Linux – Logrotate: Rotating non-log files

linuxlog-fileslogrotate

I have a backup script that compresses various files and directories and creates .tgz archives. Files are named, e.g.

...
backup_2010-10-28.tar.gz
backup_2010-10-29.tar.gz
backup_2010-10-30.tar.gz
backup_2010-10-31.tar.gz
backup_2010-11-01.tar.gz

I want to manage these files so only the last 5 backups are kept, with older files being deleted.

Can I use logrotate to do this? They aren't log files and are already compressed. They're in /root and not in /var/log – can I still use it?

Thanks

Best Answer

Logrotate rotates files, so the answer is yes - probably, and if no sufficient permissions then place them in /backup or something. Check what group and user the rotated logs have :-).

There's options for compression in logrotate, så if "compress" is NOT configured - well then it won't try. Also in your case, "rotate 5" option.

Take a look in /etc/logrotate.d (or where ever it's stored in your system)

Related Solutions

Debian – logrotate not deleting old files – glob failing

Perhaps it is failing because the log file already has the date in the name, and so it is a new name each day. Typically I see log files with a static name, and logrotate adds an extension to make them unique. logrotate may be looking for old files in the archive directory with a name of CF_5000_20120802_120326.log to delete them. It doesn't find any because the base name of each file is unique.

How to rotate many log files into a different subdirectory per rotation

You should be able to call an external script in the postrotate directive:

postrotate
  /path/to/your.sh
endscript

and have that script do the moving, e.g.:

#!/bin/bash

newdir=/var/log/example/`date +%Y%m%d`

mkdir $newdir
mv /var/log/example.1.gz $newdir

find /var/log/example -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -mtime +7 \
  -type d -print0 | xargs -0 rm -rf

However, it might be easier to just use the dateext directive. With that the rotated files will be appended with a timestamp (although not moved to a different directory).

See logrotate(8) for details about both directives.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Debian – logrotate not deleting old files – glob failing

How to rotate many log files into a different subdirectory per rotation

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