FS#13935 - Add 'size xx' in default /etc/logrotate.conf

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by (MajorTom) - Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 05:39 GMT
Last edited by Allan McRae (Allan) - Monday, 13 April 2009, 10:35 GMT
Task Type Feature Request
Category Packages: Core
Status Closed
Assigned To Aaron Griffin (phrakture)
Architecture All
Severity Medium
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

I bumped into a situation where my system ran out of space because of log files growing huge. I don't know if I should blame dcron (let's replace it already!) not running when my desktop system was off or logrotate's default config, but the fact remains that with the vanilla system setup this issue does indeed occur. Yes, I do realize that log files should be examined and problems should be taken care of but including 'size 20M' (as suggested on Forums here) and perhaps enabling 'compress' would help many a newcomer to Arch.

* logrotate 3.7.7-3

Please consider this and thank you for understanding.
This task depends upon

Closed by  Allan McRae (Allan)
Monday, 13 April 2009, 10:35 GMT
Reason for closing:  Fixed
Additional comments about closing:  logrotate-3.7.8-1
Comment by (MajorTom) - Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 14:19 GMT
If you insist on leaving it up to the user to configure, at least it should be made clear during installation. You get to configure the main system files, rc.conf, etc. but AFAIR there is no mention about logrotate file size limits in the Wiki guides. Once you get your installation up and running, it's only a matter of time until something like overgrown log files takes down the system.

Again, I understand why you wouldn't want to impose log size limitations by default but a line of warning or something would save some trouble.
Comment by Greg (dolby) - Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 15:06 GMT
In Archlinux EVERYTHING is up to user to configure, not just logrotate.
Regarding the wiki, this is not distro/developer provided documentation. You can edit it if you feel like it.
+1 on closing this.
Comment by (MajorTom) - Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 15:17 GMT
OK, let me take one last stab at it and then I'll just shut up. Here goes:

Can we at least include "#size ..." commented out with a description comment line above (#compress is already present) in the shipping .conf file?
Comment by (MajorTom) - Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 20:43 GMT
OK, let me take one last stab at it and then I'll just shut up. Here goes:

Can we at least include "#size ..." commented out with a description comment line above (#compress is already present) in the shipping .conf file?
Comment by (MajorTom) - Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 20:43 GMT
*** Sorry about the duplicate comment. Browser refreshed. ***
Comment by Greg (dolby) - Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 23:47 GMT
You had a tab open in your browser here for 5 & 1/2 hours? WOW. :)
The later sounds like a reasonable request considering Arch ships its own logrotate.conf..
Comment by (MajorTom) - Wednesday, 25 March 2009, 17:18 GMT
>tab open in your browser here for 5 & 1/2 hours? WOW. :)

That's right! First in line and protected :D

Including the '#size xx' option with a brief comment on what it does will keep it nice and simple and save users some RTFM-time.
Thanks again.
Comment by Glenn Matthys (RedShift) - Thursday, 26 March 2009, 08:27 GMT
-1 from me on adding a commented line to the configuration files. There's a reason why manpages are written, they should be used.
Comment by (MajorTom) - Thursday, 26 March 2009, 12:20 GMT
Well, -1 from me on including EVERY SINGLE option there is. But this one is quite useful and makes it easy to address certain issues quickly without having to dig for information.

In the same manner, why bother including #compress or anything else ...you know what I mean?
Comment by Glenn Matthys (RedShift) - Thursday, 26 March 2009, 12:23 GMT
Because the #compress note is shipped by upstream.
Comment by Jens Adam (byte) - Thursday, 26 March 2009, 16:06 GMT
Our logrotate.conf is a mixup.
It disagrees on the upstream default to use 'dateext', adds an hint about /var/log/archive (as a comment, just like the OP requested for 'size'), adds the 'tabooext' line, and omits quite a bit concerning /var/log/{btmp,wtmp}.

+1 from me for the comment.

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