====== Organize Log Files ======
===== OS: FreeBSD =====

<code>
vim /etc/syslog.conf

*.notice;authpriv.none;kern.debug;lpr.info;mail.crit;news.err   /var/log/messages.log
security.*                                      /var/log/security.log
auth.info;authpriv.info                         /var/log/auth.log
mail.info                                       /var/log/mail.log
cron.*                                          /var/log/cron.log
!-devd
*.=debug                                        /var/log/debug.log
daemon.info                                     /var/log/daemon.log
console.info                                   /var/log/console.log
*.*                                            /var/log/all.log
</code>

Basically edit syslog.conf and add a .log to all files.

<code>
vim /etc/newsyslog.conf

/var/log/all.log                        600  7     *    @T00  JC
/var/log/auth.log                       600  7     1000 @0101T JC
/var/log/console.log                    600  5     1000 *     JC
/var/log/cron<del>.log</del>                       600  3     1000 *     JC
/var/log/daily.log                      640  7     *    @T00  JNC
/var/log/debug.log                      600  7     1000 *     JC
/var/log/init.log                       644  3     1000 *     JC
/var/log/kerberos.log                   600  7     1000 *     JC
/var/log/mail<del>.</del>log                       640  7     *    @T00  JC
/var/log/messages<del>.log</del>                   644  5     1000 @0101T JC
/var/log/monthly.log                    640  12    *    $M1D0 JNC
/var/log/devd.log                       644  3     1000 *     JC
/var/log/security<del>.log</del>                   600  10    1000 *     JC
/var/log/utx.log                        644  3     *    @01T05 B
/var/log/weekly.log                     640  5     *    $W6D0 JNC
/var/log/daemon.log                     644  5     1000 @0101T JC
</code>

The files you edited in /etc/syslog.conf change them to the same here. Add in a C to all lines which dont have one except the line with B which is for binary.

<code>
vim /etc/crontab
0       *       *       *       *       root    newsyslog -a /var/log/backups
</code>

append a -a /var/log/backups

== Why? ==

Why I do this and why I waste my time doing it?
I like my log files to be concise and organized, I may never look at them but when I do I would like them all named x.log not cron, if for whatever reason I need to treuncate the logs to get some fresh log entries a simple truncate -s0 *.log is how I do it.

I do this with all my servers, even desktop.