nettlgen.conf(4)

Requires Optional LAN/X.25 Software

NAME

nettlgen.conf − Network Tracing and Logging configuration file

SYNOPSIS

/etc/conf/nettlgen.conf

DESCRIPTION

nettlgen.conf is the configuration file for the Common Network Tracing and Logging commands. This file contains information necessary to generate the nettl(1M) and netfmt(1M) commands. Subsystems update this file during installation, using their customize script run by the update(1M) program. There are two scripts associated with this file: nettlconf (1M) and nettlgen (1M). nettlconf maintains the subsystem data in this file, allowing subsystems to safely add, modify, or delete existing entries in the file. nettlgen uses the information in this file to create new versions of the nettl(1M) and netfmt(1M) commands.

The file is composed of records containing fields which are separated by colons (:). Each line is a unique record containing either global log information or subsystem information. The first field in each record is the tag field which identifies the type of information contained in that record. A LOG tag identifies log information; a SS tag identifies subsystem information. Blank lines or lines beginning with # are ignored.

Log Record

The log record defines static information used to configure logging defaults such as the name of the log file and whether to turn console logging on or off. Note that only the last log record encountered in the file is used; prior log records are ignored. Users can alter the log information to suit their particular needs. For the changes to take effect, the system administrator must execute the nettlgen(1M) command, and the tracing and logging facility must be restarted.

Log record fields are as follows:

Field
Number #	Name	Description
1	tag	Contains "LOG" tag string.
2	Console Logging Flag	Set to 1 if console logging is to be enabled, 0 if not.
3	Log Port Size	Amount of space to reserve for internal log message buffers.
4	Maximum Log File Space	Determines the maximum logging file space to be allowed.
5	Log File prefix	Path and name of the log file, without the type and age extension (.LOG0x, where x is 0 or 1).

Console logging is used to print terse DISASTER class log messages on the system console. If there is no console present this feature can be turned off. If more information is desired than the terse form used for the console, turn off console logging and start a formatter with an options file specifying the filters to use.

The Log Port Size defines the number of outstanding messages possible in the log queue. For logging, 256-byte buffers are used. The number chosen here indicates how space to allocate in kilobytes. The default size is 8192 bytes (specified by 8), which is split into thirty-two 256-byte blocks. The first block is reserved by the system, leaving 31 blocks for log messages. Each log message starts on a new block, taking 64 bytes of overhead. In addition, each block takes 8 bytes of overhead. The largest message that can be stored using the default size is 7624 bytes ((31 ∗ 256) − (31 ∗ 8) − 64). Most log messages are fairly small, so chosing 8K of buffer is sufficient for the logging facility to keep up with a large volume of messages.

The Maximum Log File Space determines the maximum logging file space to be allowed. Log files are split into two parts. When an individual log file reaches one-half of the maximum specified here, the logging system deletes the old file, renames the current file to the old file, and starts a new file. The default specification allows for 1 Megabyte of total log file storage (each file does not exceed 500K bytes). Since logging is usually infrequent and log messages are faily small, this should be more than adequate for all needs. The rate at which the file space fills up depends on what level of logging is turned on for each subsystem, the volume of traffic, frequency of connections, etc; and is very difficult to predict.

Subsystem Record

The subsystem record defines the information for that subsystem, and has nine fields including the tag field. The fields are separated by colons (:); thus no field can contain a colon. NOTE: the information in the subsystem records should only be changed by the subsystem’s customization script. Users should not change this information unless under direct supervision of a Hewlett-Packard representative.

Subsystem record fields are as follows:

Field
Number #	Name	Description
1	tag	Contains "SS" tag string.
2	Subsystem ID	An integer between 0 and 127. This number is set by the HP factory and must not be changed.
3	Subsystem Mnemonic	A text string consisting of letters, numbers, and the underscore character. The string is set at the factory and must not be changed.
4	Initial Log Class	Logging class for the subsystem when the tracing and logging facility is initialized. This is a numeric value as shown below.
5	Subformatter Library	Name of the library file containing the subformatter functions listed below.
6	Subformatter Message Catalog	Basename of the message catalog without the .cat extension or path prefix.
7	Subformatter Function	C function to call when formatting data for this subsystem.
8	Subformatter Options	C function to call to get options for this subsystem.
9	Group Name	A text string to be used in the header banner line in the formatted output.

The recommended setting for the default logging level is set by the products’ customization scripts. It can be changed by the user if another level of logging is desired on initialization. The available classes are Disaster (8), Error (4), Warning (2), and Informative (1). Classes can be combined by adding the numbers; thus Disaster and Error together become 12. The logging level can also be changed at run time using the nettl −log command. Disaster class is always turned on, even if not specified in this configuration file; thus, specifying the value 14 or 6 turns on Disaster, Error and Warning.

If the library file name does not contain an absolute path, it is assumed to be under /usr/lib.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Message catalogs are found in the path determined by the environment variable NLSPATH. Default message catalogs are found in /usr/lib/nls/%L/%N.cat where the contents of the LANG environment variable is substituted for the %L field, and the name specified in this parameter is substituted for the %N field.

EXAMPLES

The following example shows the default logging information. Console logging is enabled; logging will use 8K bytes to hold log messages; the log files will be limited to 1000K bytes total (500K bytes per file); the log files will be /usr/adm/nettl.LOG00 and /usr/adm/nettl.LOG01. Most recent data is in the .LOG00 file.

#
# LOG INFORMATION
#

LOG:1:8:1000:/usr/adm/nettl

The following example turns off console logging, and limits the size of the log file space to 100Kbytes. Other values are the same as the default.

#
# LOG INFORMATION
#

LOG:0:8:100:/usr/adm/nettl

The following example shows a typical subsystem record. These records should not be changed by the user, but are set by the subsystems during the customize step of update(1M).

#
# TEST SUBSYSTEMS
#

SS:96:TEST_ID_1:8:libfmt.a:netfmt:subsys_GENERIC_format: \
ss_96_go:FORMATTER
SS:97:TEST_ID_2:8:libfmt.a:netfmt:subsys_GENERIC_format: \
ss_97_go:FORMATTER

NOTE: The continuation marks in this example and the following one are placed for conceptual reasons only. nettlgen does not understand continuation marks.

The following entry must always be included in the configuration file. This defines the subsystem for the formatter itself; if it is not in the file, the formatter cannot be generated properly.

#
# FORMATTER SUBSYSTEMS
#

SS:127:FORMATTER:8:libfmt.a:netfmt:subsys_GENERIC_format: \
subsys_127_get_options:FORMATTER

FILES

/etc/conf/nettlgen.conf

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