logrotate nginx log by date

Logrotate by default rotate logs with numbers like following

You can configure how many logs to keep and how to rotate lots by editing logrotate configuration file for nginx

root@ok:~# cat /etc/logrotate.d/nginx 
/var/log/nginx/*.log {
	daily
	missingok
	rotate 14
	compress
	delaycompress
	notifempty
	create 0640 www-data adm
	sharedscripts
	prerotate
		if [ -d /etc/logrotate.d/httpd-prerotate ]; then \
			run-parts /etc/logrotate.d/httpd-prerotate; \
		fi \
	endscript
	postrotate
		invoke-rc.d nginx rotate >/dev/null 2>&1
	endscript
}
root@ok:~# 

rotate 14 – this tells logrotate to keep logs for 14 days.

If you need to rotate logs by date, add

        dateext
        dateformat -%Y-%m-%d

Example

/var/log/nginx/*.log {
        daily
        missingok
        rotate 14
        compress
        delaycompress
        notifempty
        create 0640 www-data adm
        dateext
        dateformat -%Y-%m-%d
        sharedscripts
        prerotate
                if [ -d /etc/logrotate.d/httpd-prerotate ]; then \
                        run-parts /etc/logrotate.d/httpd-prerotate; \
                fi \
        endscript
        postrotate
                invoke-rc.d nginx rotate >/dev/null 2>&1
        endscript
}

See Logrotate