/usr/sbin/logrotate is the program that moves and renames files in /var/log. On Redhat systems, it typically does this by numbering and renumbering - messages becomes messages.1, .1 becomes .2, etc. This makes life difficult for rsync backups, which saves each copy of each renumbered file.
Ruediger Oertel at Suse (ro@suse.de) has some patches that enhance the basic Redhat Logrotate with "dateext". This allows a dated extension rather than a numbered one, i.e. messages.29102003 . The old logfiles do not get renamed, just discarded after they get too old. This is a lot easier on rsync, and it also is easier to administer.
Ruediger's patches do not change the current logrotate behavior, just adds the new features. His patch to logrotate 3.6.10 can be found at:
ftp.suse.com/pub/people/ro/logrotate
Suse has been making these patches to RH logrotate for years, and I've been running versions of their code for a few weeks while still using the old logrotate method for testing. It would be nice to fold this into the main line of fedora/redhat and eliminate a needless code fork. Who do I talk to in order to make this happen?
Keith
BTW, this is the third attempt at sending this, though perhaps the first clueful attempt ... :-)
-- Keith Lofstrom keithl@ieee.org Voice (503)-520-1993 KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon" Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs
On Oct 31, 2003, Keith Lofstrom keithl@kl-ic.com wrote:
Ruediger Oertel at Suse (ro@suse.de) has some patches that enhance the basic Redhat Logrotate with "dateext". This allows a dated extension rather than a numbered one, i.e. messages.29102003
This is nice! Please file an RFE on bugzilla.