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Santosh Linkha
Asked: 2011-03-31 01:56:10 +0800 CST

how to change file permission of a file permanently that is set back to default on boot

  • 772

I have a file /var/logs/apache2/error.log. And every time I boot, Its file permission is changed to default (unwritable) by the system. So, i have to run chmod command every time i boot-up. How to change it's file permission permanently.

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3 Answers

  1. Log files are usually created by logrotate. The apache logfiles definition is stored on /etc/logrotate.d/apache2

    The file looks like this in one of my servers:

    /var/log/apache2/*.log {
        weekly
        missingok
        rotate 52
        compress
        delaycompress
        notifempty
        create 640 root adm
        sharedscripts
        postrotate
                if [ -f "`. /etc/apache2/envvars ; echo ${APACHE_PID_FILE:-/var/run/apache2.pid}`" ]; then
                        /etc/init.d/apache2 reload > /dev/null
                fi
        endscript
}

    If you look at the create option, the values after the keyword are the permissions, user and group. Just edit your file and change this values.

    • 5

  2. I'm guessing anacron is running logrotate at boot time.

    If so, try editing the configuration file /etc/logrotate.d/apache2, and change

    create 640 root adm

    to whatever you prefer, e.g.

    create 666 root adm

    But other than the apache2 service, what else needs to write to this file?

    If this is on a server, it's probably a bad idea to make the file world writable. For example, if somebody breaks in to your system, they can remove the log entries that would help you find the problem.

    If you want read access, it might be better to add yourself to the adm group, e.g.

    gpasswd -a `whoami` adm

    This would also help if you really do need write access, e.g.

    create 660 root adm

    would be sufficient.

    • 4
  3. Best Answer

    As per the discussion in comments, for the purpose the OP is trying to achieve (looking at a simple subset of logs for a specific purpose), this may be an appropriate alternative solution:

    Tail will let you look at the last lines of a file

    Grep lets you search through a file for instances you want to find

    Both are available as part of Unix/Linux and should be part of your essential toolkit.

    • 3