NAME
    File::Write::Rotate - Write to files that archive/rotate themselves

VERSION
    version 0.08

SYNOPSIS
     use File::Write::Rotate;

     my $fwr = File::Write::Rotate->new(
         dir       => '/var/log',    # required
         prefix    => 'myapp',       # required
         #suffix   => '.log',        # default is ''
         size      => 25*1024*1024,  # default is 10MB, unless period is set
         histories => 12,            # default is 10
     );

     # write, will write to /var/log/myapp.log, automatically rotate old log files
     # to myapp.log.1 when myapp.log reaches 25MB. will keep old log files up to
     # myapp.log.12.
     $fwr->write("This is a line\n");
     $fwr->write("This is", " another line\n");

     # compress old log files
     $fwr->compress;

DESCRIPTION
    This module can be used to write to file, usually for logging, that can
    rotate itself. File will be opened in append mode. Locking will be done
    to avoid conflict when there are multiple writers. Rotation can be done
    by size (after a certain size is reached), by time
    (daily/monthly/yearly), or both.

    I first wrote this module for logging script STDERR output to files (see
    Tie::Handle::FileRotate).

ATTRIBUTES
METHODS
  $obj = File::Write::Rotate->new(%args)
    Create new object. Known arguments:

    *   dir => STR (required)

        Directory to put the files in.

    *   prefix => STR (required)

        Name of files. The files will be named like the following:

         <prefix><period><suffix><rotate_suffix>

        "<period>" will only be given if the "period" argument is set. If
        "period" is set to "yearly", "<period>" will be "YYYY" (4-digit
        year). If "period" is "monthly", "<period>" will be "YYYY-MM"
        (4-digit year and 2-digit month). If "period" is "daily", "<period>"
        will be "YYYY-MM-DD" (4-digit year, 2-digit month, and 2-digit day).

        "<rotate_suffix>" is either empty string for current file; or .1, .2
        and so on for rotated files. .1 is the most recent rotated file, .2
        is the next most recent, and so on.

        An example, with "prefix" set to "myapp":

         myapp         # current file
         myapp.1       # most recently rotated
         myapp.2       # the next most recently rotated

        With "prefix" set to "myapp", "period" set to "monthly", "suffix"
        set to ".log":

         myapp.2012-12.log     # file name for december 2012
         myapp.2013-01.log     # file name for january 2013

        Like previous, but additionally with "size" also set (which will
        also rotate each period file if it exceeds specified size):

         myapp.2012-12.log     # file(s) for december 2012
         myapp.2012-12.log.1
         myapp.2012-12.log.2
         myapp.2013-01.log     # file(s) for january 2013

        All times will use local time, so you probably want to set "TZ"
        environment variable or equivalent methods to set time zone.

    *   suffix => STR (default: '')

        Suffix to give to file names, usually file extension like ".log".
        See "prefix" for more details.

        If you use a yearly period, setting suffix is advised to avoid
        ambiguity with rotate suffix (for example, is "myapp.2012" the
        current file for year 2012 or file with 2012 rotate suffix?)

    *   size => INT (default: 10*1024*1024)

        Maximum file size, in bytes, before rotation is triggered. The
        default is 10MB (10*1024*1024) *if* "period" is not set. If "period"
        is set, no default for "size" is provided, which means files will
        not be rotated for size (only for period).

    *   period => STR

        Can be set to either "daily", "monthly", or "yearly". If set, will
        automatically rotate after period change. See "prefix" for more
        details.

    *   histories => INT (default: 10)

        Number of rotated files to keep. After the number of files exceeds
        this, the oldest one will be deleted. 0 means not to keep any
        history, 1 means to only keep .1 file, and so on.

  $fwr->write(@args)
    Write to file. Will automatically rotate file if period changes or file
    size exceeds specified limit. When rotating, will only keep a specified
    number of histories and delete the older ones. Uses locking, so multiple
    writers do not clobber one another. Lock file is named "<prefix>"".lck".
    Will wait for up to 1 minute to acquire lock, will die if failed to
    acquire lock.

    Does not append newline so you'll have to do it yourself.

  $fwr->compress
    Compress old rotated files. Currently uses pigz or gzip program to do
    the compression. Extension given to compressed file is ".gz".

    Normally, should be done using a separate process so as to avoid
    blocking the writers.

    Will not lock writers, but will create "<prefix>""-compress.pid" PID
    file to prevent multiple compression processes running and to signal the
    writers to postpone rotation.

    After compression is finished, will remove the PID file, so rotation can
    be done again on the next "write()" if necessary.

SEE ALSO
    Log::Dispatch::FileRotate, which inspires this module. Differences
    between File::Write::Rotate (FWR) and Log::Dispatch::FileRotate (LDFR)
    are as follows. Firstly, FWR is not part of the Log::Dispatch family.
    FWR does not use Date::Manip (to be tinier) and does not support
    DatePattern; instead, FWR replaces it with a simple daily/monthly/yearly
    period. FWR supports compressing and rotating compressed old files.

    Tie::Handle::FileRotate, which uses this module.

AUTHOR
    Steven Haryanto <stevenharyanto@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
    This software is copyright (c) 2012 by Steven Haryanto.

    This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
    the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

