Logrotate Automation Script

This simple Bash script automates the execution of logrotate for specific log files, ensuring that your logs are managed effectively to prevent disk space issues and improve system performance.

Features

Automated Log Rotation: Automatically runs logrotate with a specified configuration.
Status Tracking: Utilizes a status file to keep track of the last rotation times.
Error Handling: Checks for the existence of the configuration file and logs errors if it's missing.
Logging: Records the execution status and any errors to a dedicated log file.

Getting Started

These instructions will help you set up and run the script on your system.

Prerequisites

logrotate: This utility is typically pre-installed on most Linux distributions. If not, you can install it using your system's package manager (e.g., sudo apt-get install logrotate on Debian/Ubuntu, sudo yum install logrotate on CentOS/RHEL).

Installation

Save the Script: Copy the provided script content into a file (e.g., run_logrotate.sh) in your desired directory.
Make Executable: Grant execute permissions to the script:
```
chmod +x run_logrotate.sh
```
Create Configuration: Create a logrotate.cfg file in the same directory as the script. This file will contain your logrotate rules.
Create Log and Status Files: The script will create these if they don't exist, but you can create empty ones manually if you prefer:
```
touch logrotate.status
touch logrotate.log
```

Usage

Configuration (`logrotate.cfg`)

The logrotate.cfg file defines how your logs should be rotated. Here's a basic example:

/var/log/my_app/*.log {
    daily
    rotate 7
    compress
    missingok
    notifempty
    create 640 root adm
    dateext
}

Replace /var/log/my_app/*.log with the actual path to your log files.
daily: Rotate logs daily.
rotate 7: Keep 7 rotated log files.
compress: Compress old log files.
missingok: Don't issue an error if the log file is missing.
notifempty: Don't rotate the log if it is empty.
create 640 root adm: Create new log files with specified permissions and ownership.
dateext: Archive rotated logs by adding a date extension.

For more details on logrotate configuration, refer to the logrotate man page (man logrotate).

Running the Script

You can run the script manually:

./run_logrotate.sh

Automation (Cron Job)

To automate log rotation, it's recommended to set up a cron job.

Open your crontab for editing:
```
crontab -e
```
Add a line to execute the script at your desired interval. For example, to run it daily at 3:00 AM:
```
0 3 * * * /home/oberkoetter/Dokumente/Git/rettedpv/run_logrotate.sh >> /dev/null 2>&1
```
Make sure to replace /home/oberkoetter/Dokumente/Git/rettedpv/run_logrotate.sh with the actual full path to your script. The >> /dev/null 2>&1 part redirects standard output and error to /dev/null to prevent unnecessary emails from cron.

Script Details

The script performs the following actions:

Changes Directory: Navigates to /home/oberkoetter/Dokumente/Git/rettedpv. Note: You might want to adjust this path if you move the script.
Defines Paths: Sets variables for the logrotate.cfg, logrotate.status, and logrotate.log files within the current working directory.
Checks Configuration: Verifies if logrotate.cfg exists. If not, it logs an error and exits.
Executes Logrotate: Runs logrotate in forced mode (-f) using the specified configuration and status files.
Logs Success: Appends a success message to logrotate.log after a successful execution.

Project Structure

.
├── run_logrotate.sh
├── logrotate.cfg
├── logrotate.log
└── logrotate.status

run_logrotate.sh: The main script to execute logrotate.
logrotate.cfg: The configuration file for logrotate.
logrotate.log: Logs the execution history of the script.
logrotate.status: Logrotate's internal status file.

Troubleshooting

"Fehler: Konfigurationsdatei './logrotate.cfg' nicht gefunden.": Ensure logrotate.cfg is in the same directory as the script or update the CONFIG variable in the script to the correct path.
Script not running via cron: Double-check the cron job entry for correct paths and permissions. You can test by manually running the script. Also, check your logrotate.log for any errors.
Log files not rotating: Verify your logrotate.cfg syntax. You can test your logrotate configuration directly using logrotate -d your_config_file (debug mode) or logrotate -f your_config_file (force mode).

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