Bug 549850

Summary:	sys-process/acct-6.5.5-r3 logrotate script overrides user-set values
Product:	Gentoo Linux	Reporter:	Dimitrios Semitsoglou-Tsiapos <kmhzsem>
Component:	[OLD] Core system	Assignee:	Gentoo's Team for Core System packages <base-system>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Normal
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---

Description Dimitrios Semitsoglou-Tsiapos 2015-05-18 20:33:59 UTC

The logrotate script that ships with acct overrides the following variables which a user may want to set globally in /etc/logrotate.conf:

compress  -- Annoying. `zgrep`, for example, does not support `-r`.
rotate 31 -- Dangerous. This dictates when logs are deleted.
daily     -- Same as above.

A few more points:

* Global configuration is important for predictability and scripting.

* If size on the filesystem is a concern, the user can:
  * set e-mail warnings
  * set filesize-based rotation limits
  * enable compression only for logs which he or she expects to grow

* Logs are a security measure.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Thomas Deutschmann (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2017-07-27 14:33:25 UTC

Thanks for the report.

I am closing this as invalid because while I share some arguments it is impossible to ship a default logrotate configuration for sys-process/acct which fits on all systems:

We set "daily" per default because the amount of data logged by this service is usually high. Due to daily rotation we also need to adjust "rotate" because otherwise logrotate's current default of "rotate 4" wouldn't make sense.

It is not a CANTFIX because this is the way how we do that in Gentoo: I.e. we try to ship packages with sane default for most users. If these defaults don't match your needs you are supposed to overwrite our configuration.

If you think our defaults could be improved please share. However, like said, the current values for sys-process/acct have their reasons. If you are going to suggest a change please explain in detail and keep in mind that this must be suitable for most setups.

Comment 2 Dimitrios Semitsoglou-Tsiapos 2017-07-27 15:54:50 UTC

Thomas, thank you for the detailed answer. I understand that acct is different than most utilities in this regard, so I see the reasoning behind the defaults now.