Master Linux Log Rotation with Logrotate: Configs, Scripts, and Common Fixes

Logrotate is a built‑in Linux utility that automates log file rotation, compression, and removal to save disk space and keep logs organized.

1. Configuration Files Overview

The main configuration resides in /etc/logrotate.conf, while individual service configurations are placed in /etc/logrotate.d/ and automatically included.

/etc/logrotate.conf
/etc/logrotate.d/

Settings in logrotate.conf apply globally unless overridden by files in /etc/logrotate.d/. Logrotate runs daily via the script /etc/cron.daily/logrotate, which invokes /usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf.

2. Common Options

daily

, weekly, monthly – rotation frequency. rotate <em>n</em> – keep the last n rotated files. compress / nocompress – gzip the rotated logs. dateext – append the current date to rotated filenames. missingok – ignore missing log files. notifempty – skip rotation if the log is empty. copytruncate – copy the log and truncate the original (useful for files still open by a process). sharedscripts – run postrotate scripts once after all logs are processed. postrotate … endscript – commands executed after rotation (e.g., reload a service).

3. Example Service Configurations

Nginx

/usr/local/nginx/logs/*.log {
    daily
    rotate 7
    missingok
    notifempty
    dateext
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        if [ -f /usr/local/nginx/logs/nginx.pid ]; then
            kill -USR1 `cat /usr/local/nginx/logs/nginx.pid`
        fi
    endscript
}

PHP

/Data/logs/php/*log {
    daily
    rotate 365
    missingok
    notifempty
    compress
    dateext
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        if [ -f /Data/app/php5.6.26/var/run/php-fpm.pid ]; then
            kill -USR1 `cat /Data/app/php5.6.26/var/run/php-fpm.pid`
        fi
    endscript
}

Tomcat

/Data/app/tomcat-7-huanqiu/logs/catalina.out {
    daily
    rotate 14
    copytruncate
    compress
    notifempty
    missingok
}

System Logs

/var/log/cron
/var/log/maillog
/var/log/messages
/var/log/secure {
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        /bin/kill -HUP `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid`
    endscript
}

4. Custom Rotation Scripts

When Logrotate’s default schedule (usually early morning) does not meet requirements, you can create custom scripts and schedule them with cron:

# Example: force rotation of nginx logs at 23:59 daily
59 23 * * * /usr/sbin/logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/nginx >/dev/null 2>&1

Or adjust the cron daemon timing by editing /etc/anacrontab to change the START_HOURS_RANGE and RANDOM_DELAY values.

5. Python and Shell Helpers

Simple Python scripts can move yesterday’s logs into date‑based directories and optionally restart services:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import datetime, os, shutil, sys
log_path = '/opt/jumpserver/logs/'
log_file = 'jumpserver.log'
yesterday = (datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.timedelta(days=1)).strftime('%Y%m%d')
os.makedirs(os.path.join(log_path, yesterday[:4], yesterday[4:6]), exist_ok=True)
shutil.move(log_path + log_file,
    f"{log_path}{yesterday[:4]}/{yesterday[4:6]}/{log_file}_{yesterday}.log")
os.system('sudo /opt/jumpserver/service.sh restart')

A generic shell function can rotate any log file, keep a configurable number of days, and delete older copies:

rotate() {
    log=$1
    cp $log ${log}.$(date -d "yesterday" +%Y%m%d)
    rm -f ${log}.$(date -d "7 days ago" +%Y%m%d)
}
for f in "$@"; do rotate $f; done

6. Troubleshooting Logrotate Failures

If logs are not rotating, verify that the /etc/cron.daily/logrotate script runs without errors. Replace the default logger call with -f to force rotation during manual testing:

# /etc/cron.daily/logrotate
/usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf >/dev/null 2>&1
EXITVALUE=$?
if [ $EXITVALUE != 0 ]; then
    /usr/bin/logger -f logrotate "ALERT exited abnormally with [$EXITVALUE]"
fi
exit 0

Restart the cron service after modifications:

/etc/init.d/crond restart

7. Additional Utilities

Shell scripts can compress old logs, delete files older than a retention period, or rename logs with timestamps. Example compression script:

#!/bin/bash
logdir=/var/log/fss/nginx
find $logdir -name "*.log" -mtime +3 -exec gzip {} \;

These utilities complement Logrotate when custom retention policies are needed.