logrotate - setup notes

Logrotate uses the following files:

/etc/logrotate.conf - configuration
- may not need to be edited?

/etc/logrotate.d/ - directory with configuration files that are included by the configuration file.
- here you put your own scripts and edit the syslog file so it rotates as desired.

/var/lib/logrotate/status
- statusfile for logrotate, its "memory"

The logrotate command itself is done by a premade cronjob, about 04:40 every day on Slackware.

You may also force a run of it (-f is for force and -v is for verbose):
logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf -f -v

Without -f it may stop because the data in /var/lib/logrotate/status says no.

A typical config file in /etc/logrotate.d/


/var/log/test {
# create test.1, test.2, test.3 and move around
  rotate 3
# do not rotate if logfile is empty
  notifempty
# only rotate if logfile exceeds 5 MB
  size 5M
# it is okay if logfile is missing
  missingok
# run daily (just tells logrotate it is okay to work today)
  daily
# when the logfiles are moved around, create a new one
  copytruncate
}