Jason McIntyre just said:
> i'll change it to "rotate log files".
Good.
As Matthew observed, files are renamed and deleted, but not trimmed.
While here, i must admit i don't like the first two sentences of
newsyslog(8) at all.
* The text doesn't start by saying what the tool really does.
* When it finally comes to the point, in line 2, the verb
employed ("archive") is not very clear.
* The word "should" looks ugly in manuals.
* The wording "if necessary" is unnecessarily imprecise.
* The phrase "is determined to require" says the same as the
preceding sentence, but again without telling what "necessary",
"determine" and "require" actually refer to.
I think the following is more precise and easier to understand.
Besides, it's shorter:
Index: newsyslog.8
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/usr.bin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8,v
retrieving revision 1.44
diff -u -p -r1.44 newsyslog.8
--- newsyslog.8 31 May 2007 19:20:13 -0000 1.44
+++ newsyslog.8 24 Nov 2009 00:57:08 -0000
@@ -54,13 +54,12 @@
.Op Fl f Ar config_file
.Op Ar log ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
+When a logfile exceeds a configurable size or age,
.Nm
-is a program that should be scheduled to run periodically by
+renames it and creates an empty file in its place.
+It is usually run by
.Xr cron 8 .
-When it is executed it archives log files if necessary.
-If a log file is determined to require archiving,
-.Nm
-rearranges the files so that
+After rotation,
.Pa logfile
is empty,
.Pa logfile.0
