Logrotate prevents log files from consuming all available disk space by automatically rotating, compressing, and deleting old log files. Ubuntu uses logrotate by default for system logs. This guide configures logrotate for system and custom application logs on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.

Tested and valid on:

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS

Prerequisites

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
A user with sudo privileges

Step 1 – Check Logrotate Installation

which logrotate
logrotate --version

Step 2 – Understand the Configuration

cat /etc/logrotate.conf
ls /etc/logrotate.d/

Step 3 – Inspect an Existing Config

cat /etc/logrotate.d/nginx

Step 4 – Create a Custom Log Rotation Config

sudo nano /etc/logrotate.d/myapp

Add:

/var/log/myapp/*.log {
    daily
    missingok
    rotate 14
    compress
    delaycompress
    notifempty
    create 0640 www-data www-data
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        systemctl reload myapp 2>/dev/null || true
    endscript
}

Step 5 – Test the Configuration

sudo logrotate --debug /etc/logrotate.d/myapp
sudo logrotate --force /etc/logrotate.d/myapp

Step 6 – Logrotate Directives Explained

daily/weekly/monthly — rotation frequency
rotate N — keep N old log files
compress — gzip rotated logs
delaycompress — compress on next rotation (for apps that keep file open)
missingok — no error if log file is missing
notifempty — do not rotate empty files
create — create new log file with specified permissions
postrotate — run command after rotation

Step 7 – Check Rotation Status

cat /var/lib/logrotate/status | head -20

Conclusion

Logrotate is configured on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. It runs daily via cron/systemd timers. Create per-application configurations in /etc/logrotate.d/ to ensure all application logs are rotated appropriately.

How to Configure Logrotate on Ubuntu 26.04