# Deleting logstash logs older than 4 days

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-logstash-logs-older-than-4-days/174341>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [March 28, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-logstash-logs-older-than-4-days/174341 "2019-03-28T13:23:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![varun1992](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3da27b/32.png) [@varun1992](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/varun1992)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-logstash-logs-older-than-4-days/174341/1 "2019-03-28T13:23:11Z")

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My log4j.properties like below. How can i edit it to delete logs older than 4 days

```
status = error
name = LogstashPropertiesConfig

appender.console.type = Console
appender.console.name = plain_console
appender.console.layout.type = PatternLayout
appender.console.layout.pattern = [%d{ISO8601}][%-5p][%-25c] %m%n

appender.json_console.type = Console
appender.json_console.name = json_console
appender.json_console.layout.type = JSONLayout
appender.json_console.layout.compact = true
appender.json_console.layout.eventEol = true

appender.rolling.type = RollingFile
appender.rolling.name = plain_rolling
appender.rolling.fileName = ${sys:ls.logs}/logstash-${sys:ls.log.format}.log
appender.rolling.filePattern = ${sys:ls.logs}/logstash-${sys:ls.log.format}-%d{yyyy-MM-dd}-%i.log.gz
appender.rolling.policies.type = Policies
appender.rolling.policies.time.type = TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.rolling.policies.time.interval = 1
appender.rolling.policies.time.modulate = true
appender.rolling.layout.type = PatternLayout
appender.rolling.layout.pattern = [%d{ISO8601}][%-5p][%-25c] %-.10000m%n
appender.rolling.policies.size.type = SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.rolling.policies.size.size = 100MB

appender.json_rolling.type = RollingFile
appender.json_rolling.name = json_rolling
appender.json_rolling.fileName = ${sys:ls.logs}/logstash-${sys:ls.log.format}.log
appender.json_rolling.filePattern = ${sys:ls.logs}/logstash-${sys:ls.log.format}-%d{yyyy-MM-dd}-%i.log.gz
appender.json_rolling.policies.type = Policies
appender.json_rolling.policies.time.type = TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.json_rolling.policies.time.interval = 1
appender.json_rolling.policies.time.modulate = true
appender.json_rolling.layout.type = JSONLayout
appender.json_rolling.layout.compact = true
appender.json_rolling.layout.eventEol = true
appender.json_rolling.policies.size.type = SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.json_rolling.policies.size.size = 100MB

rootLogger.level = ${sys:ls.log.level}
rootLogger.appenderRef.console.ref = ${sys:ls.log.format}_console
rootLogger.appenderRef.rolling.ref = ${sys:ls.log.format}_rolling

# Slowlog

appender.console_slowlog.type = Console
appender.console_slowlog.name = plain_console_slowlog
appender.console_slowlog.layout.type = PatternLayout
appender.console_slowlog.layout.pattern = [%d{ISO8601}][%-5p][%-25c] %m%n

appender.json_console_slowlog.type = Console
appender.json_console_slowlog.name = json_console_slowlog
appender.json_console_slowlog.layout.type = JSONLayout
appender.json_console_slowlog.layout.compact = true
appender.json_console_slowlog.layout.eventEol = true

appender.rolling_slowlog.type = RollingFile
appender.rolling_slowlog.name = plain_rolling_slowlog
appender.rolling_slowlog.fileName = ${sys:ls.logs}/logstash-slowlog-${sys:ls.log.format}.log
appender.rolling_slowlog.filePattern = ${sys:ls.logs}/logstash-slowlog-${sys:ls.log.format}-%d{yyyy-MM-dd}-%i.log.gz
appender.rolling_slowlog.policies.type = Policies
appender.rolling_slowlog.policies.time.type = TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.rolling_slowlog.policies.time.interval = 1
appender.rolling_slowlog.policies.time.modulate = true
appender.rolling_slowlog.layout.type = PatternLayout
appender.rolling_slowlog.layout.pattern = [%d{ISO8601}][%-5p][%-25c] %.10000m%n
appender.rolling_slowlog.policies.size.type = SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.rolling_slowlog.policies.size.size = 100MB

appender.json_rolling_slowlog.type = RollingFile
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.name = json_rolling_slowlog
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.fileName = ${sys:ls.logs}/logstash-slowlog-${sys:ls.log.format}.log
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.filePattern = ${sys:ls.logs}/logstash-slowlog-${sys:ls.log.format}-%d{yyyy-MM-dd}-%i.log.gz
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.policies.type = Policies
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.policies.time.type = TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.policies.time.interval = 1
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.policies.time.modulate = true
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.layout.type = JSONLayout
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.layout.compact = true
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.layout.eventEol = true
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.policies.size.type = SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy
appender.json_rolling_slowlog.policies.size.size = 100MB

logger.slowlog.name = slowlog
logger.slowlog.level = trace
logger.slowlog.appenderRef.console_slowlog.ref = ${sys:ls.log.format}_console_slowlog
logger.slowlog.appenderRef.rolling_slowlog.ref = ${sys:ls.log.format}_rolling_slowlog
logger.slowlog.additivity = false

logger.licensereader.name = logstash.licensechecker.licensereader
logger.licensereader.level = error
```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BennyInc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bennyinc/32/21751_2.png) [@BennyInc](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/BennyInc)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 1:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-logstash-logs-older-than-4-days/174341/2 "2019-03-28T13:46:31Z")

</div>

I'm using a simple crontab entry that takes care of this in my setup: [Logrotate](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/logrotate/173643/5)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![varun1992](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3da27b/32.png) [@varun1992](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/varun1992)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-logstash-logs-older-than-4-days/174341/3 "2019-03-28T17:46:00Z")

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how do you add a cron tab entry ?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![staodd](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/staodd/32/24509_2.png) [@staodd](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/staodd)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 10:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-logstash-logs-older-than-4-days/174341/4 "2019-03-28T22:52:11Z")

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Did you try to Google : how to add crontab job on Linux..?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BennyInc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bennyinc/32/21751_2.png) [@BennyInc](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/BennyInc)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 11:29am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-logstash-logs-older-than-4-days/174341/5 "2019-03-29T11:29:49Z")

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> [@varun1992](#):
>
> how do you add a cron tab entry ?

I personally use Ansible to manage my hosts, including the crontab entry: [ansible.builtin.cron module – Manage cron.d and crontab entries — Ansible Documentation](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/modules/cron_module.html)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![varun1992](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3da27b/32.png) [@varun1992](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/varun1992)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 4:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-logstash-logs-older-than-4-days/174341/6 "2019-03-29T16:06:57Z")

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why can't we use log4j.properties to delete logs ?

in elastic log4j.properties, we can delete logs, but why not in logstash ?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BennyInc](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/bennyinc/32/21751_2.png) [@BennyInc](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/BennyInc)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2019, 2:18pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-logstash-logs-older-than-4-days/174341/7 "2019-04-05T14:18:48Z")

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I think you can use log4j.properties, why not?  
For me it was just more difficult than using the crontab.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/deleting-logstash-logs-older-than-4-days/174341/8 "2019-05-03T14:21:57Z")

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