xref: /netbsd/usr.bin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8 (revision bf9ec67e) 
1.\"	$NetBSD: newsyslog.8,v 1.22 2002/03/29 02:45:54 heinz Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1999, 2000 Andrew Doran <ad@NetBSD.org>
4.\" All rights reserved.
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7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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25.\" This file contains changes from the Open Software Foundation.
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27.\" Copyright 1988, 1989 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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29.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software
30.\" and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is
31.\" hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice
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41.\" from FreeBSD: newsyslog.8,v 1.14.2.1 1999/02/25 18:38:33 wollman Exp
42.\"
43.Dd November 20, 1999
44.Dt NEWSYSLOG 8
45.Os
46.Sh NAME
47.Nm newsyslog
48.Nd maintain system log files to manageable sizes
49.Sh SYNOPSIS
50.Nm newsyslog
51.Op Fl nrsvF
52.Op Fl f Ar config_file
53.Op Pa file ...
54.Sh DESCRIPTION
55.Nm
56is a program that should be scheduled to run periodically by
57.Xr cron 8 .
58When it is executed it archives log files if necessary.  If a log file
59is determined to require archiving,
60.Nm
61rearranges the files so that
62.Dq Va logfile
63is empty,
64.Dq Va logfile Ns Li \&.0
65has
66the last period's logs in it,
67.Dq Va logfile Ns Li \&.1
68has the next to last
69period's logs in it and so on, up to a user-specified number of
70archived logs.  Optionally the archived logs can be compressed to save
71space.
72.Pp
73A log can be archived for three reasons:
74.Bl -enum -offset indent
75.It
76It is larger than the configured size (in kilobytes).
77.It
78A configured number of hours have elapsed since the log was last
79archived.
80.It
81The configured time for rotation of the log occurred within the last 60
82minutes.
83.El
84.Pp
85The granularity of
86.Nm
87is dependent on how often it is scheduled to run by
88.Xr cron 8 .
89It is recommended that
90.Nm
91be run once hourly.
92.Pp
93When starting up,
94.Nm
95reads in a configuration file to determine which logs may potentially
96be archived.
97By default, this configuration file is
98.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf .
99Each line of the file contains information about a particular log file
100that should be handled by
101.Nm "" .
102Each line has six mandatory fields and three optional fields, with
103whitespace separating each field.  Blank lines or lines beginning with
104``#'' are ignored.  The fields of the configuration file are as
105follows:
106.Pp
107.Bl -tag -width indent
108.It Ar logfile_name
109Name of the system log file to be archived.
110.It Ar owner:group
111This optional field specifies the owner and group for the archive file.
112The ":" is essential, even if the
113.Ar owner
114or
115.Ar group
116field is left blank.  The field may be numeric, or a name which is
117present in
118.Pa /etc/passwd
119or
120.Pa /etc/group .
121For backward compatibility, "." is useable in lieu of ":", however use of
122this feature is discouraged.
123.It Ar mode
124Specify the mode of the log file and archives.
125.It Ar ngen
126Specify the number of archive files to be kept
127besides the log file itself.
128.It Ar size
129When the size of the log file reaches
130.Ar size
131kilobytes, the log file will be trimmed as described above.  If this field
132is replaced by an asterisk
133.Pq Ql \&* ,
134then the size of the log file is not taken into account
135when determining when to trim the log file.
136.It Ar when
137The
138.Ar when
139field can consist of an interval, a specific time, or both.  If
140the
141.Ar when
142field is an asterisk
143.Pq Ql \&*
144log rotation will depend only on the contents of the
145.Ar size
146field.
147Otherwise, the
148.Ar when
149field consists of an optional interval in hours, optionally followed
150by an
151.So Li \&@ Sc Ns No -sign
152and a time in a restricted
153.Tn ISO 8601
154format or by an
155.So Li \&$ Sc Ns No -sign
156and a time specification for logfile rotation at a fixed time once
157per day, per week or per month.
158.Pp
159If a time is specified, the log file will only be trimmed if
160.Nm
161is run within one hour of the specified time.  If an
162interval is specified, the log file will be trimmed if that many hours have
163passed since the last rotation.  When both a time and an interval are
164specified, the log will be trimmed if either condition is met.
165.Pp
166There is no provision for specification of a timezone.  There is
167little point in specifying an explicit minutes or seconds component in
168the current implementation, since the only comparison is `within the
169hour'.
170.Pp
171.Em ISO 8601 restricted time format
172.Pp
173The lead-in character for a restricted
174.Tn ISO 8601
175time is
176an
177.So Li \&@ Sc Ns No -sign .
178The particular format of the time in restricted
179.Tn ISO 8601
180is:
181.Sm off
182.Oo
183.Oo
184.Oo
185.Oo
186.Oo
187.Va \&cc
188.Oc
189.Va \&yy
190.Oc
191.Va \&mm
192.Oc
193.Va \&dd
194.Oc
195.Oo
196.Li \&T
197.Oo
198.Va \&hh
199.Oo
200.Va \&mm
201.Oo
202.Va \&ss
203.Oc
204.Oc
205.Oc
206.Oc
207.Oc .
