How to insert a date inside the filename with logrotate

Question

I need to set logrotate to rotate logs files from an application running on the server. I need the date inside the filename.

I set dateext and also dateformat to add a - in the date. The result filename is:whatever.csv_2012-03-03

I would like the timestamp to be part of the filename keeping safe the extension; Whatever_2012-03-03.csv.

score 73 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 19 '16 at 16:17

73

You should be able to keep the extension apart, e.g. whatever.2012-03-03.csv, with the following configuration:

whatever.csv {
  dateext
  dateformat .%Y-%m-%d
  extension .csv
  ...
}

Note the dateext is deliberately empty.

edited Mar 19 '16 at 16:17

Roman Cheplyaka

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answered Aug 02 '12 at 13:27

Stéphane

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I've tried this, but the date is added on each rotation, so I get `file.log`, `file.2014-01-08.log` and `file.2014-01-07.2014-01-08.log` etc. – fadedbee Jan 08 '14 at 17:26
1

I found that the `extension` should have the `.` so the correct form is `extension .csv`. This is also followed in `compressext` as in `compressext .bz2` – ADTC Jan 24 '14 at 03:12
3

Also, it should be `dateformat .%Y-%m-%d` (the first dot is for the date, the second for the extension). @chrisdew that is probably because you are using a wildcard, so *logrotate* is trying to rotate both `file.log` and `file.2014-01-07.log`. Either use a fixed name, or use the `olddir` option to move rotated files to a different directory so they don't get picked up by the wildcard. – ADTC Jan 24 '14 at 03:27
The dateformat option causes a segfault for me https://fedorahosted.org/logrotate/ticket/39 – Rob Aug 07 '14 at 09:07
@Rob sadly fedorahosted is an ex-service: "fedorahosted.org was retired on March 1st, 2017". – Chris Woods Feb 19 '18 at 19:42

score 26 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 22 '15 at 02:59

26

To insert the date within the filename (and not as extension) of a file under Linux while rotating a file it is correct to use:

# Daily rotation
    daily

# We keep original file live
    copytruncate

# Rotation is 1 so we have always .1 as extension
    rotate 1

# If file is missing keep working
    missingok

    sharedscripts
    postrotate
            day=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
            mv blabla.csv.1 /var/www/gamelogs/dir/blabla$day.csv
    endscript
}

This is simple and works fine.

edited Jan 22 '15 at 02:59

Luke Peterson

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answered Mar 05 '12 at 12:32

Bernard Sfez

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I like this solution. If I get it right, it has a side effect: logrotate will no longer limit the number of kept files. If intended, that's fine. – Marian Jul 08 '14 at 06:59
It's easy enough to add a `find $logdir -mtime +$maxage -delete` statement to your postrotate script. – Rob Aug 07 '14 at 09:07
3

@Rob, so, what's the point of actually using logrotate, then? – cnst Sep 15 '14 at 20:27
@cnst Not much, besides putting the log rotation code with other log rotation code, so a future sysadmin can fix it to use the dateext if and when the segfault issue goes away. – Rob Sep 19 '14 at 15:19
1

The `rotate 1` is too restrictive. – 2rs2ts Nov 17 '15 at 20:05
If your logs are moving very fast you will lose some data due to the usage of copytruncate. Did some tests using seq and redirecting the output to a logfile and validated this. – alfredocambera Feb 17 '16 at 20:50

How to insert a date inside the filename with logrotate

2 Answers2