syslog.conf(4) syslog.conf(4)
NAME
syslog.conf - configuration file for syslogd system log daemon
SYNOPSIS
/etc/syslog.conf
DESCRIPTION
The file /etc/syslog.conf contains information used by the system log
daemon, syslogd(1M), to forward a system message to appropriate log
files and/or users. syslogd preprocesses this file through m4(1) to
obtain the correct information for certain log files.
A configuration entry is composed of two TAB-separated fields:
selector action
The selector field contains a semicolon-separated list of priority
specifications of the form:
facility.level [; facility.level]
where facility is a system facility, or comma-separated list of facil-
ities, and level is an indication of the severity of the condition
being logged. Recognized values for facility include:
user Messages generated by user processes. This is the default
priority for messages from programs or facilities not
listed in this file.
kern Messages generated by the kernel.
mail The mail system.
daemon System daemons, such as ftpd, routed, etc.
auth The authorization system: login, su, getty, etc.
lpr The line printer spooling system: lpr, lpc, lpd, etc.
news Reserved for the USENET network news system.
uucp Reserved for the UUCP system; it does not currently use
the syslog(3C) mechanism.
cron The cron/at facility; crontab, at, cron, etc.
local0-7 Reserved for local use.
mark For timestamp messages produced internally by syslogd(1M).
* An asterisk indicates all facilities except for the mark
facility.
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syslog.conf(4) syslog.conf(4)
Recognized values for level are (in descending order of severity):
emerg For panic conditions that would normally be broadcast to
all users.
alert For conditions that should be corrected immediately, such
as a corrupted system database.
crit For warnings about critical conditions, such as hard
device errors.
err For other errors.
warning For warning messages.
notice For conditions that are not error conditions, but may
require special handling.
info Informational messages.
debug For messages that are normally used only when debugging a
program.
none Do not send messages from the indicated facility to the
selected file. For example, a selector may look like
this:
*.debug;mail.none
It sends all messages except mail messages to the
selected file.
Warning: The selection of one level level includes all higher levels
as well.
The action field indicates where to forward the message. Values for
this field can have one of these forms:
- A filename, beginning with a leading slash, which indicates that
messages specified by the selector are to be written to the speci-
fied file. The file will be opened in append mode.
- The name of a remote host, prefixed with an @, as with: @server,
which indicates that messages specified by the selector are to be
forwarded to the syslogd(1M) on the named host.
- A comma-separated list of user names, which indicates that messages
specified by the selector are to be written to the named users if
they are logged in.
- An asterisk, which indicates that messages specified by the
selector are to be written to all logged-in users.
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syslog.conf(4) syslog.conf(4)
- The target LOG3.0 specifies that the messages are to be sent to
Logging V3.0.
Blank lines are ignored. Lines for which the first nonwhite character
is a "#" are treated as comments.
EXAMPLE
*.crit;syslog.none /dev/syscon
*.err;kern,mark.debug;syslog.none /var/adm/log/messages
*.alert root
*.emerg *
*.debug;mark,syslog.debug LOG3.0
The first line directs all critical messages (and messages with a
higher priority), but not messages from syslog (i.e. from syslogd), to
the system console.
The second line directs all error messages (and messages with a higher
priority), all kernel messages, and all 20-minute signs of life, but
not messages from syslog, to the file /var/adm/log/messages.
The third line sends all alarm messages to root as soon as root logs
on.
The fourth line distributes all PANIC messages as a wall message to
all users logged on.
The fifth line ensures that all messages are forwarded to Logging
V3.0.
NOTES
The list of priority specifications is processed from left to right.
The use of the asterisk * is not commutative (i.e. is not interchange-
able). Example:
user.info; *.err filename
is not the same as
*.err; user.info filename
While in the first case user.info is overwritten by *.err because the
* also stands for "user" and processing is from left to right, in the
second case user.err is overwritten by user.info, i.e. lower priori-
ties are also directed for "user".
FILES
/etc/syslog.conf
/var/adm/log/messages
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SEE ALSO
at(1), crontab(1), logger(1), login(1), lp(1), lpr(1), m4(1), su(1),
cron(1M), getty(1M), syslogd(1M), syslog(3C).
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