1.\" This file was split from the newsyslog(8) manual page by Tom Rhodes 2.\" and includes modifications as appropriate. 3.\" The original header is included below: 4.\" 5.\" This file contains changes from the Open Software Foundation. 6.\" 7.\" from: @(#)newsyslog.8 8.\" $FreeBSD$ 9.\" 10.\" Copyright 1988, 1989 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 11.\" 12.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software 13.\" and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is 14.\" hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice 15.\" appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and 16.\" this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, 17.\" and that the names of M.I.T. and the M.I.T. S.I.P.B. not be 18.\" used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution 19.\" of the software without specific, written prior permission. 20.\" M.I.T. and the M.I.T. S.I.P.B. make no representations about 21.\" the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is 22.\" provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. 23.\" 24.Dd February 26, 2021 25.Dt NEWSYSLOG.CONF 5 26.Os 27.Sh NAME 28.Nm newsyslog.conf 29.Nd 30.Xr newsyslog 8 31configuration file 32.Sh DESCRIPTION 33The 34.Nm 35file is used to set log file rotation configuration for the 36.Xr newsyslog 8 37utility. 38Configuration may designate that logs are rotated based on 39size, last rotation time, or time of day. 40The 41.Nm 42file can also be used to designate secure permissions to log 43files at rotation time. 44During initialization, 45.Xr newsyslog 8 46reads a configuration file, 47normally 48.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf , 49to determine which logs may potentially be rotated and archived. 50Each line has five mandatory fields and four optional fields, 51separated with whitespace. 52Blank lines or lines beginning with 53.Ql # 54are ignored. 55If 56.Ql # 57is placed in the middle of the line, the 58.Ql # 59character and the rest of the line after it is ignored. 60To prevent special meaning, the 61.Ql # 62character may be escaped with 63.Ql \e ; 64in this case preceding 65.Ql \e 66is removed and 67.Ql # 68is treated as an ordinary character. 69The fields of the configuration file are as follows: 70.Bl -tag -width indent 71.It Ar logfile_name 72Name of the system log file to be archived, 73or one of the literal strings 74.Dq Aq Li default , 75or 76.Dq Aq Li include . 77The special default entry will only be used if a log file 78name is given as a command line argument to 79.Xr newsyslog 8 , 80and if that log file name is not matched by any other 81line in the configuration file. 82The include entry is used to include other configuration 83files and supports globbing. 84.It Ar owner : Ns Ar group 85This optional field specifies the owner and group for the archive file. 86The 87.Ql \&: 88is essential regardless if the 89.Ar owner 90or 91.Ar group 92field is left blank or contains a value. 93The field may be numeric, or a name which is present in 94.Pa /etc/passwd 95or 96.Pa /etc/group . 97.It Ar mode 98Specify the file mode of the log file and archives. 99Valid mode bits are 100.Dv 0666 . 101(That is, read and write permissions for the rotated log may be specified for 102the owner, group, and others.) 103All other mode bits are ignored. 104.It Ar count 105Specify the maximum number of archive files which may exist. 106This does not consider the current log file. 107.It Ar size 108When the size of the log file reaches 109.Ar size 110in kilobytes, the log file will be trimmed as described above. 111If this field contains an asterisk 112.Pq Ql * , 113the log file will not be trimmed based on size. 114.It Ar when 115The 116.Ar when 117field may consist of an interval, a specific time, or both. 118If the 119.Ar when 120field contains an asterisk 121.Pq Ql * , 122log rotation will solely depend on the contents of the 123.Ar size 124field. 