Logrotate

Logrotate is a Linux utility for rotating logs by reading policies defined in /etc/logrotate.d/. You can read more about setting up logrotate in this RedHat blog entry.

You can create a logrotate policy for pretty much any file you output logs to, but it is recommended to store your logs in /var/log/ or a subdirectory in that path, i.e. /var/log/program_name/some_logfile.log.

Logrotate policies should be defined in files in the /etc/logrotate.d/ directory.

Tip

When creating a logrotate policy file, choose a name that describes the log file it applies to, and create the file at the root of /etc/logrotate.d/, don’t use subdirectories. There are ways to do that, but unless you have trouble maintaining your policies in a ‘flat’ structure, logrotate will not detect your nested policies.

An example of a logrotate policy that rotates /var/log/some_program/function.log could be named /etc/logrotate.d/some_program_function.

You do not need to put a file extension in the filename.

Policy file

A policy file defined at /etc/logrotate.d/policy_filename should start with the path to the file it applies to. For example, a policy that rotates a log at /var/log/program_name/function.log would start with:

/var/log/program_name/function.log {}

You then add your configurations in the {} mapping.

For example, a logrotate policy that:

rotates the file daily, keeping the last 14 rotated logs
compresses each rotated file with gzip, but delays the most recently compressed logfile (for easy access of the most recently rotated log file)
does not error if the log file is missing
skips if the log file’s contents are empty
recreates the file after rotation with chmod 0640 and chown root:adm

/var/log/program_name/function.log {
    daily
    rotate 14
    compress
    delaycompress
    missingok
    notifempty
    create 0640 root adm
}

Examples

Backup home directory with logging

For this example, let’s say you have a cron job that runs every 6 hours and creates a backup of your home directory. The job outputs its logs to /var/log/home_backup/backup.log. You want to rotate this file at 10MB, or every week (whichever occurs first), retaining 2 weeks worth of backups, and recreate the logfile once it’s rotated.

You create logrotate policies in /etc/logrotate.d/<logrotate_policy_name>. The file can be named whatever you want, but it’s advisable to make the name of the file descriptive of the log file it’s rotating. You can omit a file extension from the file name.

Create a file at /etc/logrotate.d/home_dir_backup:

/var/log/home_backup.log {
    size 10M           # Rotate if log file reaches 10MB
    weekly             # Or rotate weekly, whichever happens first
    rotate 14          # Keep 14 rotated logs (2 weeks worth)
    compress           # Compress rotated logs with gzip
    delaycompress      # Delay compression until next rotation cycle
    missingok          # Don't issue error if log file is missing
    notifempty         # Skip rotation if log file is empty
    create 0640 root adm  # Recreate log file with correct permissions and ownership. You can also use $USER for the user and group
}

Now, if you schedule a cron job like this, the log file will automatically rotate:

0 */6 * * * cp -R /home/username /backup/homedir > /var/log/home_backup.log 2>&1  # this is the path you should use in the logrotate policy

Last updated on April 13, 2026