What are logrotate commands and how do I use them?

What are logrotate commands and how do I use them?

Logrotate is a tool that manages the rotation and compression of log files. It helps in preventing log files from consuming too much disk space. You can use commands like logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf to force log rotation.

Can you explain how to configure logrotate for a specific log file?

Sure! To configure logrotate for a specific log file, you can create a configuration file in /etc/logrotate.d/. For example, to rotate /var/log/myapp.log, you would create a file named myapp with settings like:

/var/log/myapp.log {
    daily
    rotate 7
    compress
    missingok
    notifempty
}

What does each option in the configuration mean?

Here's a breakdown of the options:

• daily: Rotate the log file every day.
• rotate 7: Keep 7 days of backlogs.
• compress: Compress the rotated logs to save space.
• missingok: Ignore errors if the log file is missing.
• notifempty: Do not rotate the log if it is empty.

How can I manually trigger log rotation?

You can manually trigger log rotation by running the command logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf. This forces logrotate to process the configuration file immediately.