xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8 (revision 3a669c52a81fa52a7c3aa5ac06ef6f1da5981db9)
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32.\"     @(#)syslogd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd November 24, 2001
36.Dt SYSLOGD 8
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm syslogd
40.Nd log systems messages
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl 46Adknosuv
44.Op Fl a Ar allowed_peer
45.Op Fl b Ar bind_address
46.Op Fl f Ar config_file
47.Op Fl m Ar mark_interval
48.Op Fl p Ar log_socket
49.Op Fl P Ar pid_file
50.Op Fl l Ar path
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Nm
54daemon reads and logs messages to the system console, log files, other
55machines and/or users as specified by its configuration file.
56.Pp
57The options are as follows:
58.Bl -tag -width indent
59.It Fl 4
60Forces
61.Nm
62to use IPv4 addresses only.
63.It Fl 6
64Forces
65.Nm
66to use IPv6 addresses only.
67.It Fl A
68Ordinarily,
69.Nm
70tries to send the message to only one address
71even if the host has more than one A or AAAA record.
72If this option is specified,
73.Nm
74tries to send the message to all addresses.
75.It Fl a Ar allowed_peer
76Allow
77.Ar allowed_peer
78to log to this
79.Nm
80using UDP datagrams.  Multiple
81.Fl a
82options may be specified.
83.Pp
84.Ar Allowed_peer
85can be any of the following:
86.Bl -tag -width "ipaddr/masklen[:service]XX"
87.It Xo
88.Sm off
89.Ar ipaddr
90.No / Ar masklen
91.Op : Ar service
92.Sm on
93.Xc
94Accept datagrams from
95.Ar ipaddr
96(in the usual dotted quad notation) with
97.Ar masklen
98bits being taken into account when doing the address comparison.
99.Ar ipaddr
100can be also IPv6 address by enclosing the address with
101.Ql \&[
102and
103.Ql \&] .
104If specified,
105.Ar service
106is the name or number of an UDP service (see
107.Xr services 5 )
108the source packet must belong to.  A
109.Ar service
110of
111.Ql \&*
112allows packets being sent from any UDP port.  The default
113.Ar service
114is
115.Ql syslog .
116If
117.Ar ipaddr
118is IPv4 address, a missing
119.Ar masklen
120will be substituted by the historic class A or class B netmasks if
121.Ar ipaddr
122belongs into the address range of class A or B, respectively, or
123by 24 otherwise.  If
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.  The meaning of
136.Ar service
137is as explained above.
138.It Xo
139.Sm off
140.No * Ar domainname Op : Ar service
141.Sm on
142.Xc
143Same as before, except that any source host whose name
144.Em ends
145in
146.Ar domainname
147will get permission.
148.El
149.Pp
150The
151.Fl a
152options are ignored if the
153.Fl s
154option is also specified.
155.It Fl b Ar bind_address
156Specify one specific IP address or hostname to bind to.
157If a hostname is specified,
158the IPv4 or IPv6 address which corresponds to it is used.
159.It Fl d
160Put
161.Nm
162into debugging mode.  This is probably only of use to developers working on
163.Nm .
164.It Fl f
165Specify the pathname of an alternate configuration file;
166the default is
167.Pa /etc/syslog.conf .
168.It Fl k
169Disable the translation of
170messages received with facility
171.Dq kern
172to facility
173.Dq user .
174Usually the
175.Dq kern
176facility is reserved for messages read directly from
177.Pa /dev/klog .
178.It Fl m
179Select the number of minutes between
180.Dq mark
181messages; the default is 20 minutes.
182.It Fl n
183Disable dns query for every request.
184.It Fl o
185Prefix kernel messages with the full kernel boot file as determined by
186.Xr getbootfile 3 .
187Without this, the kernel message prefix is always
188.Dq kernel: .
189.It Fl p
190Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket to be used instead;
191the default is
192.Pa /var/run/log .
193.It Fl P
194Specify an alternative file in which to store the process ID.
195The default is
196.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid .
197.It Fl l
198Specify a location where
199.Nm
200should place an additional log socket.
201Up to 19 additional logging sockets can be specified.
202The primary use for this is to place additional log sockets in
203.Pa /var/run/log
204of various chroot filespaces.
205.It Fl s
206Operate in secure mode.  Do not log messages from remote machines.  If
207specified twice, no network socket will be opened at all, which also
208disables logging to remote machines.
209.It Fl u
210Unique priority logging.  Only log messages at the specified priority.
211Without this option, messages at the stated priority or higher are logged.
212This option changes the default comparison from
213.Dq =>
214to
215.Dq = .
216.It Fl v
217Verbose logging.  If specified once, the numeric facility and priority are
218logged with each locally-written message.  If specified more than once,
219the names of the facility and priority are logged with each locally-written
220message.
221.El
222.Pp
223The
224.Nm
225daemon reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it
226receives a hangup signal.
227For information on the format of the configuration file,
228see
229.Xr syslog.conf 5 .
230.Pp
231The
232.Nm
233daemon reads messages from the
234.Tn UNIX
235domain socket
236.Pa /var/run/log ,
237from an Internet domain socket specified in
238.Pa /etc/services ,
239and from the special device
240.Pa /dev/klog
241(to read kernel messages).
242.Pp
243The
244.Nm
245daemon creates its process ID file,
246by default
247.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid ,
248and stores its process
249ID there.
250This can be used to kill or reconfigure
251.Nm .
252.Pp
253The message sent to
254.Nm
255should consist of a single line.
256The message can contain a priority code, which should be a preceding
257decimal number in angle braces, for example,
258.Sq Aq 5 .
259This priority code should map into the priorities defined in the
260include file
261.Aq Pa sys/syslog.h .
262.Pp
263For security reasons,
264.Nm
265will not append to log files that do not exist;
266therefore, they must be created manually before running
267.Nm .
268.Sh FILES
269.Bl -tag -width /var/run/syslog.pid -compact
270.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf
271configuration file
272.It Pa /var/run/syslog.pid
273default process ID file
274.It Pa /var/run/log
275name of the
276.Tn UNIX
277domain datagram log socket
278.It Pa /dev/klog
279kernel log device
280.El
281.Sh SEE ALSO
282.Xr logger 1 ,
283.Xr syslog 3 ,
284.Xr services 5 ,
285.Xr syslog.conf 5
286.Sh HISTORY
287The
288.Nm
289command appeared in
290.Bx 4.3 .
291.Pp
292The
293.Fl a ,
294.Fl s ,
295.Fl u ,
296and
297.Fl v
298options are
299.Fx 2.2
300extensions.
301.Sh BUGS
302The ability to log messages received in UDP packets is equivalent to
303an unauthenticated remote disk-filling service, and should probably be
304disabled by default.  Some sort of
305.No inter- Ns Nm syslogd
306authentication mechanism ought to be worked out.  To prevent the worst
307abuse, use of the
308.Fl a
309option is therefore highly recommended.
310.Pp
311The
312.Fl a
313matching algorithm doesn't pretend to be very efficient; use of numeric
314IP addresses is faster than domain name comparison.  Since the allowed
315peer list is being walked linearly, peer groups where frequent messages
316are being anticipated from should be put early into the
317.Fl a
318list.
319.Pp
320The log socket was moved from
321.Pa /dev
322to ease the use of a read-only root filesystem.
323This may confuse
324some old binaries so that a symbolic link might be used for a
325transitional period.
326