Apache comes with a logrotate utility. You can customize the way logrotate behaves by editing the /etc/logrotate.d/apache file. The logrotate utility has many options. In this example, we are rotating the log files that are located at the /var/www/domain.com/log/ directory. We are instructing the log files to rotate monthly for a total of 24 times. We are compressing the files by zipping them. We are using the date extension as part of the filename. We are also delaying the compression until the log has been rotated at least twice. Finally, Apache is restarted.
$ sudo nano /etc/logrotate.d/apache /var/www/domain.com/*.log { monthly missingok rotate 24 dateext compress delaycompress notifempty create 640 root adm sharedscripts postrotate if /etc/init.d/apache2 status > /dev/null ; then \ /etc/init.d/apache2 reload > /dev/null; \ fi; endscript prerotate if [ -d /etc/logrotate.d/httpd-prerotate ]; then \ run-parts /etc/logrotate.d/httpd-prerotate; \ fi; \ endscript } |
To learn more about the logrotate utility, please visit the documentation.