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In this video, we'll talk about log rotate.

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So why do we need log rotate?

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Well, simple.

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If you are logging to files, that is something that can go beyond control.

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If some service is getting crazy, it might be logging large amounts of data very frequently.

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And that means that your log files will keep on growing and growing.

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And in the end, you will run out of disk space.

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That is why we need log rotate.

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Log rotate ensures that log files won't grow too big.

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And because R6.logd doesn't limit log files in any way by size, this is an important addition.

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Log rotate is started as a scheduled job.

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So on older systems, that might be through Chrome.

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On newer systems, that might be by systemd timers.

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And it works with etc.logrotate.conf and the drop-in directory logrotate.d.

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These are the configuration files that determine which files to monitor and what should happen

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in specific conditions.

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In these conditions, different criteria can be used.

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And that includes ages or sizes.

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Let me show you.

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So the main file in log rotate is logrotate.conf.

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In logrotate.conf, you set the standards.

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You can include files in logrotate.d as well.

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And if you want to keep the standards, there's no reason to redefine.

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They will be inherited from this file.

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So the default is weekly.

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Every week, a file will be rotated.

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And rotate four means that we keep the four last weeks.

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And we create a new one by using create.

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These are the most important ones.

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But you need to realize one thing.

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The result of this configuration is that you will have your current log file.

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And the log file for the last four weeks, with everything before that, will automatically

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be rotated away.

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And that's something to consider.

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Because what is going on if you want to analyze what happened on your system six weeks ago?

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Well, simple.

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Then you don't have the log information anymore.

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And if you haven't created your backup for these log files, then they will be gone forever.

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There's no way to get them back.

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So logrotate is awesome, but there's a couple of things to be aware of anyway.