Move atop (binary) logs to subdir /var/log/atop

[agent 8131]

Binary package hint: atop

By default the atop init script sets up a binary log at /var/log/atop.log. I have found this frustrating when using various tools such as tail, xtail, and grep in which I'd like to search human readable logs. Since atop.log is a binary file I suggest it either uses a different name or a different location. I've updated all my init scripts to put it in /var/lib/misc. If it were renamed from .log but kept in /var/log it would also need a logrotate.d file so I found that moving it was the easier way to go.

[C de-Avillez (hggdh2)]

Marking as WishList. Although I do not quite agree (there are other binary files under /var/log, and the atop files there *are* log files), I do not feel confident in answering.

[Bart Verwilst (verwilst)]

I agree that storing binary *.log files in /var/log can be quite annoying when doing "grep shizzle /var/log/*.log" . A possible solution could be to store it in /var/log/atop/*.log?

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

I agree with Bart, /var/log/atop came to my mind when reading this bug, too.

[Daniel Hahler (blueyed)]

JFI: I have just found a /var/log/atop directory (empty) on a server, from 2008-03-07 - so there might have been a point in the package history where it was done like that.
However, this might also come from another system installed on the machine before.

[Mason Schmitt (nosam)]

I'm running 16.04LTS and all my atop binary logs are stored in /var/log/atop/ so it appears this wish has been granted and this bug can be closed.