125Otherwise, the 126.Ar when 127field consists of an optional interval in hours, usually followed 128by an 129.So Li \&@ Sc Ns No -sign 130and a time in restricted 131.Tn ISO 8601 132format. 133Additionally, the format may also be constructed with a 134.Ql $ 135sign along with a rotation time specification of once 136a day, once a week, or once a month. 137.Pp 138Time based trimming happens only if 139.Xr newsyslog 8 140is run within one hour of the specified time. 141If an interval is specified, the log file will be trimmed if that many 142hours have passed since the last rotation. 143When both a time and an interval are 144specified then both conditions must be satisfied for the rotation to 145take place. 146.Pp 147There is no provision for the specification of a timezone. 148There is little point in specifying an explicit minutes or 149seconds component in the current implementation, since the only comparison is 150.Dq within the hour . 151.Pp 152.Sy ISO 8601 restricted time format : 153.Pp 154The lead-in character for a restricted 155.Tn ISO 8601 156time is an 157.Ql @ 158sign. 159The particular format of the time in restricted 160.Tn ISO 8601 161is: 162.Sm off 163.Oo Oo Oo Oo Oo 164.Va cc Oc 165.Va yy Oc 166.Va mm Oc 167.Va dd Oc 168.Oo 169.Li T Oo 170.Va hh Oo 171.Va mm Oo 172.Va ss 173.Oc Oc Oc Oc Oc . 174.Sm on 175Optional date fields default to the appropriate component of the 176current date; optional time fields default to midnight; hence if today 177is January 22, 1999, the following date specifications are all 178equivalent: 179.Pp 180.Bl -item -compact -offset indent 181.It 182.Sq Li 19990122T000000 183.It 184.Sq Li 990122T000000 185.It 186.Sq Li 0122T000000 187.It 188.Sq Li 22T000000 189.It 190.Sq Li T000000 191.It 192.Sq Li T0000 193.It 194.Sq Li T00 195.It 196.Sq Li 22T 197.It 198.Sq Li T 199.It 200.Sq Li \& 201.El 202.Pp 203.Sy Day, week, and month time format: 204.Pp 205The lead-in character for day, week, and month specification is a 206.Ql $ 207sign. 208The particular format of day, week, and month specification is: 209.Op Li D Ns Va hh , 210.Op Li W Ns Va w Ns Op Li D Ns Va hh , 211and 212.Op Li M Ns Va dd Ns Op Li D Ns Va hh , 213respectively. 214Optional time fields default to midnight. 215The ranges for day and hour specifications are: 216.Pp 217.Bl -tag -width indent -offset indent -compact 218.It Ar hh 219hours, range 0..23 220.It Ar w 221day of week, range 0..6, 0 = Sunday 222.It Ar dd 223day of month, range 1..31, or one of the letters 224.Ql L 225or 226.Ql l 227to specify the last day of the month. 228.El 229.Pp 230Some examples: 231.Pp 232.Bl -tag -width indent -offset indent -compact 233.It Li $D0 234rotate every night at midnight 235(same as 236.Li @T00 ) 237.It Li $D23 238rotate every day at 23:00 239(same as 240.Li @T23 ) 241.It Li $W0D23 242rotate every week on Sunday at 23:00 243.It Li $W5D16 244rotate every week on Friday at 16:00 245.It Li $M1D0 246rotate at the first day of every month at midnight 247(i.e., the start of the day; same as 248.Li @01T00 ) 249.It Li $M5D6 250rotate on every fifth day of month at 6:00 251(same as 252.Li @05T06 ) 253.El 254.It Ar flags 255This optional field is made up of one or more characters 256that specify any special processing to be done for the log 257files matched by this line. 258The following are valid flags: 259.Bl -tag -width indent 260.It Cm B 261indicates that the log file is a binary file, or has some 262special format. 263Usually 264.Xr newsyslog 8 265inserts an 266.Tn ASCII 267message into a log file during rotation. 268This message is used to indicate 269when, and sometimes why the log file was rotated. 270If 271.Cm B 272is specified, then that informational message will not be 273inserted into the log file. 274.It Cm C 275indicates that the log file should be created if it does not 276already exist, and if the 277.Fl C 278option was also specified on the command line. 279.It Cm D 280indicates that 281.Xr newsyslog 8 282should set the 283.Dv UF_NODUMP 284flag when creating a new version of 285this log file. 286This option would affect how the 287.Xr dump 8 288command treats the log file when making a file system backup. 