← Back to team overview

papercuts-ninja team mailing list archive

[Bug 1630516] Re: Logrotate fails repeatedly with /etc/cron.daily/logrotate: error: error creating output file /var/log/... File exists run-parts: /etc/cron.daily/logrotate exited with return code 1

 

That does sound a bit tenuous but could be easily settled by a policy decision on whether: 
 i) Bugs that directly block the installation of security patches are security bugs.  
 ii) Bugs that cause disk space to fill which in turn block security patch install are security bugs.  

I would have said that i sounds like a possible valid case but ii is
getting a bit drawn out.  Still I expect the situation and suggestion
will have popped up before somewhere.  Looking at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSecurity#How%20to%20File it does not
mention blocking security patches as a criteria which would thrown the
whole idea of it being a security bug out.

If in doubt ask.  I shall try heading over to IRC and seeing if someone
can answer the question.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Papercuts
Ninjas, which is subscribed to the bug report.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1630516

Title:
  Logrotate fails repeatedly with /etc/cron.daily/logrotate: error:
  error creating output file /var/log/... File exists run-parts:
  /etc/cron.daily/logrotate exited with return code 1

Status in logrotate package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in logrotate package in Debian:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  Good afternoon.  
  I have started seeing something very similar to Debian Dug 734688 "Logs are not rotated for a month" but in the latest Ubuntu LTS (16.04).  I seem to have 
  $ logrotate --version
  logrotate 3.8.7
  bundled in it.  A few weeks ago I started getting root emails such as this:
  > Subject: Cron <root@warden> test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
  >
  > /etc/cron.daily/logrotate:
  > error: error creating output file /var/log/munin/munin-node.log.1: File exists
  > run-parts: /etc/cron.daily/logrotate exited with return code 1
  When I inspected the area of concern I was able to see that there was an existing .1 file.  
  manager@warden:/var/log/munin$ ll
  total 580
  drwxr-xr-x  2 munin adm      4096 Sep 27 06:31 ./
  drwxr-xr-x 13 root  syslog   4096 Oct  5 06:26 ../
  -rw-r--r--  1 root  root     3440 Sep 26 13:39 munin-node-configure.log
  -rw-r--r--  1 root  root   490251 Oct  5 10:25 munin-node.log
  -rw-r--r--  1 root  root    56598 Sep 21 02:01 munin-node.log.1
  -rw-r--r--  1 root  root    24576 Aug 31 02:01 munin-node.log.2
  -rw-r--r--  1 root  root     1906 Sep 19 06:25 munin-node.log.8.gz
  The contents of the munin-node.log file seem to run from the 19th September until today.  Unlike other parts of this bug the .1 and .2 files do not seem to be already compressed.  

  I deleted all but the munin-node.log file to see if it would resolve the problem and was going to leave it at that.  Then I noticed that I have had another Ubuntu machine which has been sending similar emails for the past week:
  > Subject: Cron <root@trac> test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
  >
  > /etc/cron.daily/logrotate:
  > error: error creating output file /var/log/syslog.1.gz: File exists
  > run-parts: /etc/cron.daily/logrotate exited with return code 1
  Different file, different machine but a very similar error message.  

  Checking on the syslog file I can see that it better fits with other reports on this bug as my duplicated .1 files has a corresponding .1.gz file.  
  manager@trac:/var/log$ ll syslog*
  -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm 918492 Oct  5 10:30 syslog
  -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm 125819 Sep 30 06:25 syslog.1
  -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  20638 Oct  2 02:01 syslog.1.gz
  -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  41989 Sep 30 02:00 syslog.2.gz
  -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  18654 Sep 28 02:01 syslog.3.gz
  -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  31720 Sep 26 06:40 syslog.4.gz
  -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  33151 Sep 25 02:01 syslog.5.gz
  -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  17290 Sep 23 02:01 syslog.6.gz
  -rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  39275 Sep 21 06:35 syslog.7.gz

  There has been some speculation that a full or nearly full /var
  partition would cause this issue.  I can confirm that /var is part of
  / on my systems and that presently both of them have several gigabytes
  of space.  I run Munin an Icinga to monitor system state.  Neither of
  these show / being completely full in the past month.  They have both
  had /boot fill significantly.  Trac had a highest use value of / being
  99.28% full in the past year  but warden has only had a peak of 33% in
  the past year.

