xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8 (revision 93e779a26c651610ac6e7986d67ecc9ed2cadcbf)
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28.\"     @(#)syslogd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd June 16, 2015
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 468ACcdFkNnosTuv
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 8
64Tells
65.Nm
66not to interfere with 8-bit data.  Normally
67.Nm
68will replace C1 control characters
69.Pq ISO 8859 and Unicode characters
70with their
71.Dq M- Ns Em x
72equivalent.
73Note, this option does not change the way
74.Nm
75alters control characters
76.Pq see Xr iscntrl 3 .
77They will always be replaced with their
78.Dq ^ Ns Em x
79equivalent.
80.It Fl A
81Ordinarily,
82.Nm
83tries to send the message to only one address
84even if the host has more than one A or AAAA record.
85If this option is specified,
86.Nm
87tries to send the message to all addresses.
88.It Fl a Ar allowed_peer
89Allow
90.Ar allowed_peer
91to log to this
92.Nm
93using UDP datagrams.
94Multiple
95.Fl a
96options may be specified.
97.Pp
98The
99.Ar allowed_peer
100option may be any of the following:
101.Bl -tag -width "ipaddr/masklen[:service]XX"
102.It Xo
103.Sm off
104.Ar ipaddr
105.No / Ar masklen
106.Op : Ar service
107.Sm on
108.Xc
109Accept datagrams from
110.Ar ipaddr
111(in the usual dotted quad notation) with
112.Ar masklen
113bits being taken into account when doing the address comparison.
114.Ar ipaddr
115can be also IPv6 address by enclosing the address with
116.Ql \&[
117and
118.Ql \&] .
119If specified,
120.Ar service
121is the name or number of an UDP service (see
122.Xr services 5 )
123the source packet must belong to.
124A
125.Ar service
126of
127.Ql \&*
128allows packets being sent from any UDP port.
129The default
130.Ar service
131is
132.Ql syslog .
133If
134.Ar ipaddr
135is IPv4 address, a missing
136.Ar masklen
137will be substituted by the historic class A or class B netmasks if
138.Ar ipaddr
139belongs into the address range of class A or B, respectively, or
140by 24 otherwise.
141If
142.Ar ipaddr
143is IPv6 address, a missing
144.Ar masklen
145will be substituted by 128.
146.It Xo
147.Sm off
148.Ar domainname Op : Ar service
149.Sm on
150.Xc
151Accept datagrams where the reverse address lookup yields
152.Ar domainname
153for the sender address.
154The meaning of
155.Ar service
156is as explained above.
157.It Xo
158.Sm off
159.No * Ar domainname Op : Ar service
160.Sm on
161.Xc
162Same as before, except that any source host whose name
163.Em ends
164in
165.Ar domainname
166will get permission.
167.El
168.Pp
169The
170.Fl a
171options are ignored if the
172.Fl s
173option is also specified.
174.It Xo
175.Fl b
176.Sm off
177.Ar bind_address Op : Ar service
178.Sm on
179.Xc
180.It Xo
181.Fl b
182.Sm off
183.Li : Ar service
184.Sm on
185.Xc
186Bind to a specific address and/or port.
187The address can be specified as a hostname,
188and the port as a service name.
189If an IPv6 address is specified, it should be enclosed with
190.Ql \&[
191and
192.Ql \&] .
193The default
194.Ar service
195is
196.Ql syslog .
197This option can be specified multiple times to bind to
198multiple addresses and/or ports.
199.It Fl C
200Create log files that do not exist (permission is set to
201.Li 0600 ) .
202.It Fl c
203Disable the compression of repeated instances of the same line
204into a single line of the form
205.Dq Li "last message repeated N times"
206when the output is a pipe to another program.
207If specified twice, disable this compression in all cases.
208.It Fl d
209Put
210.Nm
211into debugging mode.
212This is probably only of use to developers working on
213.Nm .
214.It Fl f
215Specify the pathname of an alternate configuration file;
216the default is
217.Pa /etc/syslog.conf .
218.It Fl F
219Run
220.Nm
221in the foreground, rather than going into daemon mode. This is useful if
222some other process uses
223.Xr fork 2
224and
225.Xr exec 3
226to run
227.Nm ,
228and wants to monitor when and how it exits.
229.It Fl k
230Disable the translation of
231messages received with facility
232.Dq kern
233to facility
234.Dq user .
235Usually the
236.Dq kern
237facility is reserved for messages read directly from
238.Pa /dev/klog .
239.It Fl m
240Select the number of minutes between
241.Dq mark
242messages; the default is 20 minutes.
243.It Fl N
244Disable binding on UDP sockets.  RFC 3164 recommends that outgoing
245syslogd messages should originate from the privileged port, this
246option
247.Em disables
248the recommended behavior.  This option inherits
249.Fl s .