289.It Cm E 290indicates that the log file should not be rotated when its 291size is zero. 292The 293.Cm E 294flag is mostly useful in conjunction with 295.Cm B 296flag to prevent 297.Xr newsyslog 8 298from inserting an informational 299.Tn ASCII 300message into the new file. 301.It Cm G 302indicates that the specified 303.Ar logfile_name 304is a shell pattern, and that 305.Xr newsyslog 8 306should archive all filenames matching that pattern using the 307other options on this line. 308See 309.Xr glob 3 310for details on syntax and matching rules. 311.It Cm J 312indicates that 313.Xr newsyslog 8 314should attempt to save disk space by compressing the rotated 315log file using 316.Xr bzip2 1 . 317.It Cm N 318indicates that there is no process which needs to be signaled 319when this log file is rotated. 320.It Cm p 321indicates that the zero-th rotated file should not be compressed. 322.It Cm R 323if this flag is set the 324.Xr newsyslog 8 325will run shell command defined in 326.Ar path_to_pid_cmd_file 327after rotation instead of trying to send signal to a process id 328stored in the file. 329.It Cm T 330if this flag is set the informational rotation message written to 331the log file will be in the format specified by RFC5424. 332Normally, the rotation message is written in the traditional (RFC3164) 333syslog format. 334.It Cm U 335indicates that the file specified by 336.Ar path_to_pid_cmd_file 337will contain the ID for a process group instead of a process. 338This option also requires that the first line in that file 339be a negative value to distinguish it from a process ID. 340.It Cm X 341indicates that 342.Xr newsyslog 8 343should attempt to save disk space by compressing the rotated 344log file using 345.Xr xz 1 . 346.It Cm Y 347indicates that 348.Xr newsyslog 8 349should attempt to save disk space by compressing the rotated 350log file using 351.Xr zstd 1 . 352.It Cm Z 353indicates that 354.Xr newsyslog 8 355should attempt to save disk space by compressing the rotated 356log file using 357.Xr gzip 1 . 358.It Fl 359a minus sign will not cause any special processing, but it 360can be used as a placeholder to create a 361.Ar flags 362field when you need to specify any of the following fields. 363.El 364.It Ar path_to_pid_cmd_file 365This optional field specifies the file name containing a daemon's 366process ID or to find a group process ID if the 367.Cm U 368flag was specified. 369If this field is present, a 370.Ar signal 371is sent to the process ID contained in this file. 372If this field is not present and the 373.Cm N 374flag has not been specified, then a 375.Dv SIGHUP 376signal will be sent to 377.Xr syslogd 8 378or to the process id found in the file specified by 379.Xr newsyslog 8 Ns 's 380.Fl S 381switch. 382This field must start with 383.Ql / 384in order to be recognized properly. 385When used with the 386.Cm R 387flag, the file is treated as a path to a binary to be executed 388by the 389.Xr newsyslog 8 390after rotation instead of sending the signal out. 391.It Ar signal 392This optional field specifies the signal that will be sent to the daemon 393process (or to all processes in a process group, if the 394.Cm U 395flag was specified). 396If this field is not present, then a 397.Dv SIGHUP 398signal will be sent. 399Signal names 400must start with 401.Dq SIG 402and be the signal name, e.g., 403.Dv SIGUSR1 . 404Alternatively, 405.Ar signal 406can be the signal number, e.g., 30 for 407.Dv SIGUSR1 . 408.El 409.Sh EXAMPLES 410The following is an example of the 411.Dq Aq Li include 412entry: 413.Dl "<include> /etc/newsyslog-local.conf" 414.Sh SEE ALSO 415.Xr bzip2 1 , 416.Xr gzip 1 , 417.Xr xz 1 , 418.Xr zstd 1 , 419.Xr syslog 3 , 420.Xr chown 8 , 421.Xr newsyslog 8 , 422.Xr syslogd 8 423.Pp 424.Rs 425.%A C. Lonvick 426.%T The BSD syslog Protocol 427.%O RFC3164 428.Re 429.Rs 430.%A R. Gerhards 431.%T The Syslog Protocol 432.%O RFC5424 433.Re 434.Sh HISTORY 435This manual page first appeared in 436.Fx 4.10 . 437