fix(syslog): add logrotate 'su root adm' directive#87
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/var/log is owned root:adm (group-writable), which causes logrotate to skip all log files in that directory with: error: skipping "/var/log/..." because parent directory has insecure permissions (It's world writable or writable by group which is not "root") Set "su" directive in config file to tell logrotate which user/group should be used for rotation. Fix by inserting 'su root adm' into /etc/logrotate.conf before the include /etc/logrotate.d line, and into /etc/logrotate-dmesg.conf before the /var/log/dmesg stanza, during syslog configure. This tells logrotate to run as root:adm, which has the necessary permissions to safely rotate files under /var/log. Also add verify checks that the directive is present in both files. Signed-off-by: Mark Silva <mark.silva@emerson.com>
texasaggie97
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a team,
AlexHearnNI and
amstewart
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amstewart
approved these changes
Mar 26, 2026
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Summary of Changes
/var/log is owned root:adm (group-writable), which causes logrotate to skip all log files in that directory with:
error: skipping "/var/log/..." because parent directory has insecure
permissions (It's world writable or writable by group which is not
"root") Set "su" directive in config file to tell logrotate which
user/group should be used for rotation.
Fix by inserting 'su root adm' into /etc/logrotate.conf before the include /etc/logrotate.d line, and into /etc/logrotate-dmesg.conf before the /var/log/dmesg stanza, during syslog configure. This tells logrotate to run as root:adm, which has the necessary permissions to safely rotate files under /var/log.
Also add verify checks that the directive is present in both files.
Justification
AB#3698573
Testing
Verified that there is no message at boot and that
logrotate --forcehas no errorsProcedure