NAME¶
rotatelogs - Piped logging program to rotate Apache logs
SYNOPSIS¶
rotatelogs [ -
l ] [ -
f ]
logfile
rotationtime|
filesizeM [
offset ]
SUMMARY¶
rotatelogs is a simple program for use in conjunction with Apache's piped
logfile feature. It supports rotation based on a time interval or maximum size
of the log.
OPTIONS¶
- -l
- Causes the use of local time rather than GMT as the base
for the interval or for strftime(3) formatting with size-based rotation.
Note that using -l in an environment which changes the GMT offset (such as
for BST or DST) can lead to unpredictable results!
- -f
- Causes the logfile to be opened immediately, as soon as
rotatelogs starts, instead of waiting for the first logfile entry to be
read (for non-busy sites, there may be a substantial delay between when
the server is started and when the first request is handled, meaning that
the associated logfile does not "exist" until then, which causes
problems from some automated logging tools). Available in version 2.2.9
and later.
- logfile
- rotationtime
- The time between log file rotations in seconds. The
rotation occurs at the beginning of this interval. For example, if the
rotation time is 3600, the log file will be rotated at the beginning of
every hour; if the rotation time is 86400, the log file will be rotated
every night at midnight. (If no data is logged during an interval, no file
will be created.)
- filesizeM
- The maximum file size in megabytes followed by the letter M
to specify size rather than time.
- offset
- The number of minutes offset from UTC. If omitted, zero is
assumed and UTC is used. For example, to use local time in the zone UTC -5
hours, specify a value of -300 for this argument. In most cases, -l should
be used instead of specifying an offset.
EXAMPLES¶
CustomLog "|bin/rotatelogs /var/logs/logfile 86400" common
This creates the files /var/logs/logfile.nnnn where nnnn is the system time at
which the log nominally starts (this time will always be a multiple of the
rotation time, so you can synchronize cron scripts with it). At the end of
each rotation time (here after 24 hours) a new log is started.
CustomLog "|bin/rotatelogs -l /var/logs/logfile.%Y.%m.%d 86400" common
This creates the files /var/logs/logfile.yyyy.mm.dd where yyyy is the year, mm
is the month, and dd is the day of the month. Logging will switch to a new
file every day at midnight, local time.
CustomLog "|bin/rotatelogs /var/logs/logfile 5M" common
This configuration will rotate the logfile whenever it reaches a size of 5
megabytes.
ErrorLog "|bin/rotatelogs /var/logs/errorlog.%Y-%m-%d-%H_%M_%S 5M"
This configuration will rotate the error logfile whenever it reaches a size of 5
megabytes, and the suffix to the logfile name will be created of the form
errorlog.YYYY-mm-dd-HH_MM_SS.
PORTABILITY¶
The following logfile format string substitutions should be supported by all
strftime(3) implementations, see the
strftime(3) man page for library-specific
extensions.
- • %A - full weekday name (localized)
-
- • %a - 3-character weekday name (localized)
-
- • %B - full month name (localized)
-
- • %b - 3-character month name (localized)
-
- • %c - date and time (localized)
-
- • %d - 2-digit day of month
-
- • %H - 2-digit hour (24 hour clock)
-
- • %I - 2-digit hour (12 hour clock)
-
- • %j - 3-digit day of year
-
- • %M - 2-digit minute
-
- • %m - 2-digit month
-
- • %p - am/pm of 12 hour clock (localized)
-
- • %S - 2-digit second
-
- • %U - 2-digit week of year (Sunday first day of
week)
-
- • %W - 2-digit week of year (Monday first day of
week)
-
- • %w - 1-digit weekday (Sunday first day of
week)
-
- • %X - time (localized)
-
- • %x - date (localized)
-
- • %Y - 4-digit year
-
- • %y - 2-digit year
-
- • %Z - time zone name
-
- • %% - literal `%'
-