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Rotating Your Web Server Log Files
There are several methods you can use to rotate your
Web Server Log Files.
cronolog
The cronolog
program reads log messages from its input
and writes them to a set of output files, the names of which are
constructed using template and the current date and time. The
template uses the same format specifiers as the UNIX date command
(which are the same as the standard C strftime library function).
Installation
To install cronolog, connect to your Virtual Server via
Telnet or SSH
and run the command below that matches your Virtual Server O/S.
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FreeBSD
% vinstall cronolog
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BSD/OS
unavailable
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NOTE: If your Virtual Server was ordered after Nov 22, 1999, you are likely
running FreeBSD. To find out which O/S your Virtual Server is running, use the
uname command:
% uname
If your Virtual Server is not already running FreeBSD,
Upgrade to a New FreeBSD Virtual Server
today!
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Rotating Log Files
cronolog is intended to be used in your Virtual Server
web server configuration file (~/www/conf/httpd.conf)
to split the access log file, or other log files, into daily or monthly log files, like in the
following example.
TransferLog "|/usr/local/cronolog/cronolog /www/logs/%Y/%m/%d/access.log"
ErrorLog "|/usr/local/cronolog/cronolog /www/logs/%Y/%m/%d/errors.log"
The sample configuration directives above instruct Apache to pipe its access and error log messages into
separate copies of cronolog, which would create new log files each day
in a directory hierarchy structured by date, i.e. on 31 December 1996
messages would be written to the following files.
~/www/logs/1996/12/31/access.log
~/www/logs/1996/12/31/errors.log
After midnight the following
filenames would be written, with the directories 1997, 1997/01 and 1997/01/01 being
created if they did not already exist.
~/www/logs/1997/01/01/access.log
~/www/logs/1997/01/01/errors.log
rotatelogs
Basically, rotatelogs is a
wrapper that you include in the Log definitions in your
web server configuration file (~/www/conf/httpd.conf).
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NOTE:
rotatelogs is not yet supported on our Virtual Servers
running the FreeBSD O/S. If your Virtual Server was ordered after Nov 22, 1999, you are likely
running FreeBSD. To find out which O/S your Virtual Server is running, use the
uname command:
% uname
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Installation
In order to use the rotatelogs wrapper you must
copy rotatelogs onto your Virtual Server.
To do this, connect to your Virtual Server via
Telnet or SSH
and execute the following command.
% cp /usr/local/bin/rotatelogs ~/usr/local/bin
Rotating Log Files
For example, to rotate your web server access log, you might include something
like the following in your web server configuration file (~/www/conf/httpd.conf).
TransferLog "|/usr/local/bin/rotatelogs /www/logs/access_log 86400"
This creates the files ~/www/logs/access_log.nnnn where nnnn is
the system time at which the log starts (system time is the number of seconds
that have elapsed since January 1, 1970).
At the end of each rotation time (here after 24 hours) a new log is
started.
You can rotate the other web server log files as well.
AgentLog "|/usr/local/bin/rotatelogs /www/logs/agent_log 86400"
RefererLog "|/usr/local/bin/rotatelogs /www/logs/referer_log 86400"
ErrorLog "|/usr/local/bin/rotatelogs /www/logs/error_log 86400"
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