logrotateohjelmalla

Logrotateohjelma, often simply called logrotate, is a Unix and Linux utility that automates the management of large, long‑running log files. Its primary purpose is to rotate, compress, delete, and email logs to keep disk usage under control while preserving sufficient historical data for troubleshooting and compliance. The program reads configuration files, typically found in /etc/logrotate.conf and /etc/logrotate.d/, where administrators specify which log files to handle, rotation frequency (daily, weekly, monthly), the number of rotated logs to retain, and actions to perform after rotation, such as restarting a service.

Logrotate operates by renaming the current log file, creating a fresh file of the same name, and optionally compressing older copies with gzip or other compression tools. It can be triggered manually or scheduled via cron. The utility supports various rotation signals, allowing services to reopen log files without needing a full restart. Typical configuration directives include daily, weekly, compress, postrotate, and sharedscripts.

Introduced with the Linux 2.2 kernels in the early 1990s, logrotate has become an industry standard on distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE, and Arch Linux. It comes preinstalled on most servers and is considered essential for system administration and log management strategies. The program is written in C, licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License, and is maintained by the American National Standards Institute project “Logrotate”.