How can I get log4j to delete old rotating log files?

Question

How can I get log4j to delete old rotating log files? I know I can set up automated jobs (cron for UNIX and scheduled task for Windows), but I want it cross platform, and I

Answer 1

There is no default value to control deleting old log files created by DailyRollingFileAppender. But you can write your own custom Appender that deletes old log files in much the same way as setting maxBackupIndex does for RollingFileAppender.

Simple instructions found here

From 1:

If you are trying to use the Apache Log4J DailyRollingFileAppender for a daily log file, you may need to want to specify the maximum number of files which should be kept. Just like rolling RollingFileAppender supports maxBackupIndex. But the current version of Log4j (Apache log4j 1.2.16) does not provide any mechanism to delete old log files if you are using DailyRollingFileAppender. I tried to make small modifications in the original version of DailyRollingFileAppender to add maxBackupIndex property. So, it would be possible to clean up old log files which may not be required for future usage.