208.Sm on
209Optional date fields default to the appropriate component of the
210current date; optional time fields default to midnight; hence if today
211is January 22, 1999, the following date specifications are all
212equivalent:
213.Pp
214.Bl -item -compact -offset indent
215.It
216.Sq Li 19990122T000000
217.It
218.Sq Li 990122T000000
219.It
220.Sq Li 0122T000000
221.It
222.Sq Li 22T000000
223.It
224.Sq Li T000000
225.It
226.Sq Li T0000
227.It
228.Sq Li T00
229.It
230.Sq Li 22T
231.It
232.Sq Li \&T
233.It
234.Sq Li \&
235.El
236.Pp
237.Em Day, week and month time format
238.Pp
239The lead-in character for day, week and month specification is a
240.So Li \&$ Sc Ns No -sign .
241The particular format of day, week and month specification is:
242.Sm off
243.Oo
244.Va D\&hh
245.Oc ,
246.Oo
247.Va W\&w
248.Oo
249.Va D\&hh
250.Oc
251.Oc
252and
253.Oo
254.Va M\&dd
255.Oo
256.Va D\&hh
257.Oc
258.Oc
259.Sm on
260respectively.
261Optional time fields default to midnight.
262The ranges for day and hour secifications are:
263.Pp
264.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
265.It Ar hh
266hours, range 0 ... 23
267.It Ar w
268day of week, range 0 ... 6, 0 = Sunday
269.It Ar dd
270day of month, range 1 ... 31, or the letter
271.Em L
272or
273.Em l
274to specify the last day of the month.
275.El
276.Pp
277Some examples:
278.Pp
279.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact -offset indent
280.It Ar $D0
281rotate every night at midnight
282.It Ar $D23
283rotate every day at 23:00 hr
284.It Ar $W0D23
285rotate every week on Sunday at 23:00 hr
286.It Ar $W5D16
287rotate every week on Friday at 16:00 hr
288.It Ar $MLD0
289rotate at the last day of every month at midnight
290.It Ar $M5D6
291rotate on every 5th day of month at 6:00 hr
292.El
293.Pp
294.It Ar flags
295This field specifies any special processing that is required.  Individual
296flags and their meanings:
297.Bl -tag -width indent
298.It Sy -
299This flag means nothing - it is used as a spacer when no flags are set.
300.It Sy b
301The file is a binary file or is not in
302.Xr syslogd 8
303format:
304the
305.Tn ASCII
306message which
307.Nm
308inserts to indicate that the logs have been trimmed should not be included.
309.It Sy c
310Create an empty log file if none currently exists.
311.It Sy n
312No signal should be sent when the log is trimmed.
313.It Sy p
314The first historical log file (i.e. the historical log file with the suffix
315``.0'') should not be compressed.
316.It Sy z
317Archived log files should be compressed with
318.Xr gzip 1
319to save space.
320.El
321.It Ar path_to_pid_file
322This optional field specifies
323the file name to read to find the daemon process id.  If this
324field is present, a signal of type
325.Ar sigtype
326is sent the process id contained in this
327file.  This field must start with "/" in order to be recognized
328properly.
329.It Ar sigtype
330This optional field specifies the type of signal to be sent to the daemon
331process.  This may be a numeric or symbolic value.  By default
332a SIGHUP (hang-up) will be sent.
333.El
334.Sh OPTIONS
335The following options can be used with newsyslog:
336.Bl -tag -width indent
337.It Fl f Ar config_file
338Use
339.Ar config_file
340instead of
341.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf
342as the configuration file.
343.It Fl n
344Do not trim the logs, but print out would be done if this option were not
345specified:
346.Fl n
347implies
348.Fl v .
349.It Fl r
350Remove the restriction that
351.Nm
352must be running as root.  When running as a regular user,
353.Nm
354will not be able to send a HUP signal to
355.Xr syslogd 8 ,
356so this option should be used only when debugging or trimming user generated
357logs.
358.It Fl s
359Do not signal daemon processes.
360.It Fl v
361Run in verbose mode.  In this mode each action that is taken will be printed.
362.It Fl F
363Force trimming of the logs, even if the trim conditions have not been met.
364This option is useful for diagnosing system problems by providing you with
365fresh logs.
366.El
367.Pp
368If additional command line arguments are given,
369.Nm
370will only examine log files that match those arguments; otherwise, it
371will examine all files listed in the configuration file.
372.Sh FILES
373.Bl -tag -width /etc/newsyslog.confxxxx -compact
374.It Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf
375.Nm
376configuration file.
377.El
378.Sh SEE ALSO
379.Xr gzip 1 ,
380.Xr syslog 3 ,
381.Xr syslogd 8
382.Sh AUTHORS
383.An Theodore Ts'o ,
384MIT Project Athena
385.An Andrew Doran ,
386The
387.Nx
388Project
389.Pp
390Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
391.Pp
392Copyright 1999, 2000 Andrew Doran
393