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from: @(#)syslog.conf.5 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
$NetBSD: syslog.conf.5,v 1.4 1996/01/02 17:41:46 perry Exp $

.Dd June 9, 1993 .Dt SYSLOG.CONF 5 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm syslog.conf .Nd .Xr syslogd 8 configuration file .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm syslog.conf file is the configuration file for the .Xr syslogd 8 program. It consists of lines with two fields: the .Em selector field which specifies the types of messages and priorities to which the line applies, and an .Em action field which specifies the action to be taken if a message .Xr syslogd receives matches the selection criteria. The .Em selector field is separated from the .Em action field by one or more tab characters.

p The .Em Selectors function are encoded as a .Em facility , a period (``.''), and a .Em level , with no intervening white-space. Both the .Em facility and the .Em level are case insensitive.

p The .Em 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 .Dq Dv LOG_ values specified to the .Xr openlog 3 and .Xr syslog 3 library routines.

p Apple System Log (ASL) messages, sent using the .Xr asl 3 library routines permit the facility name to be an arbitrary string, although users of the system are encouraged to use a .Dq reverse ICANN naming convention, for example .Dq 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.

p If .Em facility is terminated by an asterisk (``*''), then facility names are matched using the prefix characters preceeding the asterisk. For example,

p .Dq 'com.apple.abc.*'

p matches any facility with the prefix ``com.apple.abc.''. These wildcard facility names typically must be enclosed in single or double quotes characters.

p The .Em 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

q Dv LOG_ values specified to the .Xr syslog library routine.

p See .Xr syslog 3 for a further descriptions of both the .Em facility and .Em level keywords and their significance.

p If a received message matches the specified .Em facility and is of the specified .Em level .Em (or a higher level) , the action specified in the .Em action field will be taken.

p Multiple .Em selectors may be specified for a single .Em action by separating them with semicolon (``;'') characters. It is important to note, however, that each .Em selector can modify the ones preceding it.

p Multiple .Em facilities may be specified for a single .Em level by separating them with comma (``,'') characters.

p An asterisk (``*'') can be used to specify all .Em facilities or all .Em levels .

p The special .Em facility ``mark'' receives a message at priority ``info'' every 20 minutes (see .Xr syslogd 8 ) . This is not enabled by a .Em facility field containing an asterisk.

p The special .Em level ``none'' disables a particular .Em facility .

p The .Em action field of each line specifies the action to be taken when the .Em selector field selects a message. There are four forms: l -bullet t A pathname (beginning with a leading slash). Selected messages are appended to the file. t A hostname (preceded by an at (``@'') sign). Selected messages are forwarded to the .Xr syslogd program on the named host. t A comma separated list of users. Selected messages are written to those users if they are logged in. t An asterisk. Selected messages are written to all logged-in users. .El

p Blank lines and lines whose first non-blank character is a hash (``#'') character are ignored. .Sh EXAMPLES

p A configuration file might appear as follows: d -literal # 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 .Ed .Sh FILES l -tag -width /etc/syslog.conf -compact t Pa /etc/syslog.conf The .Xr syslogd 8 configuration file. .El .Sh 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. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr asl 3 , .Xr syslog 3 , .Xr syslogd 8 .Sh HISTORY The .Nm file appeared in x 4.3 , along with .Xr syslogd 8 .