xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8 (revision 04c9749ff0148ec8f73b150cec8bc2c094a5d31a)
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32.\"     @(#)syslogd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd October 12, 1995
36.Dt SYSLOGD 8
37.Os BSD 4.2
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm syslogd
40.Nd log systems messages
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl dsuv
44.Op Fl a Ar allowed_peer
45.Op Fl f Ar config_file
46.Op Fl m Ar mark_interval
47.Op Fl p Ar log_socket
48.Op Fl l Ar path
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50The
51.Nm
52daemon reads and logs messages to the system console, log files, other
53machines and/or users as specified by its configuration file.
54.Pp
55The options are as follows:
56.Bl -tag -width indent
57.It Fl a Ar allowed_peer
58Allow
59.Ar allowed_peer
60to log to this
61.Nm
62using UDP datagrams.  Multiple
63.Fl a
64options may be specified.
65.Pp
66.Ar Allowed_peer
67can be any of the following:
68.Bl -tag -width "ipaddr/masklen[:service]XX"
69.It Ar ipaddr/masklen Ns Op Ar :service
70Accept datagrams from
71.Ar ipaddr
72(in the usual dotted quad notation) with
73.Ar masklen
74bits being taken into account when doing the address comparision.  If
75specified,
76.Ar service
77is the name or number of an UDP service (see
78.Xr services 5 ) Ns
79the source packet must belong to.  A
80.Ar service
81of
82.Ql \&*
83allows packets being sent from any UDP port.  The default
84.Ar service
85is
86.Ql syslog .
87A missing
88.Ar masklen
89will be substituted by the historic class A or class B netmasks if
90.Ar ipaddr
91belongs into the address range of class A or B, respectively, or
92by 24 otherwise.
93.It Ar domainname Ns Op Ar :service
94Accept datagrams where the reverse address lookup yields
95.Ar domainname
96for the sender address.  The meaning of
97.Ar service
98is as explained above.
99.It Ar *domainname Ns Op Ar :service
100Same as before, except that any source host whose name
101.Em ends
102in
103.Ar domainname
104will get permission.
105.El
106.It Fl d
107Put
108.Nm
109into debugging mode.  This is probably only of use to developers working on
110.Nm Ns .
111.It Fl f
112Specify the pathname of an alternate configuration file;
113the default is
114.Pa /etc/syslog.conf .
115.It Fl m
116Select the number of minutes between
117.Dq mark
118messages; the default is 20 minutes.
119.It Fl n
120Disable dns query for every request.
121.It Fl p
122Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket to be used instead;
123the default is
124.Pa /var/run/log .
125.It Fl l
126Specify a location where
127.Nm
128should place an additional log socket.
129Up to 19 additional logging sockets can be specified.
130The primary use for this is to place additional log sockets in
131.Pa /var/run/log
132of various chroot filespaces.
133.It Fl s
134Operate in secure mode.  Do not log messages from remote machines.  If
135specified twice, no network socket will be opened at all, which also
136disables logging to remote machines.
137.It Fl u
138Unique priority logging.  Only log messages at the specified priority.
139Without this option, messages at the stated priority or higher are logged.
140This option changes the default comparison from
141.Dq =>
142to
143.Dq = .
144.It Fl v
145Verbose logging.  If specified once, the numeric facility and priority are
146logged with each locally-written message.  If specified more than once,
147the names of the facility and priority are logged with each locally-written
148message.
149.El
150.Pp
151The
152.Nm
153daemon reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it
154receives a hangup signal.
155For information on the format of the configuration file,
156see
157.Xr syslog.conf 5 .
158.Pp
159The
160.Nm
161daemon reads messages from the
162.Tn UNIX
163domain socket
164.Pa /var/run/log ,
165from an Internet domain socket specified in
166.Pa /etc/services ,
167and from the special device
168.Pa /dev/klog
169(to read kernel messages).
170.Pp
171The
172.Nm
173daemon creates the file
174.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid ,
175and stores its process
176id there.
177This can be used to kill or reconfigure
178.Nm Ns .
179.Pp
180The message sent to
181.Nm
182should consist of a single line.
183The message can contain a priority code, which should be a preceding
184decimal number in angle braces, for example,
185.Sq Aq 5.
186This priority code should map into the priorities defined in the
187include file
188.Aq Pa sys/syslog.h .
189.Sh FILES
190.Bl -tag -width /var/run/syslog.pid -compact
191.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf
192configuration file
193.It Pa /var/run/syslog.pid
194process id of current
195.Nm
196.It Pa /var/run/log
197name of the
198.Tn UNIX
199domain datagram log socket
200.It Pa /dev/klog
201kernel log device
202.El
203.Sh SEE ALSO
204.Xr logger 1 ,
205.Xr syslog 3 ,
206.Xr services 5 ,
207.Xr syslog.conf 5
208.Sh HISTORY
209The
210.Nm
211command appeared in
212.Bx 4.3 .
213.Pp
214The
215.Fl a ,
216.Fl s ,
217.Fl u ,
218and
219.Fl v
220options are
221.Fx 2.2
222extensions.
223.Sh BUGS
224The ability to log messages received in UDP packets is equivalent to
225an unauthenticated remote disk-filling service, and should probably be
226disabled by default.  Some sort of
227.No inter- Ns Nm syslogd
228authentication mechanism ought to be worked out.  To prevent the worst
229abuse, use of the
230.Fl a
231option is therefore highly recommended.
232.Pp
233The
234.Fl a
235matching algorithm doesn't pretend to be very efficient; use of numeric
236IP addresses is faster than domain name comparision.  Since the allowed
237peer list is being walked linearly, peer groups where frequent messages
238are being anticipated from should be put early into the
239.Fl a
240list.
241.Pp
242The log socket was moved from
243.Pa /dev
244to ease the use of a read-only root filesystem.
245This may confuse
246some old binaries so that a symbolic link might be used for a
247transitional period.
248