xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8 (revision 262e143bd46171a6415a5b28af260a5efa2a3db8)
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28.\"     @(#)syslogd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd April 13, 2005
32.Dt SYSLOGD 8
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm syslogd
36.Nd log systems messages
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.Nm
39.Op Fl 46Acdknosuv
40.Op Fl a Ar allowed_peer
41.Op Fl b Ar bind_address
42.Op Fl f Ar config_file
43.Op Fl l Oo Ar mode : Oc Ns Ar path
44.Op Fl m Ar mark_interval
45.Op Fl P Ar pid_file
46.Op Fl p Ar log_socket
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Nm
50utility reads and logs messages to the system console, log files, other
51machines and/or users as specified by its configuration file.
52.Pp
53The options are as follows:
54.Bl -tag -width indent
55.It Fl 4
56Force
57.Nm
58to use IPv4 addresses only.
59.It Fl 6
60Force
61.Nm
62to use IPv6 addresses only.
63.It Fl A
64Ordinarily,
65.Nm
66tries to send the message to only one address
67even if the host has more than one A or AAAA record.
68If this option is specified,
69.Nm
70tries to send the message to all addresses.
71.It Fl a Ar allowed_peer
72Allow
73.Ar allowed_peer
74to log to this
75.Nm
76using UDP datagrams.
77Multiple
78.Fl a
79options may be specified.
80.Pp
81.Ar Allowed_peer
82can be any of the following:
83.Bl -tag -width "ipaddr/masklen[:service]XX"
84.It Xo
85.Sm off
86.Ar ipaddr
87.No / Ar masklen
88.Op : Ar service
89.Sm on
90.Xc
91Accept datagrams from
92.Ar ipaddr
93(in the usual dotted quad notation) with
94.Ar masklen
95bits being taken into account when doing the address comparison.
96.Ar ipaddr
97can be also IPv6 address by enclosing the address with
98.Ql \&[
99and
100.Ql \&] .
101If specified,
102.Ar service
103is the name or number of an UDP service (see
104.Xr services 5 )
105the source packet must belong to.
106A
107.Ar service
108of
109.Ql \&*
110allows packets being sent from any UDP port.
111The default
112.Ar service
113is
114.Ql syslog .
115If
116.Ar ipaddr
117is IPv4 address, a missing
118.Ar masklen
119will be substituted by the historic class A or class B netmasks if
120.Ar ipaddr
121belongs into the address range of class A or B, respectively, or
122by 24 otherwise.
123If
124.Ar ipaddr
125is IPv6 address, a missing
126.Ar masklen
127will be substituted by 128.
128.It Xo
129.Sm off
130.Ar domainname Op : Ar service
131.Sm on
132.Xc
133Accept datagrams where the reverse address lookup yields
134.Ar domainname
135for the sender address.
136The meaning of
137.Ar service
138is as explained above.
139.It Xo
140.Sm off
141.No * Ar domainname Op : Ar service
142.Sm on
143.Xc
144Same as before, except that any source host whose name
145.Em ends
146in
147.Ar domainname
148will get permission.
149.El
150.Pp
151The
152.Fl a
153options are ignored if the
154.Fl s
155option is also specified.
156.It Fl b Ar bind_address
157Specify one specific IP address or hostname to bind to.
158If a hostname is specified,
159the IPv4 or IPv6 address which corresponds to it is used.
160.It Fl c
161Disable the compression of repeated instances of the same line
162into a single line of the form
163.Dq Li "last message repeated N times"
164when the output is a pipe to another program.
165If specified twice, disable this compression in all cases.
166.It Fl d
167Put
168.Nm
169into debugging mode.
170This is probably only of use to developers working on
171.Nm .
172.It Fl f
173Specify the pathname of an alternate configuration file;
174the default is
175.Pa /etc/syslog.conf .
176.It Fl k
177Disable the translation of
178messages received with facility
179.Dq kern
180to facility
181.Dq user .
182Usually the
183.Dq kern
184facility is reserved for messages read directly from
185.Pa /dev/klog .
186.It Fl m
187Select the number of minutes between
188.Dq mark
189messages; the default is 20 minutes.
190.It Fl n
191Disable dns query for every request.
