On Sun, Aug 12, 2007 at 02:24:20PM +0200, Ulrich Spoerlein wrote: > ... > > We have a requirement to retain some number of logfiles, but only > > compress those older than the Nth generation. > > > > Thus, we might retain 90 "rotated" generations of the log file, of which > > the oldest 50 are compressed, while the newest 40 are not. > > Sorry, to be so blunt, but I think this .N suffix is a stupid approach > for archival purposes. You never know which time span is included in the > file foo.17.gz.
First, no problem with being blunt; it facilitates communication. :-) That said, we're not keeping the files for particularly long, so "archival" isn't an issue for us. It's merely that the files are extremely compressible (compressed size is about 12% the original), but for various reasons outside the control of those of us who run the machines, we need to keep some number of the most recent of them uncompressed. > I'd rather see an extension for newsyslog which would rotate foo to > foo.2007-08-12.gz, iff rotation is done every day at midnight. > > That way, you get a 'stable' name, which makes it easier to find the > logfile for 1999-12-31 or 2000-01-01 some years from now. And on the other hand, to find the log for 3 days ago, you need to have a better idea of the current date than I generally do unless I check (either my watch or `date`). :-} So there are trade-offs. :-} Then again, I'm rather in the habit of using "ls -ltr ...." when I'm interested in the more recent of a set of files. > Right now, I have to use syslog-ng for that purpose. Well, I certainly wouldn't object to the existence of such a feature, whether or not I'd use it myself. :-) Peace, david -- David H. Wolfskill [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anything and everything is a (potential) cat toy. See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key.
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