The primary configuration file for logrotate is /etc/logrotate.conf and it has the default settings. So, if you want additional application-specific configuration then you have to create a separate file for that application in /etc/logrotate.d directory.

In this article you will learn that how to configure logrotate in Linux

Step 1: Install logrotate on Linux

Install logrotate on Ubuntu and Debian

apt install logrotate 

Install logrotate on CentOS, RHEL and Fedora

yum install  -y logrotate

OR

dnf install  -y logrotate

Step 2: Configure logrotate

We will configure logrotate for Apache web server in CentOS server. Let’s say we want to rotate the logs of a service “apache” that is creating logfiles under /var/log/httpd directory. So we will create a file “apache” under /etc/logrotate.d directory and make appropriate configuration in this file to rorate all the logs of apache service.

Run following command and add below lines in that file.

vi /etc/logrotate.d/apache

/var/log/httpd/* {
     daily
     rotate 50
     size 2M
     compress
     delaycompress
 }

/var/log/httpd It means rotating all logs from httpd directory.
daily means rotate the logs on a daily basis. you can also use weekly or monthly.
rotate 50 It means last 50 rotated logs should be kept.
size=2M means log will not be rotated until it reaches 2MB. sets the minimum size for the logs rotation.
compress It compress the old log files to save disk space.
delaycompress so it means rotated logs with the exception of the most recent one should be compressed.

now save changes to file and exit

You can also set many other options, for details run following command.

man logrotate

By default, logrotate automatically configures a cron job scheduled to run daily. but we want also run our desired log rotation file, Tells logrotate to force the rotation.

logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/httpd

Now run below command to see that what will logrotate do reading /etc/logrotate.d/httpd file.

logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.d/httpd

That’s it, so you can use logrotate and configure it for your desired service logs like it do for Apache web server.

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