Bug #73949 mysql's error-log name in logrotate script is wrong
Submitted: 17 Sep 2014 11:58 Modified: 15 Dec 2016 12:56
Reporter: Shahriyar Rzayev Email Updates:
Status: Closed Impact on me:
None 
Category:MySQL Server: Installing Severity:S1 (Critical)
Version:5.6.20 OS:Linux (CentOS 6.5)
Assigned to: CPU Architecture:Any

[17 Sep 2014 11:58] Shahriyar Rzayev
Description:
Dear experts,
While reading Log Rotating in Linux i examine MySQL's logrotate script which is installed as default.
The path in source code is:
/mysql-5.6.20/support-files/mysql-log-rotate.sh

And from spec file (/mysql-5.6.20/support-files/mysql.5.6.20.spec):

# Install logrotate and autostart
install -m 644 $MBD/release/support-files/mysql-log-rotate $RBR%{_sysconfdir}/logrotate.d/mysql 

After install you can verify that it is really installed on specified path:

[root@linuxsrv2 logrotate.d]# ls /etc/logrotate.d
cups  dracut  httpd  mysql  numad  psacct  sssd  syslog  yum

Open up this file and you will see that default log file is:

/var/lib/mysql/mysqld.log {
        # create 600 mysql mysql
        notifempty
        daily
        rotate 5
        missingok
        compress
    postrotate
	# just if mysqld is really running
	if test -x /usr/bin/mysqladmin && \
	   /usr/bin/mysqladmin ping &>/dev/null
	then
	   /usr/bin/mysqladmin flush-logs
	fi
    endscript
}

In fact there must not be such log file due following reasons:
1. After fresh install in default my.cnf file there is an entry for log-error:
[mysqld_safe]
log-error=/var/log/mysqld.log
So the file name in fact is /var/log/mysqld.log
2. Official documentation states that:
"Default log file name will be hostname.err and will reside in datadirectory if not specified explicitly".
So the name of very end error log file will be: /var/lib/mysql/hostname.err.

There is a second issue with this default rule in /etc/logrotate.d/mysql it is using mysqladmin without password it will raise an error:

[root@linuxsrv2 logrotate.d]# logrotate -f mysql
/usr/bin/mysqladmin: connect to server at 'localhost' failed
error: 'Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)'
error: error running non-shared postrotate script for /var/lib/mysql/linuxsrv2.err of '/var/lib/mysql/*.err '

How to repeat:
Install MySQL 5.6.20 and look at default installed logrotate script at:
/etc/logrotate.d/mysql

Suggested fix:
I think mysql-log-rotate.sh script should be topic of deprecating in next proposals. And not to install it as default.
Instead of making such unclear rules and handle every aspect of error log name , passing root password in text file and etc, It is much more easier to write a Python script for this purpose and adding it to MySQL-Utilities package such everybody could run it from cron as easy as other things.
[18 Sep 2014 0:43] MySQL Verification Team
Thank you for the bug report. Quoting you:

2. Official documentation states that:
"Default log file name will be hostname.err and will reside in datadirectory if not specified explicitly".

The above means IF NOT SPECIFIED EXPLICITLY. but on Centos 6.5:

[root@tikal miguel]# cat /etc/my.cnf | grep mysqld.log
log-error=/var/log/mysqld.log  

So the log-error file is specified explicitly as mysqld.log    

and testing removing it from my.cnf commentin it:

[root@tikal miguel]# cat /etc/my.cnf | grep mysqld.log
#log-error=/var/log/mysqld.log 

stop the server and start it and now the log-error file is hostname.err:

[root@tikal miguel]# service mysqld start             
Starting mysqld:                                           [  OK  ]
[root@tikal miguel]# cat /var/lib/mysql/tikal.br.err 
140917 21:32:00 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql
2014-09-17 21:32:01 0 [Warning] TIMESTAMP with implicit DEFAULT value is deprecated. Please use --explicit_defaults_for_timestamp server option (see documentation for more details).                                                                                                                       
2014-09-17 21:32:01 5320 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.                                                                                       
2014-09-17 21:32:01 5320 [Note] InnoDB: Using atomics to ref count buffer pool pages                                                                  
2014-09-17 21:32:01 5320 [Note] InnoDB: The InnoDB memory heap is disabled                                                                            
2014-09-17 21:32:01 5320 [Note] InnoDB: Mutexes and rw_locks use GCC atomic builtins                                                                  
2014-09-17 21:32:01 5320 [Note] InnoDB: Memory barrier is not used                                                                                    
2014-09-17 21:32:01 5320 [Note] InnoDB: Compressed tables use zlib 1.2.3 

<CUT>
[18 Sep 2014 7:26] Shahriyar Rzayev
The purpose of report is that,
Error log name is wrong in /etc/logrotate.d/mysql script which is installed by default after fresh install.
In any conditions there will be no such error log name as "/var/lib/mysql/mysqld.log"

As you stated it will be "/var/log/mysqld.log" file after fresh install.
But if you comment it you will have an error log file named as hostname.err and it will reside in datadir, again as you specified: "/var/lib/mysql/tikal.br.err"

So again as i show, the default installed and created rule for logrotation is wrong. Exactly the name of error log file:

/var/lib/mysql/mysqld.log {
        # create 600 mysql mysql
        notifempty
        daily
        rotate 5
        missingok
        compress
    postrotate
	# just if mysqld is really running
	if test -x /usr/bin/mysqladmin && \
	   /usr/bin/mysqladmin ping &>/dev/null
	then
	   /usr/bin/mysqladmin flush-logs
	fi
    endscript
}

The second issue is about, using mysqladmin in logrotate script without password it will surely raise an error because there is no such server without root password :)

So the script named in source tree "/mysql-5.6.20/support-files/mysql-log-rotate.sh" is problematic.
[18 Sep 2014 12:25] MySQL Verification Team
Indeed thank you for the feedback. Now changing status.
[15 Dec 2016 12:56] Erlend Dahl
Fixed in 5.7.18, 8.0.1 under the heading of

Bug#22322685 ERROR LOG DEFINED PATH MIS-ALIGNS WITH LOGROTATE.D CONFIG IN RPM INSTALL