support/rotatelogs: Support the simplest log rotation case, log

truncation. Useful when the log is being processed in real time
using a command like tail.


git-svn-id: https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/httpd/httpd/trunk@910719 13f79535-47bb-0310-9956-ffa450edef68

1 files changed, 23 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/docs/manual/programs/rotatelogs.xml b/docs/manual/programs/rotatelogs.xml
index 789a71afa6..7c7443a37b 100644
--- a/docs/manual/programs/rotatelogs.xml
+++ b/docs/manual/programs/rotatelogs.xml
@@ -62,6 +62,14 @@ and when the first request is handled, meaning that the
 associated logfile does not "exist" until then, which
 causes problems from some automated logging tools)</dd>
 
+<dt><code>-t</code></dt>
+<dd>Causes the logfile to be truncated instead of rotated. This is
+useful when a log is processed in real time by a command like tail,
+and there is no need for archived data. No suffix will be added to
+the filename, however format strings containing '%' characters
+will be respected.
+</dd>
+
 <dt><code>-v</code></dt>
 <dd>Produce verbose output on STDERR. The output contains
 the result of the configuration parsing, and all file open and
@@ -73,11 +81,12 @@ close actions.</dd>
 includes any '%' characters, it is treated as a format string for
 <code>strftime(3)</code>.  Otherwise, the suffix
 <var>.nnnnnnnnnn</var> is automatically added and is the time in
-seconds.  Both formats compute the start time from the beginning of
-the current period.  For example, if a rotation time of 86400 is 
-specified, the hour, minute, and second fields created from the
-<code>strftime(3)</code> format will all be zero, referring to the
-beginning of the current 24-hour period (midnight).</dd>
+seconds (unless the -t option is used). Both formats compute the
+start time from the beginning of the current period.  For example,
+if a rotation time of 86400 is specified, the hour, minute, and
+second fields created from the <code>strftime(3)</code> format will
+all be zero, referring to the beginning of the current 24-hour
+period (midnight).</dd>
 
 <dt><code><var>rotationtime</var></code></dt>
 
@@ -145,6 +154,15 @@ an offset.</dd>
      will be created of the form
      <code>errorlog.YYYY-mm-dd-HH_MM_SS</code>.</p>
  
+<example>
+     CustomLog "|bin/rotatelogs -t /var/logs/logfile 86400" common
+</example>
+
+     <p>This creates the file /var/logs/logfile, truncating the file at
+     startup and then truncating the file once per day. It is expected
+     in this scenario that a separate process (such as tail) would
+     process the file in real time.</p>
+
 </section>
 
 <section id="portability"><title>Portability</title>