from: @(#)newsyslog.8
$Id: newsyslog.8,v 1.8 1997/06/23 04:03:49 steve Exp $
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.Dd January 12, 1989 .Dt NEWSYSLOG 8 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm newsyslog .Nd maintain system log files to manageable sizes .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm newsyslog .Op Fl rnv .Op Fl f Ar config_file .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm Newsyslog is a program that should be scheduled to run periodically by .Xr cron 8 . When it is executed it archives log files if necessary. If a log file is determined to require archiving, .Nm rearranges the files so that ``logfile'' is empty, ``logfile.0'' has the last period's logs in it, ``logfile.1'' has the next to last period's logs in it, and so on, up to a user-specified number of archived logs. Optionally the archived logs can be compressed to save space.
p A log can be archived because of two reasons. The log file can have grown bigger than a preset size in kilobytes, or a preset number of hours may have elapsed since the last log archive. The granularity of .Nm is dependent on how often it is scheduled to run by .Xr cron 8 . Since the program is quite fast, it may be scheduled to run every hour without any ill effects.
p When starting up, .Nm reads in a configuration file to determine which logs should be looked at. By default, this configuration file is
a /etc/newsyslog.conf . Each line of the file contains information about a particular log file that should be handled by .Nm newsyslog . Each line has five mandatory fields and three optional fields, with a whitespace separating each field. Blank lines or lines beginning with ``#'' are ignored. The fields of the configuration file are as follows:
p l -tag -width indent t Ar logfile_name Name of the system log file to be archived. t Ar owner.group Specify the owner and group for the archive file. The "." is essential, even if the .Ar owner or .Ar group field is left blank. The field may be numeric, or a name which is present in
a /etc/group . t Ar mode Specify the mode of the log file and archives. t Ar count Specify the number of archive files to be kept besides the log file itself. t Ar size When the size of the log file reaches .Ar size , the log file will be trimmed as described above. If this field is replaced by a .Ar * , then the size of the log file is not taken into account when determining when to trim the log file. of archives t Ar interval When .Ar interval hours have passed, the log file will be trimmed. If this field is replaced by a .Ar * , then the number of hours since the last time the log was trimmed will not be taken into consideration. t Ar flags This optional field specifies if the archive should have any special processing done to the archived log files. The .Ar Z flag will make the archive files compress to save space by using .Xr gzip 1 . The .Ar B flag means that the file is a binary file, and so the .Tn ASCII message which .Nm inserts to indicate the fact that the logs have been turned over should not be included. The .Ar - flag means nothing, but can be used as a placeholder when the .Ar path_to_pid_file field is specified. t Ar path_to_pid_file This optional field specifies the file name to read to find the daemon process id. If this field is present, a SIGHUP is sent the process id contained in this file. This field must start with "/" in order to be recognized properly. .El .Sh OPTIONS The following options can be used with newsyslog: l -tag -width indent t Fl f Ar config_file Instruct newsyslog to use .Ar config_file instead of
a /etc/newsyslog.conf for its configuration file. t Fl v Place .Nm in verbose mode. In this mode it will print out each log and its reasons for either trimming that log or skipping it. t Fl n Cause .Nm not to trim the logs, but to print out what it would do if this option were not specified. t Fl r Remove the restriction that .Nm must be running as root. Of course, .Nm will not be able to send a HUP signal to .Xr syslogd 8 so this option should only be used in debugging. .El .Sh FILES l -tag -width /etc/newsyslog.confxxxx -compact t Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf .Nm configuration file. .El .Sh BUGS Doesn't yet automatically read the logs to find security breaches. .Sh AUTHOR .An Theodore Ts'o , MIT Project Athena
p Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology .Sh "SEE ALSO" .Xr gzip 1 , .Xr syslog 3 , .Xr syslogd 8