xref: /dragonfly/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8 (revision 984263bc)
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32.\"     @(#)syslogd.8	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslogd.8,v 1.22.2.16 2003/03/12 22:08:15 trhodes Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd November 24, 2001
36.Dt SYSLOGD 8
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm syslogd
40.Nd log systems messages
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl 46Acdknsuv
44.Op Fl a Ar allowed_peer
45.Op Fl b Ar bind_address
46.Op Fl f Ar config_file
47.Op Fl l Ar path
48.Op Fl m Ar mark_interval
49.Op Fl P Ar pid_file
50.Op Fl p Ar log_socket
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Nm
54utility reads and logs messages to the system console, log files, other
55machines and/or users as specified by its configuration file.
56.Pp
57The options are as follows:
58.Bl -tag -width indent
59.It Fl 4
60Force
61.Nm
62to use IPv4 addresses only.
63.It Fl 6
64Force
65.Nm
66to use IPv6 addresses only.
67.It Fl A
68Ordinarily,
69.Nm
70tries to send the message to only one address
71even if the host has more than one A or AAAA record.
72If this option is specified,
73.Nm
74tries to send the message to all addresses.
75.It Fl a Ar allowed_peer
76Allow
77.Ar allowed_peer
78to log to this
79.Nm
80using UDP datagrams.  Multiple
81.Fl a
82options may be specified.
83.Pp
84.Ar Allowed_peer
85can be any of the following:
86.Bl -tag -width "ipaddr/masklen[:service]XX"
87.It Xo
88.Sm off
89.Ar ipaddr
90.No / Ar masklen
91.Op : Ar service
92.Sm on
93.Xc
94Accept datagrams from
95.Ar ipaddr
96(in the usual dotted quad notation) with
97.Ar masklen
98bits being taken into account when doing the address comparison.
99.Ar ipaddr
100can be also IPv6 address by enclosing the address with
101.Ql \&[
102and
103.Ql \&] .
104If specified,
105.Ar service
106is the name or number of an UDP service (see
107.Xr services 5 )
108the source packet must belong to.  A
109.Ar service
110of
111.Ql \&*
112allows packets being sent from any UDP port.  The default
113.Ar service
114is
115.Ql syslog .
116If
117.Ar ipaddr
118is IPv4 address, a missing
119.Ar masklen
120will be substituted by the historic class A or class B netmasks if
121.Ar ipaddr
122belongs into the address range of class A or B, respectively, or
123by 24 otherwise.  If
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.  The meaning of
136.Ar service
137is as explained above.
138.It Xo
139.Sm off
140.No * Ar domainname Op : Ar service
141.Sm on
142.Xc
143Same as before, except that any source host whose name
144.Em ends
145in
146.Ar domainname
147will get permission.
148.El
149.Pp
150The
151.Fl a
152options are ignored if the
153.Fl s
154option is also specified.
155.It Fl b Ar bind_address
156Specify one specific IP address or hostname to bind to.
157If a hostname is specified,
158the IPv4 or IPv6 address which corresponds to it is used.
159.It Fl c
160Disable the compression of repeated instances of the same line
161into a single line of the form
162.Dq Li "last message repeated N times"
163when the output is a pipe to another program.
164If specified twice, disable this compression in all cases.
165.It Fl d
166Put
167.Nm
168into debugging mode.  This is probably only of use to developers working on
169.Nm .
170.It Fl f
171Specify the pathname of an alternate configuration file;
172the default is
173.Pa /etc/syslog.conf .
174.It Fl k
175Disable the translation of
176messages received with facility
177.Dq kern
178to facility
179.Dq user .
180Usually the
181.Dq kern
182facility is reserved for messages read directly from
183.Pa /dev/klog .
184.It Fl m
185Select the number of minutes between
186.Dq mark
187messages; the default is 20 minutes.
188.It Fl n
189Disable dns query for every request.
190.It Fl p
191Specify the pathname of an alternate log socket to be used instead;
192the default is
193.Pa /var/run/log .
194.It Fl P
195Specify an alternative file in which to store the process ID.
196The default is
197.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid .
198.It Fl l
199Specify a location where
200.Nm
201should place an additional log socket.
202Up to 19 additional logging sockets can be specified.
203The primary use for this is to place additional log sockets in
204.Pa /var/run/log
205of various chroot filespaces.
206.It Fl s
207Operate in secure mode.  Do not log messages from remote machines.  If
208specified twice, no network socket will be opened at all, which also
209disables logging to remote machines.
210.It Fl u
211Unique priority logging.  Only log messages at the specified priority.
212Without this option, messages at the stated priority or higher are logged.
213This option changes the default comparison from
214.Dq =>
215to
216.Dq = .
217.It Fl v
218Verbose logging.  If specified once, the numeric facility and priority are
219logged with each locally-written message.  If specified more than once,
220the names of the facility and priority are logged with each locally-written
221message.
222.El
223.Pp
224The
225.Nm
226utility reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it
227receives a hangup signal.
228For information on the format of the configuration file,
229see
230.Xr syslog.conf 5 .
231.Pp
232The
233.Nm
234utility reads messages from the
235.Ux
236domain socket
237.Pa /var/run/log ,
238from an Internet domain socket specified in
239.Pa /etc/services ,
240and from the special device
241.Pa /dev/klog
242(to read kernel messages).
243.Pp
244The
245.Nm
246utility creates its process ID file,
247by default
248.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid ,
249and stores its process
250ID there.
251This can be used to kill or reconfigure
252.Nm .
253.Pp
254The message sent to
255.Nm
256should consist of a single line.
257The message can contain a priority code, which should be a preceding
258decimal number in angle braces, for example,
259.Sq Aq 5 .
260This priority code should map into the priorities defined in the
261include file
262.Aq Pa sys/syslog.h .
263.Pp
264For security reasons,
265.Nm
266will not append to log files that do not exist;
267therefore, they must be created manually before running
268.Nm .
269.Sh FILES
270.Bl -tag -width /var/run/syslog.pid -compact
271.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf
272configuration file
273.It Pa /var/run/syslog.pid
274default process ID file
275.It Pa /var/run/log
276name of the
277.Ux
278domain datagram log socket
279.It Pa /dev/klog
280kernel log device
281.El
282.Sh SEE ALSO
283.Xr logger 1 ,
284.Xr syslog 3 ,
285.Xr services 5 ,
286.Xr syslog.conf 5
287.Sh HISTORY
288The
289.Nm
290utility appeared in
291.Bx 4.3 .
292.Pp
293The
294.Fl a ,
295.Fl s ,
296.Fl u ,
297and
298.Fl v
299options are
300.Fx 2.2
301extensions.
302.Sh BUGS
303The ability to log messages received in UDP packets is equivalent to
304an unauthenticated remote disk-filling service, and should probably be
305disabled by default.  Some sort of
306.No inter- Ns Nm syslogd
307authentication mechanism ought to be worked out.  To prevent the worst
308abuse, use of the
309.Fl a
310option is therefore highly recommended.
311.Pp
312The
313.Fl a
314matching algorithm doesn't pretend to be very efficient; use of numeric
315IP addresses is faster than domain name comparison.  Since the allowed
316peer list is being walked linearly, peer groups where frequent messages
317are being anticipated from should be put early into the
318.Fl a
319list.
320.Pp
321The log socket was moved from
322.Pa /dev
323to ease the use of a read-only root file system.
324This may confuse
325some old binaries so that a symbolic link might be used for a
326transitional period.
327