I think I tracked this down to a syntax thinko in /etc/logrotate.d/apache2 (installed by apache2.2-common), when /etc/apache2/envvars doesn't exist - which can happen easily, e.g., when you do not really need apache2 but only something from the -common package:
logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.conf 2>&1 gives me: [...] reading config file apache2 error: error accessing /var/log/apache2: No such file or directory error: apache2:1 glob failed for /var/log/apache2/*.log error: found error in /var/log/apache2/*.log , skipping removing last 1 log configs error: apache2:11 lines must begin with a keyword or a filename (possibly in double quotes) error: apache2:12 missing end of line reading config info for /etc/init.d/apache2 reload > /dev/null fi endscript } [...] weekly (4 rotations) empty log files are rotated, old logs are removed considering log /etc/init.d/apache2 log does not need rotating considering log reload error: stat of reload failed: No such file or directory considering log > error: stat of > failed: No such file or directory considering log /dev/null log does not need rotating considering log fi error: stat of fi failed: No such file or directory considering log endscript error: stat of endscript failed: No such file or directory considering log } error: stat of } failed: No such file or directory Obviously logrotate fails to parse the output of the backticked command. And trys to interpret the following lines as filenames that should be logrotated. The only file that exists is /dev/null. Removing the unneeded apache2 logrotate script corrects the logrotate -d output and the behaviour. I think there could be more than one way to fix this bug: 1. in apache-common: correct the if-statement, taking into account /etc/apache2/envvars might not even exist. 2. in logrotate: make logrotate check if it is told to operate on a regular file (like savelog does) 3. let logrotate discard an erroneous config file, instead of trying to interpret too much. ... But the quick workaround: remove /etc/logrotate.d/apache2 if you don't need it. -- /dev/null corrupted (/dev/null.1) https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/387189 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs