xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8 (revision ea906c4152774dff300bb26fbfc1e4188351c89a)
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28.\"     @(#)syslogd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd May 13, 2008
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 468ACcdknosuv
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
98.Ar Allowed_peer
99can be any of the following:
100.Bl -tag -width "ipaddr/masklen[:service]XX"
101.It Xo
102.Sm off
103.Ar ipaddr
104.No / Ar masklen
105.Op : Ar service
106.Sm on
107.Xc
108Accept datagrams from
109.Ar ipaddr
110(in the usual dotted quad notation) with
111.Ar masklen
112bits being taken into account when doing the address comparison.
113.Ar ipaddr
114can be also IPv6 address by enclosing the address with
115.Ql \&[
116and
117.Ql \&] .
118If specified,
119.Ar service
120is the name or number of an UDP service (see
121.Xr services 5 )
122the source packet must belong to.
123A
124.Ar service
125of
126.Ql \&*
127allows packets being sent from any UDP port.
128The default
129.Ar service
130is
131.Ql syslog .
132If
133.Ar ipaddr
134is IPv4 address, a missing
135.Ar masklen
136will be substituted by the historic class A or class B netmasks if
137.Ar ipaddr
138belongs into the address range of class A or B, respectively, or
139by 24 otherwise.
140If
141.Ar ipaddr
142is IPv6 address, a missing
143.Ar masklen
144will be substituted by 128.
145.It Xo
146.Sm off
147.Ar domainname Op : Ar service
148.Sm on
149.Xc
150Accept datagrams where the reverse address lookup yields
151.Ar domainname
152for the sender address.
153The meaning of
154.Ar service
155is as explained above.
156.It Xo
157.Sm off
158.No * Ar domainname Op : Ar service
159.Sm on
160.Xc
161Same as before, except that any source host whose name
162.Em ends
163in
164.Ar domainname
165will get permission.
166.El
167.Pp
168The
169.Fl a
170options are ignored if the
171.Fl s
172option is also specified.
173.It Fl b Ar bind_address
174Specify one specific IP address or hostname to bind to.
175If a hostname is specified,
176the IPv4 or IPv6 address which corresponds to it is used.
177.It Fl C
178Create log files that do not exist (permission is set to
179.Li 0600 ) .
180.It Fl c
181Disable the compression of repeated instances of the same line
182into a single line of the form
183.Dq Li "last message repeated N times"
184when the output is a pipe to another program.
185If specified twice, disable this compression in all cases.
186.It Fl d
187Put
188.Nm
189into debugging mode.
190This is probably only of use to developers working on
191.Nm .
192.It Fl f
193Specify the pathname of an alternate configuration file;
194the default is
195.Pa /etc/syslog.conf .
196.It Fl k
197Disable the translation of
198messages received with facility
199.Dq kern
200to facility
201.Dq user .
202Usually the
203.Dq kern
204facility is reserved for messages read directly from
205.Pa /dev/klog .
206.It Fl m
207Select the number of minutes between
208.Dq mark
209messages; the default is 20 minutes.
210.It Fl n
211Disable dns query for every request.
212.It Fl o
213Prefix kernel messages with the full kernel boot file as determined by
214.Xr getbootfile 3 .
215Without this, the kernel message prefix is always
216.Dq Li kernel: .
217.It Fl p
218Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket to be used instead;
219the default is
220.Pa /var/run/log .
221.It Fl P
222Specify an alternative file in which to store the process ID.
223The default is
224.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid .
225.It Fl S
226Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket for privileged
227applications to be used instead; the default is
228.Pa /var/run/logpriv .
229.It Fl l
230Specify a location where
231.Nm
232should place an additional log socket.
233The primary use for this is to place additional log sockets in
234.Pa /var/run/log
235of various chroot filespaces.
236File permissions for socket can be specified in octal representation
237before socket name, delimited with a colon.
238Path to socket location must be absolute.
239.It Fl s
240Operate in secure mode.
241Do not log messages from remote machines.
242If
243specified twice, no network socket will be opened at all, which also
244disables logging to remote machines.
245.It Fl u
246Unique priority logging.
247Only log messages at the specified priority.
248Without this option, messages at the stated priority or higher are logged.
249This option changes the default comparison from
250.Dq =>
251to
252.Dq = .
253.It Fl v
254Verbose logging.
255If specified once, the numeric facility and priority are
256logged with each locally-written message.
257If specified more than once,
258the names of the facility and priority are logged with each locally-written
259message.
260.El
261.Pp
262The
263.Nm
264utility reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it
265receives a hangup signal.
266For information on the format of the configuration file,
267see
268.Xr syslog.conf 5 .
269.Pp
270The
271.Nm
272utility reads messages from the
273.Ux
274domain sockets
275.Pa /var/run/log
276and
277.Pa /var/run/logpriv ,
278from an Internet domain socket specified in
279.Pa /etc/services ,
280and from the special device
281.Pa /dev/klog
282(to read kernel messages).
283.Pp
284The
285.Nm
286utility creates its process ID file,
287by default
288.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid ,
289and stores its process
290ID there.
291This can be used to kill or reconfigure
292.Nm .
293.Pp
294The message sent to
295.Nm
296should consist of a single line.
297The message can contain a priority code, which should be a preceding
298decimal number in angle braces, for example,
299.Sq Aq 5 .
300This priority code should map into the priorities defined in the
301include file
302.In sys/syslog.h .
303.Pp
304For security reasons,
305.Nm
306will not append to log files that do not exist (unless
307.Fl C
308option is specified);
309therefore, they must be created manually before running
310.Nm .
311.Sh FILES
312.Bl -tag -width /var/run/syslog.pid -compact
313.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf
314configuration file
315.It Pa /var/run/syslog.pid
316default process ID file
317.It Pa /var/run/log
318name of the
319.Ux
320domain datagram log socket
321.It Pa /var/run/logpriv
322.Ux
323socket for privileged applications
324.It Pa /dev/klog
325kernel log device
326.El
327.Sh SEE ALSO
328.Xr logger 1 ,
329.Xr syslog 3 ,
330.Xr services 5 ,
331.Xr syslog.conf 5 ,
332.Xr newsyslog 8
333.Sh HISTORY
334The
335.Nm
336utility appeared in
337.Bx 4.3 .
338.Pp
339The
340.Fl a ,
341.Fl s ,
342.Fl u ,
343and
344.Fl v
345options are
346.Fx 2.2
347extensions.
348.Sh BUGS
349The ability to log messages received in UDP packets is equivalent to
350an unauthenticated remote disk-filling service, and should probably be
351disabled by default.
352Some sort of
353.No inter- Ns Nm syslogd
354authentication mechanism ought to be worked out.
355To prevent the worst
356abuse, use of the
357.Fl a
358option is therefore highly recommended.
359.Pp
360The
361.Fl a
362matching algorithm does not pretend to be very efficient; use of numeric
363IP addresses is faster than domain name comparison.
364Since the allowed
365peer list is being walked linearly, peer groups where frequent messages
366are being anticipated from should be put early into the
367.Fl a
368list.
369.Pp
370The log socket was moved from
371.Pa /dev
372to ease the use of a read-only root file system.
373This may confuse
374some old binaries so that a symbolic link might be used for a
375transitional period.
376