NAME

savelogs Frequently Asked Questions

SYNOPSIS

A collection of frequently asked questions about savelogs.

* THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT COMPLETE NOR DOES IT CONTAIN MUCH VALUE AT ALL. PLEASE READ THE MAN PAGE FOR SAVELOGS FOR REAL ANSWERS. THIS DOCUMENT IS CURRENTLY JUST A PLACEHOLDER FOR A FUTURE FAQ *

DESCRIPTION

Q. I don't understand the process phases (move, archive, etc.). What's really going on here?

A. read the manual.

Q. Can I archive just one log file on a regular basis?

A. Sure. You have read the man page, right? You need to decide what "archive" means for you. Some people think archive means to rename the file and then compress it. Other people think it just means to rename the file, etc.

Q. How does savelogs behave with very low disk space?

A. Savelogs uses tar to archive log files and gzip to compress them. If you're adding logs to an archive and then compressing that archive, you must be able to guarantee this much disk space:

       - size of current log * 2
       - size of archive uncompressed

   If this is more space than you have, consider using the 'period'
   option, which will compress a certain quantity (which you specify
   with the 'count' option) of individual logs. While this does not
   save as much total disk space (tar files compress slightly better
   than individual logs because of the added redundancy of multiple
   logs in one file), it does reduce the free disk space required to
   save the log files because you don't have to decompress the tar
   file before adding the log file to it.

   You may also add the 'count' option which will limit the number of
   logs saved. By also specifying the 'size' option and running
   savelogs more frequently, you can get a good idea how much total
   disk space you will need for all of your logs.

   To calculate how much log space you'll need, you can also set the
   'size' limit so that logs only get archived if they are a minimum
   size. This way you can know that the log size will be within a
   certain range (you can run savelogs several times a day to get
   finer control over the log size). Multiply that size plus that log
   compressed (roughly 10:1) times the number of logs. For example:
   
       savelogs --size=500 --count=5 --period --conf=/etc/savelogs.conf
   
    will yield:
   
    500K (approx)    log
     50K             log.0.gz
     50K             log.1.gz
     50K             log.2.gz
     50K             log.3.gz
     50K             log.4.gz
    ===========================
    750K             total logs
   
    You now need roughly only 750K for your logs. Then if you limit
    your user quotas, you can guarantee you never run out of space
    for any reason (barring core dumps and other unforseeable acts).