In smb.conf there is the option to specify log file name: # This tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine # that connects log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log The default is log.%m When using logrotate to manage logfile aging it is difficult to deal with the default name scheme, so I changed it to %m.log There still seem to be hardcoded log.%m being used by smbd and/or nmbd as I now have a mix of the default filename scheme and the new one I setup: ls -l /var/log/samba shows: total 32 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 282 Jan 9 17:23 192.168.XX.XX.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 564 Jan 9 18:20 192.168.XX.YY.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:50 2a05_XXXX_XXXX_XXXX_683d_XXXX_XXXX_XXXX.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:48 2a05_XXXX_XXXX_XXXX_683d_XXXX_XXXX_YYYYlog drwx------ 10 root root 4096 Nov 22 18:20 cores -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 564 Jan 9 17:23 log.192.168.XX.XX -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 180 Jan 9 17:38 log.nmbd -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:23 log.rpcd_classic -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:23 log.rpcd_epmapper -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:23 log.rpcd_fsrvp -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:23 log.rpcd_lsad -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:23 log.rpcd_mdssvc -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:23 log.rpcd_spoolss -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:23 log.rpcd_winreg -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:23 log.rpcd_witness -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:23 log.samba-dcerpcd -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:38 log.smbd -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 195 Jan 9 18:20 mac-XXXX.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:23 mac.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 9 17:19 mancavemini-3.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 421 Jan 9 17:41 nmbd.log -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1347 Jan 9 17:38 smbd.log