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• Definition
• Behavior

Definition

logRotate

The logRotate command is an administrative command that allows you to rotate the MongoDB logs to prevent a single logfile from consuming too much disk space.

You must issue the logRotate command against the admin database in the form:

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{ logRotate: 1 }

Note

Your mongod instance needs to be running with the --logpath [file] option.

You may also rotate the logs by sending a SIGUSR1 signal to the mongod process. If your mongod has a process ID of 2200, here’s how to send the signal on Linux:

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kill -SIGUSR1 2200

Behavior

The systemLog.logRotate setting or --logRotate option specify logRotate’s behavior.

When systemLog.logRotate or --logRotate are set to rename, logRotate renames the existing log file by appending the current timestamp to the filename. The appended timestamp has the following form:

<YYYY>-<mm>-<DD>T<HH>-<MM>-<SS>

Then logRotate creates a new log file with the same name as originally specified by the systemLog.path setting to mongod or mongos.

When systemLog.logRotate or --logRotate are set to reopen, logRotate follows the typical Linux/Unix behavior, and simply closes the log file, and then reopens a log file with the same name. With reopen, mongod expects that another process renames the file prior to the rotation, and that the reopen results in the creation of a new file.