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Logrotate – Installation

In any Linux system running chatty / verbose logging can grow its log files very quickly. Left unchecked, they have the potential to consume available filesystem space and disrupt normal operations

A handy lightweight utility called “logrotate” can be installed to automate the log trimming, compression, and retention tasks eliminating manual intervention or custom shell scripts

In this guide we’ll cover installation on a Debian based Linux system and a simple configuration example.

1. Installation

sudo apt update

sudo apt install logrotate

Once that’s installed, check the version and the man pages to understand basic operation and capabilities.

$ logrotate --version

$ man logrotate

2. Configuration

Create a new “logrotate” config file. Name the file based on your projects naming conventions

cd /etc/logrotate.d/

Using an editor, insert the below configurations into your project filename. In this case my config file is called “dispatch_scada“

sudo vim dispatch_scada

Insert / paste this configuration and modify it to meet the technical needs.

/{your_path_to_lof_file}/dispatch_scada_loader.log {
    size 2500M
    rotate 5
    compress
    missingok
    notifempty
    copytruncate
}
2.1 Config Description
  • {your_path_to_lof_file} = Directory path to log file
  • size 250M = rotates when log exceeds 10MB
  • rotate 5 = keeps 5 old logs (.1.gz, .2.gz, etc.)
  • compress = gzips old logs to save space
  • missingok = skips rotation if log is missing
  • notifempty = skips rotation if log is empty
  • copytruncate = safely rotates logs even if your script keeps the file ope
2.2 Config Test

Dry run:

sudo logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.d/dispatch_scada

Force rotation:

sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/dispatch_scada

Check rotated logs:

ls -lh /{your_path_to_lof_file}/dispatch_scada_loader.log*
2.3. Add to Cron

Set “cron" to run at 2AM daily

sudo crontab -e

0 2 * * * /usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.d/dispatch_scada > /dev/null 2>&1

Following this “logrotate” process should keep your log files maintained and your system not suffering due to lack of filesystem space.