Apache HTTP Server Version 2.2
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.
rotatelogs
[ -l ]
[ -f ]
logfile
rotationtime|filesizeM
[ offset ]
-l
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
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
The path plus basename of the logfile. If logfile
includes any '%' characters, it is treated as a format string for
strftime(3)
. Otherwise, the suffix
.nnnnnnnnnn is automatically added and is the time in
seconds. Both formats compute the start time from the beginning of
the current period. For example, if a rotation time of 86400 is
specified, the hour, minute, and second fields created from the
strftime(3)
format will all be zero, referring to the
beginning of the current 24-hour period (midnight).
When using strftime(3)
filename formatting,
be sure the log file format has enough granularity to produce
a different file name each time the logs are rotated. Otherwise
rotation will overwrite the same file instead of starting a new
one. For example, if logfile was
/var/logs/errorlog.%Y-%m-%d
with log rotation at 5
megabytes, but 5 megabytes was reached twice in the same day, the
same log file name would be produced and log rotation would keep
writing to the same file.
rotationtime
filesizeM
M
to specify size rather than time.offset
-300
for this argument.
In most cases, -l
should be used instead of specifying
an offset.
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
.
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 `%' |