You should always setup logrotate. Yes the good old Linux logrotate...
this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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We should each not have to configure log rotation for every individual service. That would require identify what and how it logs data in the first place, then implementing a logrotate config. Services should include a reasonable default in logrotate.d as part of their install package.
Docker services should let docker handle it, and the user could then manage it through Docker or forward to some other logging service (syslog, systemd, etc). Processes in containers shouldn't touch rotation or anything, just log levels and maybe which types of logs go to stdout vs stderr.
Ideally yes, but I've had to do this regularly for many services developed both in-house and out of house.
Solve problems, and maybe share your work if you like, I think we all appreciate it.
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I don't disagree that logrotate is a sensible answer here, but making that the responsibility of the user is silly.
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Imho it’s because docker does away with (abstracts?) many years of sane system administration principles (like managing logfile rotations) that you are used to when you deploy bare metal on a Debian box. It’s a brave new world.
It's because with docker you don't need to do log files. Logging should be to stdout, and you let the host, orchestration framework, or whoever is running the container so logs however they want to. The container should not be writing log files in the first place, containers should be immutable except for core application logic.
At worst it saves in the config folder/volume where persistent stuff should be.
Good point!
Docker stores that stdout per default in a log file in var/lib/docker/containers/...
You can configure the default or override per service. This isn't something containers should be doing.
Or you can use Podman, which integrates nicely with Systemd and also utilizes all the regular system means to deal with log files and so on.
Good suggestion, although I do feel it always comes back to this “many ways to do kind of the same thing” that surrounds the Linux ecosystem. Docker, podman, … some claim it’s better, I hear others say it’s not 100% compatible all the time. My point being more fragmentation.
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I disagree with this, container runtimes are a software like all others where logging needs to be configured. You can do so in the config of the container runtime environment.
Containers actually make this significantly easier because you only need to configure it once and it will be applied to all containers.
You are right and as others have pointed out correctly it’s Nextcloud not handling logging correctly in a containerized environment. I was ranting more about my dislike of containers in general, even though I use the technology (correctly) myself. It’s because I am already old on the scale of technology timelines.
Or you can forward to your system logger, like syslog or systemd.
But then projects like NextCloud do it all wrong by using a file. Just log to stdout and I'll manage the rest.
Everything I hear about Nextcloud scares me away from messing with it.
If you only use it for files, the only thing it's good for imho. it's awesome! :)
Just use the official Docker AIO and it is very, very little trouble. It's by far the easiest way to use Nextcloud and the related services like Collabora and Talk.
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for some helpful config, the below is the logging config I have and logs have never been an issue.
You can even add 'logfile' => '/some/location/nextcloud.log', to get the logs in a different place
'logtimezone' => 'UTC',
'logdateformat' => 'Y-m-d H:i:s',
'loglevel' => 2,
'log_rotate_size' => 52428800,
Reminds me of when my Jellyfin container kept growing its log because of something watchtower related. Think it ended up at 100GB before I noticed. Not even debug, just failed updates I think. It's been a couple of months.
Well that's not jellyfins faults but rather watchtower...
Wow, thanks for the heads up! I use Nextcloud AIO and backups take VERY long. I need to check about those logs!
Don't know if I'm just lucky or what, but it's been working really well for me and takes good care of itself for the most part. I'm a little shocked seeing so many complaints in this thread because elsewhere on the Internet that's the go-to method.
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