Is it possible to run one logrotate check manually?

Yes: logrotate --force $CONFIG_FILE


If you want to force-run a single specific directory or daemon's log files, you can usually find the configuration in /etc/logrotate.d, and they will work standalone.

Keep in mind that global configuration specified in /etc/logrotate.conf will not apply, so if you do this you should ensure you specify all the options you want in the /etc/logrotate.d/[servicename] config file specifically.

You can try it out with -d to see what would happen:

logrotate -df /etc/logrotate.d/nginx

Then you can run (using nginx as an example):

logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/nginx

And the nginx logs alone will be rotated.


logrotate -d [your_config_file] invokes debug mode, giving you a verbose description of what would happen, but leaving the log files untouched.


You may want to run it in verbose + force mode.

logrotate -vf /etc/logrotate.conf