logrotate works manually but not works automatically via cron on Ubuntu 18.04

Hank Chow

2/20/24, 6:22 AM

I have a logrotate task to rotate my nginx logs. I have my config file in /etc/logrotate.d/nginx. When I run logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/nginx, it can rotate the logs correctly, which means my config file is corrent.

By when I put the command in cron like 0 0 * * * logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/nginx, the logs are not rotated. Although I can see CRON[6006]: (root) CMD (logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/nginx) in /var/log/cron.log, which means the command does have been run. Is there anything wrong?

Here's my logrotate config file:

/var/log/nginx/access.log {
    daily
    rotate 3
    compress
    copytruncate
    dateext
}

/var/log/nginx/error.log {
    daily
    rotate 7
    compress
    copytruncate
    dateext
}

282

0 + 3

ubuntu

logrotate

cron

Gerald Schneider

2/20/24, 6:29 AM

Why do you add it manually to cron in the first place? Just adding the config to logrotate should be enough for logrotate to handle it during its regular run.

Hank Chow

2/20/24, 6:37 AM

Maybe it's better to let logrotate itself to handle it during its regular run. But I think it won't make any conflict if I set the logrotate task in cron. @GeraldSchneider

Gerald Schneider

2/20/24, 6:40 AM

Does this answer your question? [Why is my crontab not working, and how can I troubleshoot it?](https://serverfault.com/questions/449651/why-is-my-crontab-not-working-and-how-can-i-troubleshoot-it)

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EN: logrotate works manually but not works automatically via cron on Ubuntu 18.04

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