How to make a cron job

Avatar · 12-08-2006, 09:57 AM

Hello

I have some custom log files that are getting very big. (36 MB and 87 MB respectively). I have some other log files, that came with my distro, that are switched every week so they are the regular log file and a compressed backup. I think the squid log is one of those. example: cache.log, cache.log.1.gz to cache.log.5.gz

I believe this is done with a cron job. How do I make a cron job to compress and backup my custom log files every day?

My custom log files are:
/var/log/squidGuard/badurls.log
/var/log/squidGuard/squidGuard.log

Thanks for the help.

lord-fu · 12-08-2006, 10:20 AM

You could create a script and then drop it in cron daily, or manually edit the crontab and add the script.

Avatar · 12-08-2006, 01:26 PM

Thanks for the reply. If you read the question, I need to know "HOW TO", not "what to".

In other words, I need a step by step guide to how to do what I am asking. What files I need to edit, what I need to type in, etc. That's why this question is in the newbie category, because I really don't know how to do it and never did it before.

I'm using Mandrake Multi Network Firewall with no GUI.

fordeck · 12-08-2006, 03:48 PM

You might check out the man pages for logrotate. I'm not sure on your distro, but on fedora core there is a directory /etc/logrotate.d/ that contains all of the config files. For example the squid file looks like this:

Code:

[root@dbox logrotate.d]# cat squid
/var/log/squid/access.log {
    weekly
    rotate 5
    copytruncate
    compress
    notifempty
    missingok
}
/var/log/squid/cache.log {
    weekly
    rotate 5
    copytruncate
    compress
    notifempty
    missingok
}

/var/log/squid/store.log {
    weekly
    rotate 5
    copytruncate
    compress
    notifempty
    missingok
# This script asks squid to rotate its logs on its own.
# Restarting squid is a long process and it is not worth
# doing it just to rotate logs
    postrotate
      /usr/sbin/squid -k rotate
    endscript
}

Most of the details for the config files can be found in the man pages for "logrotate". If you use /etc/logrotate.d/squid it should already be included in a cron job. However as I said before this is dependant on your distro. But it sounded like you have log rotation going on and all you need to do is add these files to the process.

Hope this helps,
Fordeck

Avatar · 12-12-2006, 07:45 AM

hi fordeck,

Based on your reply I have edited /etc/logrotate.d/squid to add the following lines.

Code:

/var/log/squidGuard/badurls.log /var/log/squidGuard/squidGuard.log {
   weekly
   rotate 5
   copytruncate
   compress
   notifempty
   missingok
}

I just copied the same things that the squid logs have, since I basically want them to do the same thing. I did this last night and this morning the logs did not get backed up. Can you tell me what I did wrong?

Thanks.

Tinkster · 12-12-2006, 11:31 AM

Backed up? Or rotated?

Cheers,
Tink

Avatar · 12-12-2006, 12:08 PM

Whatever the other ones do. You know, make a copy and compress it so it becomes logfile.log.1.gz and then start a new logfile.

Anyway, it didn't work.

chrism01 · 12-12-2006, 06:01 PM

You'll need a shell script (called logrotate) like this:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf
EXITVALUE=$?
if [ $EXITVALUE != 0 ]; then
    /usr/bin/logger -t logrotate "ALERT exited abnormally with [$EXITVALUE]"
fi
exit 0

Check for a line in logrotate.conf like:

include /etc/logrotate.d

and you'll need a cron entry in /etc/crontab like so:

Code:

50 23 * * *       root    /path/to/logrotate

Avatar · 12-19-2006, 09:55 AM

OK ummmmmmm

I didn't really understand that last post. I have the file /usr/sbin/logrotate, but when I opened it in vi it was a bunch of gibberish. I guess this means it's a binary file, anyway I can't read it.

I looked in /etc/logrotate.conf and it has the line you mentioned.

I looked in /etc/crontab but it did not have my squid stuff in there. I do not know how my squid logs are getting logrotated. But I want my squidguard stuff to do the same thing.

Avatar · 12-29-2006, 09:16 AM

help, my logs are still not getting rotated. Anyone?

deoren · 03-09-2007, 10:54 AM

Still having the problem?