How to Manage Logfiles with Logrotate

Logrotate is a system utility that manages the automatic rotation and compression of log files. If log files were not rotated, compressed, and periodically pruned, they would eventually consume all available disk space on a system. In this article, we will explore the default Logrotate configuration, then configure log rotation for a fictional custom application.

card icon
Get our biweekly newsletter

Sign up for Infrastructure as a Newsletter.

Sign up
card icon
Hollie's Hub for Good

Working on improving health and education, reducing inequality, and spurring economic growth? We’d like to help.

Learn more
card icon
Become a contributor

You get paid; we donate to tech nonprofits.

Learn more
Welcome to the developer cloud

DigitalOcean makes it simple to launch in the cloud and scale up as you grow – whether you’re running one virtual machine or ten thousand.

Learn more ->
DigitalOcean Cloud Control Panel
Get started for free

Enter your email to get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.

New accounts only. By submitting your email you agree to our Privacy Policy.