ROTATELOGS(8)			  rotatelogs			 ROTATELOGS(8)



NAME
       rotatelogs - Piped logging program to rotate Apache logs


SYNOPSIS
       rotatelogs [ -l ] [ -L linkname ] [ -p program ] [ -f ] [ -D ] [ -t ] [
       -v ] [ -e ] [ -c ] [ -n number-of-files	]  logfile  rotationtime|file-
       size(B|K|M|G) [ offset ]



SUMMARY
       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.



OPTIONS
       -l     Causes the use of local time rather than GMT as the base for the
	      interval or for strftime(3) formatting with size-based rotation.

       -L linkname

       -p program
	      If given, rotatelogs will execute the  specified	program	 every
	      time  a new log file is opened. The filename of the newly opened
	      file is passed as the first argument to the program. If  execut-
	      ing  after  a rotation, the old log file is passed as the second
	      argument. rotatelogs does not wait for the specified program  to
	      terminate	 before	 continuing  to	 operate, and will not log any
	      error code returned on termination. The spawned program uses the
	      same  stdin,  stdout,  and stderr as rotatelogs itself, and also
	      inherits the environment.

       -f     Causes the logfile to be opened immediately, as soon as rotatel-
	      ogs 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)

       -D     Creates the parent directories of the path  that	the  log  file
	      will  be	placed	in  if	they do not already exist. This allows
	      strftime(3) formatting to be used in the path and not  just  the
	      filename.

       -t     Causes  the  logfile to be truncated instead of rotated. This is
	      useful when a log is processed in real time by  a	 command  like
	      tail,  and there is no need for archived data. No suffix will be
	      added to the filename, however  format  strings  containing  '%'
	      characters will be respected.

       -T     Causes  all but the initial logfile to be truncated when opened.
	      This is useful when the format string  contains  something  that
	      will  loop  around,  such	 as the day of the month. Available in
	      2.4.56 and later.

       -v     Produce verbose output on STDERR. The output contains the result
	      of  the  configuration  parsing,	and  all  file	open and close
	      actions.

       -e     Echo logs through to stdout. Useful when logs need to be further
	      processed in real time by a further tool in the chain.

       -c     Create log file for each interval, even if empty.

       -n number-of-files
	      Use a circular list of filenames without timestamps. This option
	      overwrites log files at startup and during rotation. With -n  3,
	      the  series of log files opened would be "logfile", "logfile.1",
	      "logfile.2", then overwriting "logfile". When this program first
	      opens  "logfile",	 the file will only be truncated if -t is also
	      provided. Every subsequent rotation will always begin with trun-
	      cation  of  the  target file. For size based rotation without -t
	      and existing log files in place, this option may result in unin-
	      tuitive behavior such as initial log entries being sent to "log-
	      file.1", and entries in "logfile.1" not being preserved even  if
	      later "logfile.n" have not yet been used. Available in 2.4.5 and
	      later.

       logfile

       rotationtime
	      The time between log file rotations  in  seconds.	 The  rotation
	      occurs  at  the  beginning of this interval. For example, if the
	      rotation time is 3600, the log  file  will  be  rotated  at  the
	      beginning	 of every hour; if the rotation time is 86400, the log
	      file will be rotated every night at midnight.  (If  no  data  is
	      logged during an interval, no file will be created.)

       filesize(B|K|M|G)
	      The  maximum file size in followed by exactly one of the letters
	      B (Bytes), K (KBytes), M (MBytes) or G (GBytes). .PP  When  time
	      and  size	 are specified, the size must be given after the time.
	      Rotation will occur whenever either  time	 or  size  limits  are
	      reached.

       offset The  number  of  minutes	offset	from  UTC. If omitted, zero is
	      assumed and UTC is used. For example, to use local time  in  the
	      zone UTC -5 hours, specify a value of -300 for this argument. In
	      most cases, -l should be used instead of specifying an offset.


EXAMPLES
	    CustomLog "|bin/rotatelogs /var/log/logfile 86400" common



       This creates the files /var/log/logfile.nnnn where nnnn is  the	system
       time at which the log nominally starts (this time will always be a mul-
       tiple 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/log/logfile.%Y.%m.%d 86400" common



       This creates the files /var/log/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/log/logfile 5M" common



       This configuration will rotate the logfile whenever it reaches  a  size
       of 5 megabytes.


	    ErrorLog "|bin/rotatelogs /var/log/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.


	    CustomLog "|bin/rotatelogs -t /var/log/logfile 86400" common



       This  creates the file /var/log/logfile, truncating the file at startup
       and then truncating the file once per day. It is expected in this  sce-
       nario  that a separate process (such as tail) would process the file in
       real time.


	    CustomLog "|bin/rotatelogs -T /var/log/logfile.%d 86400" common



       If the server is started (or restarted) on the first of the month, this
       appends to /var/log/logfile.01. When a log entry is written on the sec-
       ond of the month, /var/log/logfile.02 is truncated and new entries will
       be added to the top. This example keeps approximately 1 months worth of
       logs without external maintenance.


PORTABILITY
       The following logfile format string substitutions should	 be  supported
       by  all	strftime(3)  implementations, see the strftime(3) man page for
       library-specific extensions.


       o %A - full weekday name (localized)


       o %a - 3-character weekday name (localized)


       o %B - full month name (localized)


       o %b - 3-character month name (localized)


       o %c - date and time (localized)


       o %d - 2-digit day of month


       o %H - 2-digit hour (24 hour clock)


       o %I - 2-digit hour (12 hour clock)


       o %j - 3-digit day of year


       o %M - 2-digit minute


       o %m - 2-digit month


       o %p - am/pm of 12 hour clock (localized)


       o %S - 2-digit second


       o %U - 2-digit week of year (Sunday first day of week)


       o %W - 2-digit week of year (Monday first day of week)


       o %w - 1-digit weekday (Sunday first day of week)


       o %X - time (localized)


       o %x - date (localized)


       o %Y - 4-digit year


       o %y - 2-digit year


       o %Z - time zone name


       o %% - literal `%'




Apache HTTP Server		  2023-03-05			 ROTATELOGS(8)