  A quick search of the internet suggests a couple of other people reporting similar issues: 
  https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/issues/6894
  http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/22545/why-are-system-logs-not-rotating 

  I do not believe that I have altered by logrotate configuration files but here is a copy of the ones I know about:
  $ cat /etc/logrotate.conf 
  # see "man logrotate" for details
  # rotate log files weekly
  weekly

  # use the syslog group by default, since this is the owning group
  # of /var/log/syslog.
  su root syslog

  # keep 4 weeks worth of backlogs
  rotate 4

  # create new (empty) log files after rotating old ones
  create

  # uncomment this if you want your log files compressed
  #compress

  # packages drop log rotation information into this directory
  include /etc/logrotate.d

  # no packages own wtmp, or btmp -- we'll rotate them here
  /var/log/wtmp {
      missingok
      monthly
      create 0664 root utmp
      rotate 1
  }

  /var/log/btmp {
      missingok
      monthly
      create 0660 root utmp
      rotate 1
  }

  # system-specific logs may be configured here

  $ cat /etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog 
  /var/log/syslog
  {
              rotate 7
              daily
              missingok
              notifempty
              delaycompress
              compress
              postrotate
                          reload rsyslog >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
              endscript
  }

  /var/log/mail.info
  /var/log/mail.warn
  /var/log/mail.err
  /var/log/mail.log
  /var/log/daemon.log
  /var/log/kern.log
  /var/log/auth.log
  /var/log/user.log
  /var/log/lpr.log
  /var/log/cron.log
  /var/log/debug
  /var/log/messages
  {
              rotate 4
              weekly
              missingok
              notifempty
              compress
              delaycompress
              sharedscripts
              postrotate
                          reload rsyslog >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
              endscript
  }

  manager@trac:/var/log$ cat /etc/logrotate.d/munin-node 
  /var/log/munin/munin-node.log {
              daily
              missingok
              rotate 7
              compress
              copytruncate
              notifempty
              create 640 root root
  }

  I am confident that is all the files which are relative to the configuration:
  manager@trac:/var/log$ rgrep syslog /etc/logrotate.*
  /etc/logrotate.conf:# use the syslog group by default, since this is the owning group
  /etc/logrotate.conf:# of /var/log/syslog.
  /etc/logrotate.conf:su root syslog
  /etc/logrotate.d/ufw:                invoke-rc.d rsyslog reload >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
  /etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog:/var/log/syslog
  /etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog:                       reload rsyslog >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
  /etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog:                       reload rsyslog >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
  manager@trac:/var/log$ rgrep munin /etc/logrotate.*
  /etc/logrotate.d/munin-node:/var/log/munin/munin-node.log

  If there is anything else I can do to help diagnose the issue please
  let me know.

  Usual boiler plate bits: 
  "trac" machine:
  $ lsb_release -rd
  Description:	Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
  Release:	14.04

  $ apt-cache policy logrotate
  logrotate:
    Installed: 3.8.7-1ubuntu1
    Candidate: 3.8.7-1ubuntu1
    Version table:
   *** 3.8.7-1ubuntu1 0
          500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
          100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

  "warden" machine:
  $ lsb_release -rd
  Description:	Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
  Release:	16.04

  $ apt-cache policy logrotate 
  logrotate:
    Installed: 3.8.7-2ubuntu2
    Candidate: 3.8.7-2ubuntu2
    Version table:
   *** 3.8.7-2ubuntu2 500
          500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
          100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
  N: Ignoring file '50unattended-upgrades.ucf-dist' in directory '/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/' as it has an invalid filename extension

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
  Package: logrotate 3.8.7-1ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-42.49~14.04.1-generic 4.2.8-ckt12
  Uname: Linux 4.2.0-42-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.21
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Wed Oct  5 11:14:53 2016
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-12-14 (295 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 14.04.3 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Beta amd64 (20150805)
  SourcePackage: logrotate
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/logrotate/+bug/1630516/+subscriptions