1.\" This file contains changes from the Open Software Foundation. 2.\" 3.\" from: @(#)newsyslog.8 4.\" $Id: newsyslog.8,v 1.4 1997/02/22 16:08:25 peter Exp $ 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 "January 12, 1989" 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 newsyslog 28.Op Fl rnv 29.Op Fl f Ar config_file 30.Sh DESCRIPTION 31.Nm Newsyslog 32is a program that should be scheduled to run periodically by 33.Xr cron 8 . 34When it is executed it archives log files if necessary. If a log file 35is determined to require archiving, 36.Nm newsyslog 37rearranges the files so that ``logfile'' is empty, ``logfile.0'' has 38the last period's logs in it, ``logfile.1'' has the next to last 39period's logs in it, and so on, up to a user-specified number of 40archived logs. Optionally the archived logs can be compressed to save 41space. 42.Pp 43A log can be archived because of two reasons. The log file can have 44grown bigger than a preset size in kilobytes, or a preset number of 45hours may have elapsed since the last log archive. The granularity of 46.Nm newsyslog 47is dependent on how often it is scheduled to run by 48.Xr cron 8 . 49Since the program is quite fast, it may be scheduled to run every hour 50without any ill effects. 51.Pp 52When starting up, 53.Nm newsyslog 54reads in a configuration file to determine which logs should be looked 55at. By default, this configuration file is 56.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf . 57Each line of the file contains information about a particular log file 58that should be handled by 59.Nm newsyslog . 60Each line has five mandatory fields and two optional fields, with a 61whitespace separating each field. Blank lines or lines beginning with 62``#'' are ignored. The fields of the configuration file are as 63follows: 64.Pp 65.Bl -tag -width logfile_namexxxx 66.It Ar logfile_name 67Name of the system log file to be archived. 68.It Ar owner.group 69Specifies the owner and group for the archive file. 70The "." is essential, even if the 71.Ar owner 72or 73.Ar group 74field is left blank. The field may be numeric, or a name which is 75present in 76.Pa /etc/passwd 77or 78.Pa /etc/group. 79.It Ar mode 80Specifies the mode of the log file and archives. 81.It Ar count 82Specifies the number of archive files to be kept 83besides the log file itself. 84.It Ar size 85When the size of the log file reaches 86.Ar size , 87the log file will be trimmed as described above. If this field 88is replaced by a 89.Ar * , 90then the size of the log file is not taken into account 91when determining when to trim the log file. 92of archives 93.It Ar interval 94When 95.Ar interval 96hours have passed, the log file will be trimmed. If this field is 97replaced by a 98.Ar * , 99then the number of hours since the last time the log was 100trimmed will not be taken into consideration. 101.It Ar flags 102This optional field specifies if the archive should have any 103special processing done to the archived log files. 104The 105.Ar Z 106flag will make the archive files compress to save space by 107using 108.Xr gzip 1 . 109The 110.Ar B 111flag means that the file is a binary file, and so the ASCII 112message which 113.Nm 114inserts to indicate the fact that the logs have been 115turned over should not be included. 116.El 117.Sh OPTIONS 118The following options can be used with newsyslog: 119.Bl -tag -width indent 120.It Fl f Ar config_file 121instructs newsyslog to use 122.Ar config_file 123instead of 124.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf 125for its configuration file. 126.It Fl v 127places 128.Nm newsyslog 129in verbose mode. In this mode it will print out each log and its 130reasons for either trimming that log or skipping it. 131.It Fl n 132causes 133.Nm newsyslog 134not to trim the logs, but to print out what it would do if this option 135were not specified. 136.It Fl r 137removes the restriction that 138.Nm newsyslog 139must be running as root. Of course, 140.Nm newsyslog 141will not be able to send a HUP signal to 142.Xr syslogd 8 143so this option should only be used in debugging. 144.El 145.Sh FILES 146.Bl -tag -width /etc/newsyslog.confxxxx -comapct 147.It Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf 148.Nm newsyslog 149configuration file. 150.El 151.Sh BUGS 152Doesn't yet automatically read the logs to find security breaches. 153.Sh AUTHOR 154Theodore Ts'o, MIT Project Athena 155.Pp 156Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 157.Sh "SEE ALSO" 158.Xr gzip 1 , 159.Xr syslog 3 , 160.Xr syslogd 8 161