xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8 (revision ce834215a70ff69e7e222827437116eee2f9ac6f)
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32.\"     @(#)syslogd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\"	$Id: syslogd.8,v 1.10 1997/04/29 09:09:40 jmg 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 a Ar allowed_peer
44.Op Fl f Ar config_file
45.Op Fl m Ar mark_interval
46.Op Fl p Ar log_socket
47.Op Fl s
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Nm
51daemon reads and logs messages to the system console, log files, other
52machines and/or users as specified by its configuration file.
53The options are as follows:
54.Bl -tag -width Ds
55.It Fl a Ar allowed_peer
56Allow
57.Ar allowed_peer
58to log to this
59.Nm syslogd
60using UDP datagrams.  Multiple
61.Fl a
62options may be specified.
63.Pp
64.Ar Allowed_peer
65can be any of the following:
66.Bl -tag -width "ipaddr/masklen[:service]XX"
67.It Ar ipaddr/masklen Ns Op Ar :service
68Accept datagrams from
69.Ar ipaddr
70(in the usual dotted quad notation) with
71.Ar masklen
72bits being taken into account when doing the address comparision.  If
73specified,
74.Ar service
75is the name or number of an UDP service (see
76.Xr services 5 ) Ns
77the source packet must belong to.  A
78.Ar service
79of
80.Ql \&*
81allows packets being sent from any UDP port.  The default
82.Ar service
83is
84.Ql syslog .
85A missing
86.Ar masklen
87will be substituted by the historic class A or class B netmasks if
88.Ar ipaddr
89belongs into the address range of class A or B, respectively, or
90by 24 otherwise.
91.It Ar domainname Ns Op Ar :service
92Accept datagrams where the reverse address lookup yields
93.Ar domainname
94for the sender address.  The meaning of
95.Ar service
96is as explained above.
97.It Ar *domainname Ns Op Ar :service
98Same as before, except that any source host whose name
99.Em ends
100in
101.Ar domainname
102will get permission.
103.El
104.It Fl d
105Put
106.Nm
107into debugging mode.  This is probably only of use to developers working on
108.Nm Ns .
109.It Fl f
110Specify the pathname of an alternate configuration file;
111the default is
112.Pa /etc/syslog.conf .
113.It Fl m
114Select the number of minutes between
115.Dq mark
116messages; the default is 20 minutes.
117.It Fl p
118Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket;
119the default is
120.Pa /var/run/log .
121.It Fl s
122Operate in secure mode.  Do not listen for log message from remote machines.
123.El
124.Pp
125The
126.Nm
127daemon reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it
128receives a hangup signal.
129For information on the format of the configuration file,
130see
131.Xr syslog.conf 5 .
132.Pp
133The
134.Nm
135daemon reads messages from the
136.Tn UNIX
137domain socket
138.Pa /var/run/log ,
139from an Internet domain socket specified in
140.Pa /etc/services ,
141and from the special device
142.Pa /dev/klog
143(to read kernel messages).
144.Pp
145The
146.Nm
147daemon creates the file
148.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid ,
149and stores its process
150id there.
151This can be used to kill or reconfigure
152.Nm Ns .
153.Pp
154The message sent to
155.Nm
156should consist of a single line.
157The message can contain a priority code, which should be a preceding
158decimal number in angle braces, for example,
159.Sq Aq 5.
160This priority code should map into the priorities defined in the
161include file
162.Aq Pa sys/syslog.h .
163.Sh FILES
164.Bl -tag -width /var/run/syslog.pid -compact
165.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf
166The configuration file.
167.It Pa /var/run/syslog.pid
168The process id of current
169.Nm Ns .
170.It Pa /var/run/log
171Name of the
172.Tn UNIX
173domain datagram log socket.
174.It Pa /dev/klog
175The kernel log device.
176.El
177.Sh SEE ALSO
178.Xr logger 1 ,
179.Xr syslog 3 ,
180.Xr services 5 ,
181.Xr syslog.conf 5
182.Sh HISTORY
183The
184.Nm
185command appeared in
186.Bx 4.3 .
187.Pp
188The
189.Fl s
190and
191.Fl a
192options are
193.Fx 2.2
194extensions.
195.Sh BUGS
196The ability to log messages received in UDP packets is equivalent to
197an unauthenticated remote disk-filling service, and should probably be
198disabled by default.  Some sort of
199.No inter- Ns Nm syslogd
200authentication mechanism ought to be worked out.  To prevent the worst
201abuse, use of the
202.Fl a
203option is therefore highly recommended.
204.Pp
205The
206.Fl a
207matching algorithm doesn't pretend to be very efficient; use of numeric
208IP addresses is faster than domain name comparision.  Since the allowed
209peer list is being walked linearly, peer groups where frequent messages
210are being anticipated from should be put early into the
211.Fl a
212list.
213.Pp
214The log socket was moved from
215.Pa /dev
216to ease the use of a read-only root filesystem. This may confuse
217some old binaries so that a symbolic link might be used for a
218transitional period.
219