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PMTA knowledge base›Command§ 6.3.9

rotate acct

Rotate accounting files now
Close the accounting file without waiting for midnight

Immediately rotates all configured accounting files, and with a file name — only that one. This does not cancel the automatic midnight rotation.

Needed when the file is taken for processing and the engine must start writing to a new one.

The main trap is taking the file before rotation. Until the file is rotated, the engine keeps writing to it, and a copy taken mid-write ends with a truncated line.
What the Hub does. It does not call it: accounting events arrive as a stream through the webhook, and “Accounting stats” reads the files in place without rotating them.
Recommended values

When to use it:

Question This command or not
close the current accounting file for processing yes
rotate the log no — rotate log
The action, selecting one file and keeping the midnight rotation come from the manual (§ 6.3.9). The trap analysis is ours.
Example configuration
# rotate all accounting files
pmta rotate acct
The reply is “Accounting file rotated.”.
yellow — — directive names, blue — blocks. They are highlighted the same way in the text of the card.
Compatibility
PowerMTA 6.0
described in the manual of this version · platform: any
The vendor does not state the first version for every directive — there is no note here. The name also appears in the 5.0 edition of the manual.
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Related entries

2 relations

Same name in other blocks

Start a new log fileThe same operation for the second stream. § 6.3.9

Affects

The telemetry contractRotation boundaries are exactly what whoever reads the accounting stream relies on. § 6.3.9

Referenced from

Accounting sent by the node instead of accounting collected from the nodeWith sending, the file switch happens by itself — at the batch interval, and there is no need to call the command. inferenceA file, a program or an endpoint — and a file under each of the threeManually rotating the accounting file is the same action as a batch going to the endpoint: the file is closed and frees up space. inference

How to check on the node
Make sure the current file has been started anew:
ls -lt /var/log/pmta/ | head
The new current file starts from scratch; where the previous one goes is decided by the rotation settings in the <acct-file> block.
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What else to read

3 articles

◇What the node tells about itself and through which channelsSeven observation surfaces: the web monitor, the console in four formats, the log, accounting, accounting search, metrics and export to external analytics.◇Two inbound report processors and what to do with themBounces by message and complaints are parsed by two identically structured blocks; each has its own address list and its own pair of decisions about the message’s fate.◇Five ways for a queue to hand off a messageA queue does not have to use SMTP: it can write to a file, run a program, call over HTTP or discard.

In the Hub
Cost of a mistake
safe: a wrong value breaks nothing
Scenarios
Collect telemetry