NAME
syslog.conf
—
syslogd(8) configuration file
DESCRIPTION
The syslog.conf
file is the configuration
file for the syslogd(8) program. It consists of lines with two fields: the
selector field which specifies the types of messages and
priorities to which the line applies, and an action field
which specifies the action to be taken if a message
syslogd receives matches the selection
criteria. The selector field is separated from the
action field by one or more tab characters.
The Selectors function are encoded as a facility, a period (``.''), and a level, with no intervening white-space. Both the facility and the level are case insensitive.
The facility describes the part of the system
generating the message. Legacy facility names are: auth, authpriv, cron,
daemon, kern, lpr, mail, mark, news, syslog, user, uucp and local0 through
local7. These keywords (with the exception of mark) correspond to the
similar “LOG_
” values specified to the
openlog(3) and syslog(3) library routines.
Apple System Log (ASL) messages, sent using the asl(3) library routines permit the facility name to be an arbitrary string, although users of the system are encouraged to use a “reverse ICANN” naming convention, for example “com.apple.system.syslog”. Since these facility names may contain dot characters, the names may be enclosed in either singe quote or double quote characters.
If facility is terminated by an asterisk (``*''), then facility names are matched using the prefix characters preceeding the asterisk. For example,
“'com.apple.abc.*'”
matches any facility with the prefix ``com.apple.abc.''. These wildcard facility names typically must be enclosed in single or double quotes characters.
The level describes the severity of the message,
and is a keyword from the following ordered list (higher to lower): emerg,
alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info and debug. These keywords correspond
to the similar (LOG_
) values specified to the
syslog library routine.
See syslog(3) for a further descriptions of both the facility and level keywords and their significance.
If a received message matches the specified facility and is of the specified level (or a higher level), the action specified in the action field will be taken.
Multiple selectors may be specified for a single action by separating them with semicolon (``;'') characters. It is important to note, however, that each selector can modify the ones preceding it.
Multiple facilities may be specified for a single level by separating them with comma (``,'') characters.
An asterisk (``*'') can be used to specify all facilities or all levels.
The special facility ``mark'' receives a message at priority ``info'' every 20 minutes (see syslogd(8)). This is not enabled by a facility field containing an asterisk.
The special level ``none'' disables a particular facility.
The action field of each line specifies the action to be taken when the selector field selects a message. There are four forms:
- A pathname (beginning with a leading slash). Selected messages are appended to the file.
- A hostname (preceded by an at (``@'') sign). Selected messages are forwarded to the syslogd program on the named host.
- A comma separated list of users. Selected messages are written to those users if they are logged in.
- An asterisk. Selected messages are written to all logged-in users.
Blank lines and lines whose first non-blank character is a hash (``#'') character are ignored.
EXAMPLES
A configuration file might appear as follows:
# Log all kernel messages, authentication messages of # level notice or higher and anything of level err or # higher to the console. # Don't log private authentication messages! *.err;kern.*;auth.notice;authpriv.none /dev/console # Log anything (except mail) of level info or higher. # Don't log private authentication messages! *.info;mail.none;authpriv.none /var/log/messages # The authpriv file has restricted access. authpriv.* /var/log/secure # Log all the mail messages in one place. mail.* /var/log/maillog # Everybody gets emergency messages, plus log them on another # machine. *.emerg * *.emerg @arpa.berkeley.edu # Root and Eric get alert and higher messages. *.alert root,eric # Save mail and news errors of level err and higher in a # special file. uucp,news.crit /var/log/spoolerr
FILES
- /etc/syslog.conf
- The syslogd(8) configuration file.
BUGS
The effects of multiple selectors are sometimes not intuitive. For example ``mail.crit,*.err'' will select ``mail'' facility messages at the level of ``err'' or higher, not at the level of ``crit'' or higher.
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
The syslog.conf
file appeared in
4.3BSD, along with
syslogd(8).