xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8 (revision cec50dea12481dc578c0805c887ab2097e1c06c5)
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28.\"     @(#)syslogd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd November 24, 2001
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 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.
209Up to 19 additional logging sockets can be specified.
210The primary use for this is to place additional log sockets in
211.Pa /var/run/log
212of various chroot filespaces.
213.It Fl s
214Operate in secure mode.
215Do not log messages from remote machines.
216If
217specified twice, no network socket will be opened at all, which also
218disables logging to remote machines.
219.It Fl u
220Unique priority logging.
221Only log messages at the specified priority.
222Without this option, messages at the stated priority or higher are logged.
223This option changes the default comparison from
224.Dq =>
225to
226.Dq = .
227.It Fl v
228Verbose logging.
229If specified once, the numeric facility and priority are
230logged with each locally-written message.
231If specified more than once,
232the names of the facility and priority are logged with each locally-written
233message.
234.El
235.Pp
236The
237.Nm
238utility reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it
239receives a hangup signal.
240For information on the format of the configuration file,
241see
242.Xr syslog.conf 5 .
243.Pp
244The
245.Nm
246utility reads messages from the
247.Ux
248domain socket
249.Pa /var/run/log ,
250from an Internet domain socket specified in
251.Pa /etc/services ,
252and from the special device
253.Pa /dev/klog
254(to read kernel messages).
255.Pp
256The
257.Nm
258utility creates its process ID file,
259by default
260.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid ,
261and stores its process
262ID there.
263This can be used to kill or reconfigure
264.Nm .
265.Pp
266The message sent to
267.Nm
268should consist of a single line.
269The message can contain a priority code, which should be a preceding
270decimal number in angle braces, for example,
271.Sq Aq 5 .
272This priority code should map into the priorities defined in the
273include file
274.In sys/syslog.h .
275.Pp
276For security reasons,
277.Nm
278will not append to log files that do not exist;
279therefore, they must be created manually before running
280.Nm .
281.Sh FILES
282.Bl -tag -width /var/run/syslog.pid -compact
283.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf
284configuration file
285.It Pa /var/run/syslog.pid
286default process ID file
287.It Pa /var/run/log
288name of the
289.Ux
290domain datagram log socket
291.It Pa /dev/klog
292kernel log device
293.El
294.Sh SEE ALSO
295.Xr logger 1 ,
296.Xr syslog 3 ,
297.Xr services 5 ,
298.Xr syslog.conf 5
299.Sh HISTORY
300The
301.Nm
302utility appeared in
303.Bx 4.3 .
304.Pp
305The
306.Fl a ,
307.Fl s ,
308.Fl u ,
309and
310.Fl v
311options are
312.Fx 2.2
313extensions.
314.Sh BUGS
315The ability to log messages received in UDP packets is equivalent to
316an unauthenticated remote disk-filling service, and should probably be
317disabled by default.
318Some sort of
319.No inter- Ns Nm syslogd
320authentication mechanism ought to be worked out.
321To prevent the worst
322abuse, use of the
323.Fl a
324option is therefore highly recommended.
325.Pp
326The
327.Fl a
328matching algorithm doesn't pretend to be very efficient; use of numeric
329IP addresses is faster than domain name comparison.
330Since the allowed
331peer list is being walked linearly, peer groups where frequent messages
332are being anticipated from should be put early into the
333.Fl a
334list.
335.Pp
336The log socket was moved from
337.Pa /dev
338to ease the use of a read-only root file system.
339This may confuse
340some old binaries so that a symbolic link might be used for a
341transitional period.
342