Listener

when attempting to rename the listener.log file while the TNS listener process is running. The Oracle TNS listener process holds an open handle to the file. Under UNIX, you CAN remove the file, but Oracle will not re-create the file when it attempts to write to it again. The TNS listener will need to be stopped and restarted in order for it to create the new listener.log file.

Well, here is a solution for renaming (or removing) the listener.log file without having to stop and start the TNS listener process under either Windows or UNIX:


Windows

C:\> cd \oracle\ora92\network\log
C:\oracle\ora92\network\log> lsnrctl set log_status off
C:\oracle\ora92\network\log> rename listener.log listener.old
C:\oracle\ora92\network\log> lsnrctl set log_status on


UNIX

% cd $ORACLE_HOME/network/log
% lsnrctl set log_status off
% mv listener.log listener.old
% lsnrctl set log_status on

On the Other hand even if you were able to rename the listener.log file it will not create a new log file like alert log. Instead it keeps writing to the renamed log file.

For Eg,
When the Listener is running if we give the command as
% cd $ORACLE_HOME/network/log
% mv listener.log listenerOld.log

After we move to the listenerOld.log file, it will continue writing log files in the file listenerOld.log. In order to make sure we create a new log file we must use the following commands.

% cd $ORACLE_HOME/network/log
% lsnrctl set log_status off
% mv listener.log listener.old
% lsnrctl set log_status on

It is advisable to move/rename the listener.log file atleast once in a month, we can create a script file to do this.

Shell Script for moving the Listener Log file
Save the Following contents in a file eg.,lsnrlogmv.sh file
export ORACLE_SID=opubp
export ORACLE_HOME=/opt/oracle/u01/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnrctl set log_status off
mv $ORACLE_HOME/network/log/listener.log $ORACLE_HOME/network/log/listener_$(date +"%d-%m-%Y").log
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnrctl set log_status on

Edit Crontab by Crontab -e
00 15 * * 2 /opt/oracle/lsnrlogMv.sh
#mi hh dd mm dow filename

Hope this helps.