xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8 (revision 853fbff5f7e5eb0ebab1bf097baed640c3d811f1)
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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
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm syslogd
40.Nd log systems messages
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl 46Adknsuv
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 p
185Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket to be used instead;
186the default is
187.Pa /var/run/log .
188.It Fl P
189Specify an alternative file in which to store the process ID.
190The default is
191.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid .
192.It Fl l
193Specify a location where
194.Nm
195should place an additional log socket.
196Up to 19 additional logging sockets can be specified.
197The primary use for this is to place additional log sockets in
198.Pa /var/run/log
199of various chroot filespaces.
200.It Fl s
201Operate in secure mode.  Do not log messages from remote machines.  If
202specified twice, no network socket will be opened at all, which also
203disables logging to remote machines.
204.It Fl u
205Unique priority logging.  Only log messages at the specified priority.
206Without this option, messages at the stated priority or higher are logged.
207This option changes the default comparison from
208.Dq =>
209to
210.Dq = .
211.It Fl v
212Verbose logging.  If specified once, the numeric facility and priority are
213logged with each locally-written message.  If specified more than once,
214the names of the facility and priority are logged with each locally-written
215message.
216.El
217.Pp
218The
219.Nm
220daemon reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it
221receives a hangup signal.
222For information on the format of the configuration file,
223see
224.Xr syslog.conf 5 .
225.Pp
226The
227.Nm
228daemon reads messages from the
229.Tn UNIX
230domain socket
231.Pa /var/run/log ,
232from an Internet domain socket specified in
233.Pa /etc/services ,
234and from the special device
235.Pa /dev/klog
236(to read kernel messages).
237.Pp
238The
239.Nm
240daemon creates its process ID file,
241by default
242.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid ,
243and stores its process
244ID there.
245This can be used to kill or reconfigure
246.Nm .
247.Pp
248The message sent to
249.Nm
250should consist of a single line.
251The message can contain a priority code, which should be a preceding
252decimal number in angle braces, for example,
253.Sq Aq 5 .
254This priority code should map into the priorities defined in the
255include file
256.Aq Pa sys/syslog.h .
257.Pp
258For security reasons,
259.Nm
260will not append to log files that do not exist;
261therefore, they must be created manually before running
262.Nm .
263.Sh FILES
264.Bl -tag -width /var/run/syslog.pid -compact
265.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf
266configuration file
267.It Pa /var/run/syslog.pid
268default process ID file
269.It Pa /var/run/log
270name of the
271.Tn UNIX
272domain datagram log socket
273.It Pa /dev/klog
274kernel log device
275.El
276.Sh SEE ALSO
277.Xr logger 1 ,
278.Xr syslog 3 ,
279.Xr services 5 ,
280.Xr syslog.conf 5
281.Sh HISTORY
282The
283.Nm
284command appeared in
285.Bx 4.3 .
286.Pp
287The
288.Fl a ,
289.Fl s ,
290.Fl u ,
291and
292.Fl v
293options are
294.Fx 2.2
295extensions.
296.Sh BUGS
297The ability to log messages received in UDP packets is equivalent to
298an unauthenticated remote disk-filling service, and should probably be
299disabled by default.  Some sort of
300.No inter- Ns Nm syslogd
301authentication mechanism ought to be worked out.  To prevent the worst
302abuse, use of the
303.Fl a
304option is therefore highly recommended.
305.Pp
306The
307.Fl a
308matching algorithm doesn't pretend to be very efficient; use of numeric
309IP addresses is faster than domain name comparison.  Since the allowed
310peer list is being walked linearly, peer groups where frequent messages
311are being anticipated from should be put early into the
312.Fl a
313list.
314.Pp
315The log socket was moved from
316.Pa /dev
317to ease the use of a read-only root filesystem.
318This may confuse
319some old binaries so that a symbolic link might be used for a
320transitional period.
321