xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8 (revision 6af83ee0d2941d18880b6aaa2b4facd1d30c6106)
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28.\"     @(#)syslogd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd November 8, 2004
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 l
206Specify a location where
207.Nm
208should place an additional log socket.
209The primary use for this is to place additional log sockets in
210.Pa /var/run/log
211of various chroot filespaces.
212File permissions for socket can be specified in octal representation
213before socket name, delimited with a colon.
214Path to socket location must be absolute.
215.It Fl s
216Operate in secure mode.
217Do not log messages from remote machines.
218If
219specified twice, no network socket will be opened at all, which also
220disables logging to remote machines.
221.It Fl u
222Unique priority logging.
223Only log messages at the specified priority.
224Without this option, messages at the stated priority or higher are logged.
225This option changes the default comparison from
226.Dq =>
227to
228.Dq = .
229.It Fl v
230Verbose logging.
231If specified once, the numeric facility and priority are
232logged with each locally-written message.
233If specified more than once,
234the names of the facility and priority are logged with each locally-written
235message.
236.El
237.Pp
238The
239.Nm
240utility reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it
241receives a hangup signal.
242For information on the format of the configuration file,
243see
244.Xr syslog.conf 5 .
245.Pp
246The
247.Nm
248utility reads messages from the
249.Ux
250domain sockets
251.Pa /var/run/log
252and
253.Pa /var/run/logpriv ,
254from an Internet domain socket specified in
255.Pa /etc/services ,
256and from the special device
257.Pa /dev/klog
258(to read kernel messages).
259.Pp
260The
261.Nm
262utility creates its process ID file,
263by default
264.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid ,
265and stores its process
266ID there.
267This can be used to kill or reconfigure
268.Nm .
269.Pp
270The message sent to
271.Nm
272should consist of a single line.
273The message can contain a priority code, which should be a preceding
274decimal number in angle braces, for example,
275.Sq Aq 5 .
276This priority code should map into the priorities defined in the
277include file
278.In sys/syslog.h .
279.Pp
280For security reasons,
281.Nm
282will not append to log files that do not exist;
283therefore, they must be created manually before running
284.Nm .
285.Sh FILES
286.Bl -tag -width /var/run/syslog.pid -compact
287.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf
288configuration file
289.It Pa /var/run/syslog.pid
290default process ID file
291.It Pa /var/run/log
292name of the
293.Ux
294domain datagram log socket
295.It Pa /var/run/logpriv
296.Ux
297socket for privileged applications
298.It Pa /dev/klog
299kernel log device
300.El
301.Sh SEE ALSO
302.Xr logger 1 ,
303.Xr syslog 3 ,
304.Xr services 5 ,
305.Xr syslog.conf 5 ,
306.Xr newsyslog 8
307.Sh HISTORY
308The
309.Nm
310utility appeared in
311.Bx 4.3 .
312.Pp
313The
314.Fl a ,
315.Fl s ,
316.Fl u ,
317and
318.Fl v
319options are
320.Fx 2.2
321extensions.
322.Sh BUGS
323The ability to log messages received in UDP packets is equivalent to
324an unauthenticated remote disk-filling service, and should probably be
325disabled by default.
326Some sort of
327.No inter- Ns Nm syslogd
328authentication mechanism ought to be worked out.
329To prevent the worst
330abuse, use of the
331.Fl a
332option is therefore highly recommended.
333.Pp
334The
335.Fl a
336matching algorithm does not pretend to be very efficient; use of numeric
337IP addresses is faster than domain name comparison.
338Since the allowed
339peer list is being walked linearly, peer groups where frequent messages
340are being anticipated from should be put early into the
341.Fl a
342list.
343.Pp
344The log socket was moved from
345.Pa /dev
346to ease the use of a read-only root file system.
347This may confuse
348some old binaries so that a symbolic link might be used for a
349transitional period.
350