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Is it possible to run one iteration of logrotate manually without scheduling it on some interval?

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    The problem with logrotate is that it has one Global configuration file, and it does NOT let you run a single log rotate sub-configuration file while still applying the options set in the global configuration file. That is it does not have a nice way to run just ONE log rotation file check, exactly as it would when run each night from cron. It could do with a 'limit to these log files' option, or better still, 'run the global config, but only include this sub-configuration file'. Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 2:27

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909

Yes: logrotate --force $CONFIG_FILE

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9 Comments

note that --force will rotate file(s) even if they do not meet the specified criteria such as minsize, age, etc.
If you place the logrotate config file in /etc/logrotate.d/custom.conf does this mean, you don't need to specify a size/time when the log should automatically rotate? Or should you place the config in a different folder if you do not intend to make it rotate automatically?
The criteria "notifempty" is not ignore by "--force". This stumped me for a while, so i mention this as an exception to @xofer statement.
You can just rotate all with logrotate --force /etc/logrotate.d/ (just directory name)
It's true that --force will force rotation even if files do not meet criteria (age, size, etc), but please consider that this is the only way to spot real problems that with logrotate -d would not emerge (for example, I had a server running out of space due to logrotate not running for months...and thanks to --force I figured out that there were File exists errors. I manually deleted those files and now rotation correctly works again!
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719

logrotate -d [your_config_file] invokes debug mode, giving you a verbose description of what would happen, but leaving the log files untouched.

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those who came here looking for the answer of a question like "how can i test my logrotate conf?" can take this one as an answer , as it just TESTS the conf
not wroked with your approach, I tried with logrotate --force and works well.
I came here searching for an answer to why my logs were not rotated. This was the perfect answer for me, even if it was not the exact answer to the original question.
In case you want to run and actually make the changes, run logrotate -v <your_config_file> where -v is to verbose the logs on the screen.
Guys, this doesn't return non-zero status code if there are errors in your config .
148

If you want to force-run a single specific directory or daemon's log files, you can usually find the configuration in /etc/logrotate.d, and they will work standalone.

Keep in mind that global configuration specified in /etc/logrotate.conf will not apply, so if you do this you should ensure you specify all the options you want in the /etc/logrotate.d/[servicename] config file specifically.

You can try it out with -d to see what would happen:

logrotate -df /etc/logrotate.d/nginx

Then you can run (using nginx as an example):

logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/nginx

And the nginx logs alone will be rotated.

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This is well and good, but you lose any global settings that you have in the "/etc/logrotate.conf". I wrote a script to merge the global and specific logrotate files together then use it so as to solve this problem. (see my answer).
Using logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.conf will run through any other included conf files too.
73

You may want to run it in verbose + force mode.

logrotate -vf /etc/logrotate.conf

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Concise and works($CONFIG_FILE evaluates to the empty string on my system): should be the accepted answer. Suggestion for improvement: do mention this rotates all logs by default.
43

The way to run all of logrotate is:

logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.conf

that will run the primary logrotate file, which includes the other logrotate configurations as well

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33

Issue the following command,the way to run specified logrotate:

logrotate -vf /etc/logrotate.d/custom

Options:

-v :show the process

-f :forcing run

custom :user-defined log setting

eg: mongodb-log

# mongodb-log rotate

/data/var/log/mongodb/mongod.log {
    daily
    dateext
    rotate 30
    copytruncate
    missingok
}
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plus1 for actually providing a complete example. PS How can we determine what logrotate actually does to the files?
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Edit /var/lib/logrotate.status (or /var/lib/logrotate/logrotate.status) to reset the 'last rotated' date on the log file you want to test.

Then run logrotate YOUR_CONFIG_FILE.

Or you can use the --force flag, but editing logrotate.status gives you more precision over what does and doesn't get rotated.

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This /var/lib/logrotate.status file doesn't exist on Debian Squeeze.
Try /var/lib/logrotate/status. I'm not sure if this is an debian/redhat thing, or if I put "." where I should have put "/".
I know this is a bit old, but it could be useful for others. To find where the state file is on the system you are using, run: logrotate -dv /usr/local/etc/logrotate.conf and look for the line starting with "Reading state from file:"
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Created a shell script to solve the problem.

https://antofthy.gitlab.io/software/#logrotate_one

This script will run just the single logrotate sub-configuration file found in "/etc/logrotate.d", but include the global settings from in the global configuration file "/etc/logrotate.conf". You can also use other otpions for testing it...

For example...

  logrotate_one -d syslog
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