Manage Logs with logrotate
The Bookkeeper
© Vlad Kochelaevskiy, 123rf.com
Take charge of your installation’s logfiles with logrotate.
Special Thanks: This article was made possible by support from Linux Professional Institute
Perhaps one of the most underreported yet regular tasks of a system administrator is to parse logfiles. Scrolling through logfiles isn’t fun, but they are an indispensable resource for helping troubleshoot an issue. Seasoned admins will tell you that they almost always instinctively pull up the logs whenever they face any issues with their installations.
Linux, for its part, is ever vigilant and makes careful logs of everything that takes place within your system. Most logfiles under Linux reside under the /var/log/ directory. These are all system and service logs, which come in handy when troubleshooting system-wide issues. Different apps also write app-specific logs, which are kept in a configurable location usually under a user’s home directory.
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