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. Really. There's a brief little ditty on 'phases' right at the top of 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 (unless you specify otherwise). 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).

Q.

Can I specify my own compression program?

A.

Yes. Use the gzip directive to specify a path to an alternative compression program like bzip.

Q.

Can I specify my own date format when renaming logs?

A.

As of version 1.33 you may use the datefmt directive on the command-line or in your configuration file. datefmt uses the same arguments as strftime(1), so read that manpage.

Q.

Any way to "group" logs with similar settings to avoid running savelogs so many times?

A.

As of version 1.90 you may use the Group directive. See manpage for details.