Logfiles are often large. Logging providers allow retention policies to be configured.
Retention has to balance:
- The need to index logs before they're removed.
- The need to retain logs for other (including regulatory) purposes.
Defaults are subject to change. Currently they are:
- Files <= 50MB before rollover.
- Files retain for 30 days.
- Total files capped at 10GB.
In Logback configuration XML:
<appender name="file" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender"> <file>${outputDirectory}/${outputFilename}.log</file> <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeAndTimeBasedRollingPolicy"> <fileNamePattern>${outputDirectory}/${outputFilename}.%d{yyyy-MM-dd}.%i.log.zip</fileNamePattern> <maxFileSize>50MB</maxFileSize> <maxHistory>30</maxHistory> <totalSizeCap>10GB</totalSizeCap> </rollingPolicy> <encoder> <!-- ... --> </encoder> </appender>