Oracle Linux 10 – custom application logs never rotate causing giant log files – Fix & Prevention

📖 ~1 min read

Table of contents

1. Symptom & Impact
2. Environment & Reproduction
3. Root Cause Analysis
4. Quick Triage
5. Step-by-Step Diagnosis
6. Solution – Primary Fix
7. Solution – Alternative Approaches
8. Verification & Acceptance Criteria
9. Rollback Plan
10. Prevention & Hardening
11. Related Errors & Cross-Refs
12. References & Further Reading

Symptom & Impact

Large app logs consume disk and can crash services that cannot write new log data.

Environment & Reproduction

Application writes to /var/log/myapp/*.log but no logrotate rule exists.

ls -lh /var/log/myapp

Root Cause Analysis

logrotate does not include custom path or postrotate reload hook is missing.

Quick Triage

Check cron or systemd timer execution and logrotate status file.

systemctl status logrotate.timer
cat /var/lib/logrotate/logrotate.status | tail -n 20

Step-by-Step Diagnosis

Run logrotate in debug mode to inspect rule matching.

logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.conf
grep -R myapp /etc/logrotate.d

Solution – Primary Fix

Create a dedicated logrotate policy and test forced rotation.

sudo tee /etc/logrotate.d/myapp >/dev/null <<'EOF'
/var/log/myapp/*.log {
  daily
  rotate 14
  compress
  missingok
  notifempty
  copytruncate
}
EOF
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf

Solution – Alternative Approaches

Shift logs to journald and control retention centrally.

Verification & Acceptance Criteria

Rotated files appear with compression and current log is truncated.

ls -lh /var/log/myapp
logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.conf

Rollback Plan

Remove custom rule if it conflicts with application logging behavior.

Prevention & Hardening

Require logrotate policy as part of every service deployment checklist.

Related Errors & Cross-Refs

Related to journald growth and permissions preventing compression.

Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for oracle-linux-10.

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References & Further Reading

RHEL logrotate and service logging best practices.