1.\" This file contains changes from the Open Software Foundation. 2.\" 3.\" from: @(#)newsyslog.8 4.\" $FreeBSD$ 5.\" 6.\" Copyright 1988, 1989 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 7.\" 8.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software 9.\" and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is 10.\" hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice 11.\" appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and 12.\" this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, 13.\" and that the names of M.I.T. and the M.I.T. S.I.P.B. not be 14.\" used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution 15.\" of the software without specific, written prior permission. 16.\" M.I.T. and the M.I.T. S.I.P.B. make no representations about 17.\" the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is 18.\" provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. 19.\" 20.Dd May 19, 2014 21.Dt NEWSYSLOG 8 22.Os 23.Sh NAME 24.Nm newsyslog 25.Nd maintain system log files to manageable sizes 26.Sh SYNOPSIS 27.Nm 28.Op Fl CFNPnrsv 29.Op Fl a Ar directory 30.Op Fl d Ar directory 31.Op Fl f Ar config_file 32.Op Fl S Ar pidfile 33.Op Fl t Ar timefmt 34.Op Oo Fl R Ar tagname Oc Ar 35.Sh DESCRIPTION 36The 37.Nm 38utility should be scheduled to run periodically by 39.Xr cron 8 . 40When it is executed it archives log files if necessary. 41If a log file 42is determined to require archiving, 43.Nm 44rearranges the files so that 45.Dq Va logfile 46is empty, 47.Dq Va logfile Ns Li \&.0 48has 49the last period's logs in it, 50.Dq Va logfile Ns Li \&.1 51has the next to last 52period's logs in it, and so on, up to a user-specified number of 53archived logs. 54It is also possible to let archived log filenames be created using the 55time the log file was archived instead of the sequential number using 56the 57.Fl t 58option. 59Optionally the archived logs can be compressed to save 60space. 61.Pp 62A log can be archived for three reasons: 63.Bl -enum -offset indent 64.It 65It is larger than the configured size (in kilobytes). 66.It 67A configured number of hours have elapsed since the log was last 68archived. 69.It 70This is the specific configured hour for rotation of the log. 71.El 72.Pp 73The granularity of 74.Nm 75is dependent on how often it is scheduled to run by 76.Xr cron 8 . 77Since the program is quite fast, it may be scheduled to run every hour 78without any ill effects, 79and mode three (above) assumes that this is so. 80.Sh OPTIONS 81The following options can be used with 82.Nm : 83.Bl -tag -width indent 84.It Fl f Ar config_file 85Instruct 86.Nm 87to use 88.Ar config_file 89instead of 90.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf 91for its configuration file. 92.It Fl a Ar directory 93Specify a 94.Ar directory 95into which archived log files will be written. 96If a relative path is given, 97it is appended to the path of each log file 98and the resulting path is used as the directory 99into which the archived log for that log file will be written. 100If an absolute path is given, 101all archived logs are written into the given 102.Ar directory . 103If any component of the path 104.Ar directory 105does not exist, 106it will be created when 107.Nm 108is run. 109.It Fl d Ar directory 110Specify a 111.Ar directory 112which all log files will be relative to. 113To allow archiving of logs outside the root, the 114.Ar directory 115passed to the 116.Fl a 117option is unaffected. 118.It Fl v 119Place 120.Nm 121in verbose mode. 122In this mode it will print out each log and its 123reasons for either trimming that log or skipping it. 124.It Fl n 125Cause 126.Nm 127not to trim the logs, but to print out what it would do if this option 128were not specified. This option implies the 129.Fl r 130option. 131.It Fl r 132Remove the restriction that 133.Nm 134must be running as root. 135Of course, 136.Nm 137will not be able to send a HUP signal to 138.Xr syslogd 8 139so this option should only be used in debugging. 140.It Fl s 141Specify that 142.Nm 143should not send any signals to any daemon processes that it would 144normally signal when rotating a log file. 145For any log file which is rotated, this option will usually also 146mean the rotated log file will not be compressed if there is a 147daemon which would have been signalled without this option. 148However, this option is most likely to be useful when specified 149with the 150.Fl R 151option, and in that case the compression will be done. 152.It Fl t Ar timefmt 153If specified 154.Nm 155will create the 156.Dq rotated 157logfiles using the specified time format instead of the default 158sequential filenames. 