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3.1.5 Ensure the filename pattern for log files is set correctly

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This audit has been deprecated and will be removed in a future update.

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Information

The log_filename setting specifies the filename pattern for log files. The value for log_filename should match your organization's logging policy.

The value is treated as a strftime pattern, so %-escapes can be used to specify time-varying file names. The supported %-escapes are similar to those listed in the Open Group's strftime specification. If you specify a file name without escapes, you should plan to use a log rotation utility to avoid eventually filling the partition that contains log_directory If there are any time-zone-dependent %-escapes the computation is done in the zone specified by log_timezone Also, the system's strftime is not used directly, so platform-specific (nonstandard) extensions do not work.

If CSV-format output is enabled in log_destinationcsv will be appended to the log filename. (If log_filename ends inlog the suffix is replaced instead.)

If log_filename is not set, then the value of log_directory is appended to an empty string and PostgreSQL will fail to start as it will try to write to a directory instead of a file.

Solution

Execute the following SQL statement(s) to remediate this setting:

postgres=# alter system set log_filename='postgresql-%Y%m%d.log';
ALTER SYSTEM
postgres=# select pg_reload_conf();
 pg_reload_conf
----------------
 t
(1 row)
postgres=# show log_filename;
 log_filename
-------------------
 postgresql-%Y%m%d.log
(1 row)

Note: In this example, a new log file will be created for each day (e.g. postgresql-20200804.log )

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/19478

Item Details

References: CSCv7|6.2, CSCv7|6.3

Plugin: PostgreSQLDB

Control ID: d28f6ec64bca1dda5d8537ed893ccf36628bf8d693c04ebe3db70f69d33437d6