Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 677279
[RFE] rotatelogs needs to create files even if they are empty
Last modified: 2013-07-03 00:10:43 EDT
2. What is the nature and description of the request? The customer is looking to use httpd's rotatelogs more heavily in their environment, but it lacks a certain piece of functionality which prevents it from being the ideal tool for the job. The customer rotates their httpd logs out at a specified interval of time, and has a requirement that there be a log file in place for every interval, even if the file is empty. rotatelogs will only create a file for the specified interval if data has been written to it. 3. Why does the customer need this? (List the business requirements here) Log data is analyzed by customer to improve their services, and the lack of a particular time period adds additional complexity to these activities. 4. How would the customer like to achieve this? (List the functional requirements here) A flag for the rotatelogs binary that would cause it to create a file even if its 0 bytes 5. For each functional requirement listed in question 4, specify how Red Hat and the customer can test to confirm the requirement is successfully implemented. In their httpd configuration, configure rotatelogs using the new flag. During a specified time period ensure no requests are logged, and once the rotation interval arrives, make sure a file was created by rotatelogs. 6. Is there already an existing RFE upstream or in Red Hat bugzilla? Not to my knowledge 7. How quickly does this need resolved? (desired target release) RHEL 5.7 8. Does this request meet the RHEL Inclusion criteria (please review) Yes 9. List the affected packages httpd
Historically we have tried to keep rotatelogs as a relatively simple tool, upstream - if not perhaps strictly "as simple as possible". It's generally been preferred that more complex features are supported by third-party piped logging tools; cronolog was once popular though has not been maintained in a while. It should be possible to support the desired mode of operation with an unmodified rotatelogs by doing two things: a) running rotatelogs with the -f flag b) forcing a termination of any running rotatelogs process at the beginning of each new rotation period. We could probably support without adding too much complexity to the tool; I will propose something upstream and see how it goes down.
Since the problem described in this bug report should be resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated files, follow the link below. If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2012-0261.html