159The time format is described in the 160.Xr strftime 3 161manual page. 162If the 163.Ar timefmt 164argument is set to an empty string or the string 165.Dq DEFAULT , 166the default built in time format 167is used. 168If the 169.Ar timefmt 170string is changed the old files created using the previous time format 171will not be automatically removed (unless the new format is very 172similar to the old format). 173This is also the case when changing from sequential filenames to time 174based file names, and the other way around. 175The time format should contain at least year, month, day, and hour to 176make sure rotating of old logfiles can select the correct logfiles. 177.It Fl C 178If specified once, then 179.Nm 180will create any log files which do not exist, and which have the 181.Sy C 182flag specified in their config file entry. 183If specified multiple times, then 184.Nm 185will create all log files which do not already exist. 186If log files are given on the command-line, then the 187.Fl C 188or 189.Fl CC 190will only apply to those specific log files. 191.It Fl F 192Force 193.Nm 194to trim the logs, even if the trim conditions have not been met. 195This 196option is useful for diagnosing system problems by providing you with 197fresh logs that contain only the problems. 198.It Fl N 199Do not perform any rotations. 200This option is intended to be used with the 201.Fl C 202or 203.Fl CC 204options when creating log files is the only objective. 205.It Fl P 206Prevent further action if we should send signal but the 207.Dq pidfile 208is empty or does not exist. 209.It Fl R Ar tagname 210Specify that 211.Nm 212should rotate a given list of files, even if trim conditions are not 213met for those files. 214The 215.Ar tagname 216is only used in the messages written to the log files which are 217rotated. 218This differs from the 219.Fl F 220option in that one or more log files must also be specified, so that 221.Nm 222will only operate on those specific files. 223This option is mainly intended for the daemons or programs which write 224some log files, and want to trigger a rotate based on their own criteria. 225With this option they can execute 226.Nm 227to trigger the rotate when they want it to happen, and still give the 228system administrator a way to specify the rules of rotation (such as how 229many backup copies are kept, and what kind of compression is done). 230When a daemon does execute 231.Nm 232with the 233.Fl R 234option, it should make sure all of the log files are closed before 235calling 236.Nm , 237and then it should re-open the files after 238.Nm 239returns. 240Usually the calling process will also want to specify the 241.Fl s 242option, so 243.Nm 244will not send a signal to the very process which called it to force 245the rotate. 246Skipping the signal step will also mean that 247.Nm 248will return faster, since 249.Nm 250normally waits a few seconds after any signal that is sent. 251.It Fl S Ar pidfile 252Use 253.Ar pidfile 254as 255.Xr syslogd 8 Ns 's 256pidfile. 257.El 258.Pp 259If additional command line arguments are given, 260.Nm 261will only examine log files that match those arguments; otherwise, it 262will examine all files listed in the configuration file. 263.Sh FILES 264.Bl -tag -width /usr/local/etc/newsyslog.conf.d -compact 265.It Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf 266.Nm 267configuration file 268.It Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf.d 269Each file in this directory will be included by the default 270.Pa newsyslog.conf . 271.It Pa /usr/local/etc/newsyslog.conf.d 272Each file in this directory will be included by the default 273.Pa newsyslog.conf . 274.El 275.Sh COMPATIBILITY 276Previous versions of the 277.Nm 278utility used the dot (``.'') character to 279distinguish the group name. 280Beginning with 281.Fx 3.3 , 282this has been changed to a colon (``:'') character so that user and group 283names may contain the dot character. 284The dot (``.'') character is still 285accepted for backwards compatibility. 286.Sh SEE ALSO 287.Xr bzip2 1 , 288.Xr gzip 1 , 289.Xr xz 1 , 290.Xr syslog 3 , 291.Xr newsyslog.conf 5 , 292.Xr chown 8 , 293.Xr syslogd 8 294.Sh HISTORY 295The 296.Nm 297utility originated from 298.Nx 299and first appeared in 300.Fx 2.2 . 301.Sh AUTHORS 302.An Theodore Ts'o , 303MIT Project Athena 304.Pp 305Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 306.Sh BUGS 307Does not yet automatically read the logs to find security breaches. 308