192.It Fl o
193Prefix kernel messages with the full kernel boot file as determined by
194.Xr getbootfile 3 .
195Without this, the kernel message prefix is always
196.Dq Li kernel: .
197.It Fl p
198Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket to be used instead;
199the default is
200.Pa /var/run/log .
201.It Fl P
202Specify an alternative file in which to store the process ID.
203The default is
204.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid .
205.It Fl S
206Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket for privileged
207applications to be used instead; the default is
208.Pa /var/run/logpriv .
209.It Fl l
210Specify a location where
211.Nm
212should place an additional log socket.
213The primary use for this is to place additional log sockets in
214.Pa /var/run/log
215of various chroot filespaces.
216File permissions for socket can be specified in octal representation
217before socket name, delimited with a colon.
218Path to socket location must be absolute.
219.It Fl s
220Operate in secure mode.
221Do not log messages from remote machines.
222If
223specified twice, no network socket will be opened at all, which also
224disables logging to remote machines.
225.It Fl u
226Unique priority logging.
227Only log messages at the specified priority.
228Without this option, messages at the stated priority or higher are logged.
229This option changes the default comparison from
230.Dq =>
231to
232.Dq = .
233.It Fl v
234Verbose logging.
235If specified once, the numeric facility and priority are
236logged with each locally-written message.
237If specified more than once,
238the names of the facility and priority are logged with each locally-written
239message.
240.El
241.Pp
242The
243.Nm
244utility reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it
245receives a hangup signal.
246For information on the format of the configuration file,
247see
248.Xr syslog.conf 5 .
249.Pp
250The
251.Nm
252utility reads messages from the
253.Ux
254domain sockets
255.Pa /var/run/log
256and
257.Pa /var/run/logpriv ,
258from an Internet domain socket specified in
259.Pa /etc/services ,
260and from the special device
261.Pa /dev/klog
262(to read kernel messages).
263.Pp
264The
265.Nm
266utility creates its process ID file,
267by default
268.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid ,
269and stores its process
270ID there.
271This can be used to kill or reconfigure
272.Nm .
273.Pp
274The message sent to
275.Nm
276should consist of a single line.
277The message can contain a priority code, which should be a preceding
278decimal number in angle braces, for example,
279.Sq Aq 5 .
280This priority code should map into the priorities defined in the
281include file
282.In sys/syslog.h .
283.Pp
284For security reasons,
285.Nm
286will not append to log files that do not exist;
287therefore, they must be created manually before running
288.Nm .
289.Sh FILES
290.Bl -tag -width /var/run/syslog.pid -compact
291.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf
292configuration file
293.It Pa /var/run/syslog.pid
294default process ID file
295.It Pa /var/run/log
296name of the
297.Ux
298domain datagram log socket
299.It Pa /var/run/logpriv
300.Ux
301socket for privileged applications
302.It Pa /dev/klog
303kernel log device
304.El
305.Sh SEE ALSO
306.Xr logger 1 ,
307.Xr syslog 3 ,
308.Xr services 5 ,
309.Xr syslog.conf 5 ,
310.Xr newsyslog 8
311.Sh HISTORY
312The
313.Nm
314utility appeared in
315.Bx 4.3 .
316.Pp
317The
318.Fl a ,
319.Fl s ,
320.Fl u ,
321and
322.Fl v
323options are
324.Fx 2.2
325extensions.
326.Sh BUGS
327The ability to log messages received in UDP packets is equivalent to
328an unauthenticated remote disk-filling service, and should probably be
329disabled by default.
330Some sort of
331.No inter- Ns Nm syslogd
332authentication mechanism ought to be worked out.
333To prevent the worst
334abuse, use of the
335.Fl a
336option is therefore highly recommended.
337.Pp
338The
339.Fl a
340matching algorithm does not pretend to be very efficient; use of numeric
341IP addresses is faster than domain name comparison.
342Since the allowed
343peer list is being walked linearly, peer groups where frequent messages
344are being anticipated from should be put early into the
345.Fl a
346list.
347.Pp
348The log socket was moved from
349.Pa /dev
350to ease the use of a read-only root file system.
351This may confuse
352some old binaries so that a symbolic link might be used for a
353transitional period.
354