Manage Log Files With Logrotate in Ubuntu

You need to install logratate 

Sudo apt-get update

Sudo apt-get install logrotate

For confirm logrotate successfully installed or not run :

logrotate

Default logrotate configuration are present in :

/etc/logrotate.conf

Example : 

/var/log/tomcat7/catalina.out {

     copytruncate

      weekly

      rotate 52

      compress

      missingok

      create 640 tomcat7 adm

      size 5M

}

What does it means :

Copytruncate : Truncate  the  original  log  file  to  zero size in place after creating a  copy,  instead  of  moving  the  old  log  file  and  optionally creating a new one.  It can be used when some program cannot be told to close its  logfile  and  thus  might  continue writing (appending) to the previous log file forever.  Note that  there is a very small time slice between copying  the  file  and  truncating  it,  so  some logging data might be lost.  When this option is used, the create option will have no  effect,  as  the old log file stays in place.

Weekly :  Rotate logs once per week. Available options are daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly

Rotate 52 :  Keep 52 files before deleting old log files (Thats a default of 52 weeks, or one years worth of logs!)

Compress :  compress log files.

Missingok : If  the  log  file  is  missing,  go  on to the next one without issuing an error message

Create 640 tomcat7 adm : create <mode> <owner> <group>

Size 5 M :  if log size is bigger than size than it would be rotated.