Which means that any scripts that are inside of '''/etc/logrotate.d''' are also run.
+This brings us to the second step (above), where we created '''/etc/logrotate.d/rotate.logs''' . This script will be run everyday. The comments I added to the rotate.logs file above give a general idea of what it does. You can delete, modify & add to that script, but do it carefully.
+==== The effect of running /etc/logrotate.d/rotate.logs everyday ====
+Is that any file in /var/log that had '''log''' at the end of its name will be processed by the commands in the '''rotate.logs''' script. This will back up these files to a new file '''<name>.log.1''' & empty the original file to size 0. Any previous copies of with '''<name>.log.<number>''' will have their numbers bumped up one, until the day when they would have been given an 8, that is the day that they are deleted.
+As well as this rotating (copying) & renaming of files, all files will be compressed in gzip format on the next rotation. Which means that you always have the current file & yesterdays file in /var/log in uncompressed format.
+No files that are empty will be processed, & a file being missing will throw no errors.
+Any gzip compressed file, (they have a .gz file extension) will be copied to /var/log/old where it will stay, with the number in its name being bumped everyday until it reaches 7. on the next day, instead of going to 8 it will be deleted.
 <br clear="all"/>