Recently I encountered a scenario where an application generates timestamped log files in the format app.log.DD_MM_YYYY, and I needed to clean up these old logs without actually rotating them. While logrotate is typically used for rotation, it can also handle pure deletion of log files when configured properly.

My first configuration attempt looked like this:

/opt/log/app/app.log.* {
    rotate 0
    missingok
    nomail
}

This didn't work because logrotate expects to perform some form of rotation by default.

After some research and testing, I found the correct configuration needs these additional parameters:

/opt/log/app/app.log.* {
    daily
    rotate 0
    missingok
    nocreate
    nocompress
    notifempty
    nomail
}

• rotate 0: Immediately removes old logs rather than keeping any rotations
• nocreate: Prevents logrotate from creating a new empty log file
• nocompress: Skip compression since we're just deleting
• notifempty: Don't rotate if empty (though we're deleting anyway)

If you prefer more control, a simple bash script in cron might be better:

#!/bin/bash
# Delete logs older than 30 days
find /opt/log/app/app.log.* -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

Logrotate is better when:

• You want to leverage existing logrotate infrastructure
• Need integration with other log rotation policies

A custom script is better when:

• You need complex deletion criteria
• Want to avoid logrotate's learning curve for simple tasks

Always test with:

logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.conf

The -d flag performs a dry run showing what would happen.

When dealing with timestamped log files like app.log.DD_MM_YYYY, traditional log rotation becomes tricky because:

• The files already contain rotation semantics in their names
• Standard rotation would create redundant copies (app.log.DD_MM_YYYY.1)
• We only need cleanup - not actual rotation

Your attempted configuration was close. Here's the proper setup:

/opt/log/app/app.log.* {
    daily
    rotate 0
    missingok
    nomail
    nocreate
    nocompress
    notifempty
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        # Optional: Any post-deletion commands
        /bin/true
    endscript
}

Key directives explained:

• rotate 0: Immediately deletes matched files
• nocreate: Prevents new empty log creation
• sharedscripts: Runs postrotate once for all files

For those preferring a more direct approach:

# In crontab -e
0 3 * * * find /opt/log/app/ -name "app.log.*" -mtime +30 -exec rm {} \;

This deletes files older than 30 days at 3AM daily.

Test your configuration with:

sudo logrotate -dv /etc/logrotate.conf

Common pitfalls:

• Wrong file permissions (needs read access to log dir)
• Missing nocreate causing empty log files
• Incorrect glob pattern matching

Here's a complete solution we use for Apache timestamped logs:

/var/log/apache2/*.log.20* {
    weekly
    rotate 0
    missingok
    compress
    delaycompress
    notifempty
    nocreate
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
        /etc/init.d/apache2 reload > /dev/null
    endscript
}