You can use lsof
(list of open files) in most cases to find open log files without knowing the configuration.
Example:
Find the PID of httpd
(the same concept applies for nginx and other programs):
$ ps aux | grep httpd
...
root 17970 0.0 0.3 495964 64388 ? Ssl Oct29 3:45 /usr/sbin/httpd
...
Then search for open log files using lsof
with the PID:
$ lsof -p 17970 | grep log
httpd 17970 root 2w REG 253,15 2278 6723 /var/log/httpd/error_log
httpd 17970 root 12w REG 253,15 0 1387 /var/log/httpd/access_log
If lsof
prints nothing, even though you expected the log files to be found, issue the same command using sudo
.
You can read a little more here.