вращение журнала, не могущее обработать mailfirst

It should be:

var/log/apache2/access.log {
        daily
        mail tarun@example.com
        mailfirst 
        missingok
        rotate 52
        compress
        delaycompress
        notifempty
        create 640 root adm
        sharedscripts
        postrotate
                /etc/init.d/apache2 reload > /dev/null
        endscript
        prerotate
                if [ -d /etc/logrotate.d/httpd-prerotate ]; then \
                        run-parts /etc/logrotate.d/httpd-prerotate; \
                fi; \
        endscript
}