# logrotate/logrotate

The logrotate utility is designed to simplify the administration of log files on a system which generates a lot of log files.

Repository: https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/logrotate
Language: C
License: GPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2026-08-01T00:43:50+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 66/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 95, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4165, "days_push": 33, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1545, forks 220 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:01.509751+00:00)

## What it is
logrotate is a classic Unix utility that automates rotation, compression, removal, and mailing of log files on systems that generate many logs. It can be scheduled hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or triggered by file size or elapsed time.

## Use cases
- rotate apache or nginx log files daily
- compress old log files automatically
- delete logs older than 30 days
- rotate logs when they reach a certain size
- prevent log files from filling up disk space
- manage systemd journal or syslog rotation

## When to choose
- you administer Linux servers that produce many log files
- you need time- or size-based rotation with compression and retention
- you want a battle-tested standard tool available in every distro

## When to avoid
- you need centralized log aggregation or search (use ELK, Loki, etc.)
- you want structured JSON log shipping rather than file rotation
- you are on a platform without cron or systemd timers

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: logging, compression, file-system, cli, scheduling
- domain: self-hosted, operating-systems
- platform: cli, cross-platform
- tags: log-management, log-rotation, sysadmin, unix-utility, devops, automation, linux

## Member repositories
- logrotate/logrotate (main) score 66

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:01.509751+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:30:35.852416+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:01.509751+00:00, sha b5eead2e588f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.