xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8 (revision a8445737e740901f5f2c8d24c12ef7fc8b00134e)
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32.\"     @(#)syslogd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\"	$Id: syslogd.8,v 1.15 1998/06/25 19:39:18 guido Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd October 12, 1995
36.Dt SYSLOGD 8
37.Os BSD 4.2
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm syslogd
40.Nd log systems messages
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl dsuv
44.Op Fl a Ar allowed_peer
45.Op Fl f Ar config_file
46.Op Fl m Ar mark_interval
47.Op Fl p Ar log_socket
48.Op Fl l Ar path
49.Sh DESCRIPTION
50The
51.Nm
52daemon reads and logs messages to the system console, log files, other
53machines and/or users as specified by its configuration file.
54The options are as follows:
55.Bl -tag -width indent
56.It Fl a Ar allowed_peer
57Allow
58.Ar allowed_peer
59to log to this
60.Nm
61using UDP datagrams.  Multiple
62.Fl a
63options may be specified.
64.Pp
65.Ar Allowed_peer
66can be any of the following:
67.Bl -tag -width "ipaddr/masklen[:service]XX"
68.It Ar ipaddr/masklen Ns Op Ar :service
69Accept datagrams from
70.Ar ipaddr
71(in the usual dotted quad notation) with
72.Ar masklen
73bits being taken into account when doing the address comparision.  If
74specified,
75.Ar service
76is the name or number of an UDP service (see
77.Xr services 5 ) Ns
78the source packet must belong to.  A
79.Ar service
80of
81.Ql \&*
82allows packets being sent from any UDP port.  The default
83.Ar service
84is
85.Ql syslog .
86A missing
87.Ar masklen
88will be substituted by the historic class A or class B netmasks if
89.Ar ipaddr
90belongs into the address range of class A or B, respectively, or
91by 24 otherwise.
92.It Ar domainname Ns Op Ar :service
93Accept datagrams where the reverse address lookup yields
94.Ar domainname
95for the sender address.  The meaning of
96.Ar service
97is as explained above.
98.It Ar *domainname Ns Op Ar :service
99Same as before, except that any source host whose name
100.Em ends
101in
102.Ar domainname
103will get permission.
104.El
105.It Fl d
106Put
107.Nm
108into debugging mode.  This is probably only of use to developers working on
109.Nm Ns .
110.It Fl f
111Specify the pathname of an alternate configuration file;
112the default is
113.Pa /etc/syslog.conf .
114.It Fl m
115Select the number of minutes between
116.Dq mark
117messages; the default is 20 minutes.
118.It Fl p
119Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket to be used instead;
120the default is
121.Pa /var/run/log .
122.It Fl l
123Specify a location where
124.Nm syslogd
125should place an additional log socket.
126Up to 19 additional logging sockets can be specified.
127The primary use for this is to place additional log sockets in
128.Pa /dev/log
129of various chroot filespaces.
130.It Fl s
131Operate in secure mode.  Do not log messages from remote machines.
132The messages will be received and counted and a log entry produced every time
133the count exceeds a power of two.
134.It Fl u
135Unique priority logging.  Only log messages at the specified priority.
136Without this option, messages at the stated priority or higher are logged.
137This option changes the default comparison from
138.Dq =>
139to
140.Dq = .
141.It Fl v
142Verbose logging.  If specified once, the numeric facility and priority are
143logged with each locally-written message.  If specified more than once,
144the names of the facility and priority are logged with each locally-written
145message.
146.El
147.Pp
148The
149.Nm
150daemon reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it
151receives a hangup signal.
152For information on the format of the configuration file,
153see
154.Xr syslog.conf 5 .
155.Pp
156The
157.Nm
158daemon reads messages from the
159.Tn UNIX
160domain socket
161.Pa /var/run/log ,
162from an Internet domain socket specified in
163.Pa /etc/services ,
164and from the special device
165.Pa /dev/klog
166(to read kernel messages).
167.Pp
168The
169.Nm
170daemon creates the file
171.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid ,
172and stores its process
173id there.
174This can be used to kill or reconfigure
175.Nm Ns .
176.Pp
177The message sent to
178.Nm
179should consist of a single line.
180The message can contain a priority code, which should be a preceding
181decimal number in angle braces, for example,
182.Sq Aq 5.
183This priority code should map into the priorities defined in the
184include file
185.Aq Pa sys/syslog.h .
186.Sh FILES
187.Bl -tag -width /var/run/syslog.pid -compact
188.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf
189configuration file
190.It Pa /var/run/syslog.pid
191process id of current
192.Nm
193.It Pa /var/run/log
194name of the
195.Tn UNIX
196domain datagram log socket
197.It Pa /dev/klog
198kernel log device
199.El
200.Sh SEE ALSO
201.Xr logger 1 ,
202.Xr syslog 3 ,
203.Xr services 5 ,
204.Xr syslog.conf 5
205.Sh HISTORY
206The
207.Nm
208command appeared in
209.Bx 4.3 .
210.Pp
211The
212.Fl a ,
213.Fl s ,
214.Fl u ,
215and
216.Fl v
217options are
218.Fx 2.2
219extensions.
220.Sh BUGS
221The ability to log messages received in UDP packets is equivalent to
222an unauthenticated remote disk-filling service, and should probably be
223disabled by default.  Some sort of
224.No inter- Ns Nm syslogd
225authentication mechanism ought to be worked out.  To prevent the worst
226abuse, use of the
227.Fl a
228option is therefore highly recommended.
229.Pp
230The
231.Fl a
232matching algorithm doesn't pretend to be very efficient; use of numeric
233IP addresses is faster than domain name comparision.  Since the allowed
234peer list is being walked linearly, peer groups where frequent messages
235are being anticipated from should be put early into the
236.Fl a
237list.
238.Pp
239The log socket was moved from
240.Pa /dev
241to ease the use of a read-only root filesystem. This may confuse
242some old binaries so that a symbolic link might be used for a
243transitional period.
244