documentation_complete: true

title: 'Ensure All Logs are Rotated by logrotate'

description: |-
    Edit the file <tt>/etc/logrotate.d/syslog</tt>. Find the first
    line, which should look like this (wrapped for clarity):
    <pre>/var/log/messages /var/log/secure /var/log/maillog /var/log/spooler \
      /var/log/boot.log /var/log/cron {</pre>
    Edit this line so that it contains a one-space-separated
    listing of each log file referenced in <tt>/etc/rsyslog.conf</tt>.
    <br /><br />
    All logs in use on a system must be rotated regularly, or the
    log files will consume disk space over time, eventually interfering
    with system operation. The file <tt>/etc/logrotate.d/syslog</tt> is the
    configuration file used by the <tt>logrotate</tt> program to maintain all
    log files written by <tt>syslog</tt>. By default, it rotates logs weekly and
    stores four archival copies of each log. These settings can be
    modified by editing <tt>/etc/logrotate.conf</tt>, but the defaults are
    sufficient for purposes of this guide.
    <br /><br />
    Note that <tt>logrotate</tt> is run nightly by the cron job
    <tt>/etc/cron.daily/logrotate</tt>. If particularly active logs need to be
    rotated more often than once a day, some other mechanism must be
    used.
