Man page 8 : savelog

savelog - save a log file

savelog [-m mode] [-u user] [-g group] [-t] [-p] [-c cycle] [-l] [-j] [-J] [-1 . . -9] [-C] [-d] [-l] [-r rolldir] [-n] [-q] [-D dateformat] file ...

The

savelog command saves and optionally compresses old copies of files. Older versions of fileare named: "file" "." "<number>" "" "<compress_suffix>" where <number>is the version number, 0 being the newest. Version numbers > 0 are compressed unless

-l prevents it. Version number 0 is not compressed because a process might still have fileopened for I/O. Only cycleversions of the file are kept. If the file does not exist and

-t was given, it will be created. For files that do exist and have lengths greater than zero, the following actions are performed:

1) Version numbered files are cycled. Version "file" "." "2" is moved to version "file" "." "3", version "file" "." "1" is moved to version "file" "." "2", and so on. Finally version "file" "." "0" is moved to version "file" "." "1", and version "file"is deleted. Both compressed names and uncompressed names are cycled, regardless of

R -l . Missing version files are ignored.

2) The new "file" "." "1" is compressed unless the

-l flag was given. It is changed subject to the

R flags.

3) The main "file" is moved to "file" "." "0".

4) If the

R flags are given, then an empty fileis created subject to the given flags. With the

-p flag, the file is created with the same owner, group, and permissions as before.

5) The new "file" "." "0" is changed subject to the

R flags.

-m mode

    chmod the log files to mode, implies

-t

-u user

    chown log files to user, implies

-t

-g group

    chgrp log files to group, implies

-t

-c cycle

    Save cycle versions of the logfile (default: 7). The cyclecount must be at least 2.

-t

    touch new logfile into existence

-l

    don't compress any log files (default: do compress)

-p

    preserve owner, group, and permissions of logfile

-j

    compress with bzip2 instead of gzip

-J

    compress with xz instead of gzip For xz no strength option is set, and xz decides on the default based on the total amount of physical RAM. Note that xz can use a very large amount of memory for the higher compression levels.

-1 . . -9

    compression strength or memory usage (default: 9, except for xz)

-C

    force cleanup of cycled logfiles

-d

    use standard date for rolling

-D dateformat

    override date format, in the form of [MMDDhhmm[[CC]YY][.ss]]

-r

    use rolldirinstead of . to roll files

-n

    do not rotate empty files

-q

    be quiet

If a process is still writing to "file.0" "," and savelog moves it to file.1and compresses it, data could be lost.

R logrotate (8)