250.It Fl n
251Disable dns query for every request.
252.It Fl o
253Prefix kernel messages with the full kernel boot file as determined by
254.Xr getbootfile 3 .
255Without this, the kernel message prefix is always
256.Dq Li kernel: .
257.It Fl p
258Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket to be used instead;
259the default is
260.Pa /var/run/log .
261.It Fl P
262Specify an alternative file in which to store the process ID.
263The default is
264.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid .
265.It Fl S
266Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket for privileged
267applications to be used instead; the default is
268.Pa /var/run/logpriv .
269.It Fl l
270Specify a location where
271.Nm
272should place an additional log socket.
273The primary use for this is to place additional log sockets in
274.Pa /var/run/log
275of various chroot filespaces.
276File permissions for socket can be specified in octal representation
277before socket name, delimited with a colon.
278Path to socket location must be absolute.
279.It Fl s
280Operate in secure mode.
281Do not log messages from remote machines.
282If
283specified twice, no network socket will be opened at all, which also
284disables logging to remote machines.
285.It Fl T
286Always use the local time and date for messages received from the network,
287instead of the timestamp field supplied in the message by the remote host.
288This is useful if some of the originating hosts can't keep time properly
289or are unable to generate a correct timestamp.
290.It Fl u
291Unique priority logging.
292Only log messages at the specified priority.
293Without this option, messages at the stated priority or higher are logged.
294This option changes the default comparison from
295.Dq =>
296to
297.Dq = .
298.It Fl v
299Verbose logging.
300If specified once, the numeric facility and priority are
301logged with each locally-written message.
302If specified more than once,
303the names of the facility and priority are logged with each locally-written
304message.
305.El
306.Pp
307The
308.Nm
309utility reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it
310receives a hangup signal.
311For information on the format of the configuration file,
312see
313.Xr syslog.conf 5 .
314.Pp
315The
316.Nm
317utility reads messages from the
318.Ux
319domain sockets
320.Pa /var/run/log
321and
322.Pa /var/run/logpriv ,
323from an Internet domain socket specified in
324.Pa /etc/services ,
325and from the special device
326.Pa /dev/klog
327(to read kernel messages).
328.Pp
329The
330.Nm
331utility creates its process ID file,
332by default
333.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid ,
334and stores its process
335ID there.
336This can be used to kill or reconfigure
337.Nm .
338.Pp
339The message sent to
340.Nm
341should consist of a single line.
342The message can contain a priority code, which should be a preceding
343decimal number in angle braces, for example,
344.Sq Aq 5 .
345This priority code should map into the priorities defined in the
346include file
347.In sys/syslog.h .
348.Pp
349For security reasons,
350.Nm
351will not append to log files that do not exist (unless
352.Fl C
353option is specified);
354therefore, they must be created manually before running
355.Nm .
356.Pp
357The date and time are taken from the received message.
358If the format of the timestamp field is incorrect,
359time obtained from the local host is used instead.
360This can be overridden by the
361.Fl T
362flag.
363.Sh FILES
364.Bl -tag -width /var/run/syslog.pid -compact
365.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf
366configuration file
367.It Pa /var/run/syslog.pid
368default process ID file
369.It Pa /var/run/log
370name of the
371.Ux
372domain datagram log socket
373.It Pa /var/run/logpriv
374.Ux
375socket for privileged applications
376.It Pa /dev/klog
377kernel log device
378.El
379.Sh SEE ALSO
380.Xr logger 1 ,
381.Xr syslog 3 ,
382.Xr services 5 ,
383.Xr syslog.conf 5 ,
384.Xr newsyslog 8
385.Sh HISTORY
386The
387.Nm
388utility appeared in
389.Bx 4.3 .
390.Pp
391The
392.Fl a ,
393.Fl s ,
394.Fl u ,
395and
396.Fl v
397options are
398.Fx 2.2
399extensions.
400.Sh BUGS
401The ability to log messages received in UDP packets is equivalent to
402an unauthenticated remote disk-filling service, and should probably be
403disabled by default.
404Some sort of
405.No inter- Ns Nm syslogd
406authentication mechanism ought to be worked out.
407To prevent the worst
408abuse, use of the
409.Fl a
410option is therefore highly recommended.
411.Pp
412The
413.Fl a
414matching algorithm does not pretend to be very efficient; use of numeric
415IP addresses is faster than domain name comparison.
416Since the allowed
417peer list is being walked linearly, peer groups where frequent messages
418are being anticipated from should be put early into the
419.Fl a
420list.
421.Pp
422The log socket was moved from
423.Pa /dev
424to ease the use of a read-only root file system.
425This may confuse
426some old binaries so that a symbolic link might be used for a
427transitional period.
428