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syslog.conf(5) [v7 man page]

SYSLOG.CONF(5)						      BSD File Formats Manual						    SYSLOG.CONF(5)

NAME
syslog.conf -- configuration file for syslogd(8) DESCRIPTION
The syslog.conf file is the configuration file for the syslogd(8) program. It consists of lines with two fields: the selector field which specifies the types of messages and priorities to which the line applies, and an action field which specifies the action to be taken if a message syslogd receives matches the selection criteria. The selector field is separated from the action field by one or more tab or space characters. A rule can be splitted in several lines if all lines except the last are terminated with a backslash (``''). The Selectors function are encoded as a facility, a period (``.''), and a level, with no intervening white-space. Both the facility and the level are case insensitive. The facility describes the part of the system generating the message, and is one of the following keywords: auth, authpriv, cron, daemon, kern, lpr, mail, mark, news, syslog, user, uucp and local0 through local7. These keywords (with the exception of mark) correspond to the similar ``LOG_'' values specified to the openlog(3) and syslog(3) library routines. The level describes the severity of the message, and is a keyword from the following ordered list (higher to lower): emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice and debug. These keywords correspond to the similar (LOG_) values specified to the syslog library routine. See syslog(3) for a further descriptions of both the facility and level keywords and their significance. If a received message matches the specified facility and is of the specified level (or a higher level), the action specified in the action field will be taken. Multiple selectors may be specified for a single action by separating them with semicolon (``;'') characters. It is important to note, how- ever, that each selector can modify the ones preceding it. Multiple facilities may be specified for a single level by separating them with comma (``,'') characters. An asterisk (``*'') can be used to specify all facilities or all levels. By default, a level applies to all messages with the same or higher level. The equal (``='') character can be prepended to a level to restrict this line of the configuration file to messages with the very same level. An exclamation mark (``!'') prepended to a level or the asterisk means that this line of the configuration file does not apply to the speci- fied level (and higher ones). In conjunction with the equal sign, you can exclude single levels as well. The special facility ``mark'' receives a message at priority ``info'' every 20 minutes (see syslogd(8)). This is not enabled by a facility field containing an asterisk. The special level ``none'' disables a particular facility. The action field of each line specifies the action to be taken when the selector field selects a message. There are five forms: o A pathname (beginning with a leading slash). Selected messages are appended to the file. You may prepend a minus (``-'') to the path to omit syncing the file after each message log. This can cause data loss at system crashes, but increases performance for programs which use logging extensively. o A named pipe (fifo), beginning with a vertical bar (``|'') followed by a pathname. The pipe must be created with mkfifo(8) before syslogd reads its configuration file. This feature is especially useful fo debugging. o A hostname (preceded by an at (``@'') sign). Selected messages are forwarded to the syslogd program on the named host. o A comma separated list of users. Selected messages are written to those users if they are logged in. o An asterisk. Selected messages are written to all logged-in users. Blank lines and lines whose first non-blank character is a hash (``#'') character are ignored. EXAMPLES
A configuration file might appear as follows: # Log all kernel messages, authentication messages of # level notice or higher and anything of level err or # higher to the console. # Don't log private authentication messages! *.err;kern.*;auth.notice;authpriv.none /dev/console # Log anything (except mail) of level info or higher. # Don't log private authentication messages! *.info;mail.none;authpriv.none /var/log/messages # The authpriv file has restricted access. authpriv.* /var/log/secure # Log all the mail messages in one place. mail.* /var/log/maillog # Everybody gets emergency messages, plus log them on another # machine. *.emerg * *.emerg @arpa.berkeley.edu # Root and Eric get alert and higher messages. *.alert root,eric # Save mail and news errors of level err and higher in a # special file. uucp,news.crit /var/log/spoolerr FILES
/etc/syslog.conf The syslogd(8) configuration file. BUGS
The effects of multiple selectors are sometimes not intuitive. For example ``mail.crit,*.err'' will select ``mail'' facility messages at the level of ``err'' or higher, not at the level of ``crit'' or higher. SEE ALSO
syslog(3), syslogd(8) 4.4BSD June 9, 1993 4.4BSD
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