I am trying to determine the time that my daily (and other) logs were being rotated. I found this:

#/etc/cron.d/anacron: crontab entries for the anacron package

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

30 7 * * * root test -x /etc/init.d/anacron && /usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d anacron start >/dev/null


My server does seem to be rotating my daily logs at 0730 each morning. Is this where I would change the time for this? How would I do this using the safety of crontab for #/etc/cron.d/anacron?

Could I execute this manually to force a log rotation without ending up with two rotations:

test -x /etc/init.d/anacron && /usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d anacron start >/dev/null

Thanks.

Assuming this is on Debian 7 Wheezy, logrotate is run by /etc/cron.daily/logrotate. On a system with anacron installed, all the /etc/cron.daily/* scripts are run in lexical order by run-parts as scheduled by /etc/crontab. The default /etc/crontab:
The actual time that the /etc/cron.daily/logrotate script starts depends on how long previous corn.daily scripts take to run.

Thanks, I'll have to time this to see what is happening.

I guess I am going to need explicit instructions on this.

My /etc/cron.d/anacron file:

#/etc/cron.d/anacron: crontab entries for the anacron package

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

30 7 * * * root test -x /etc/init.d/anacron && /usr/sbin/invoke-rc.d anacron start >/dev/null

My /etc/cron.daily/logrotate file:

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
17 * * * * root cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly )
52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly )

Now what do I need to change the times in one or both of these files to change the daily logrotate to 20:30 my local time? Right now it seems to be rotating around 07:45 to 08:00.

First disable the existing /etc/cron.daily/logrotate. A nice way to do so is to rename it as /etc/cron.daily/logrotate.disabled. That way it is easy to restore it if and when you want and clear that it has been disabled.

Then set up a scheduled job to replace it. Three options:

1. /etc/crontab
2. root's crontab
3. An /etc/cron.d file

AFAIK "the Debian way" is to use root's crontab (/etc/crontab is installed by package so best not changed and IIRC /etc/cron.d is intended for packages, not sysadmins to create files in).

As root, use the crontab -e command (taking care not to key r instead of e!) and create a line:
EDIT: that's not really your /etc/cron.daily/logrotate file is it?!

Thanks!

Yes, this s what is in my /etc/cron.daily/logrotate:

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
17 * * * * root cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly )
52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly )

What is really strange about this is one of my daily file date/tine rotated at 'Tue Aug 26 07:27:34 CDT 2014'. Not 30 7 or 25 6. It looks like the
25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
may be triggering the rotate, but at 6:25am? Can't figure.

The contents of your /etc/cron.daily/logrotate are the same as the default /etc/crontab. /etc/cron.daily/logrotate should be:
The "daily file date/time rotated at 'Tue Aug 26 07:27:34 CDT 2014'. Not 30 7 or 25 6." could be caused by the /etc/cron.daily jobs before logrotate taking around an hour to run.

Ok, thanks. Actually, I had that wrong. My /etc/cron.daily/logrotate is:

#!/bin/sh

test -x /usr/sbin/logrotate || exit 0
/usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf

I tried changing:
25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )

to

30 20 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )

at one tome, but the rotate never happened. I don't think that I have to reset logrotate after this change with any special restart parameters.

You could try restoring the original /etc/crontab and using the technique given in
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...8/#post5227301