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syslogd(1M) System Administration Commands syslogd(1M) NAME syslogd - log system messages SYNOPSIS /usr/sbin/syslogd [-d] [-f configfile] [-m markinterval] [-p path] [-t | -T] DESCRIPTION syslogd reads and forwards system messages to the appropriate log files or users, depending upon the priority of a message and the system fa- cility from which it originates. The configuration file /etc/sys- log.conf (see syslog.conf(4)) controls where messages are forwarded. syslogd logs a mark (timestamp) message every markinterval minutes (de- fault 20) at priority LOG_INFO to the facility whose name is given as mark in the syslog.conf file. A system message consists of a single line of text, which may be pre- fixed with a priority code number enclosed in angle-brackets (<>); pri- orities are defined in <sys/syslog.h>. syslogd reads from the STREAMS log driver, /dev/log, and from any transport provider specified in /etc/netconfig, /etc/net/trans- port/hosts, and /etc/net/transport/services. syslogd reads the configuration file when it starts up, and again when- ever it receives a HUP signal (see signal(3HEAD), at which time it also closes all files it has open, re-reads its configuration file, and then opens only the log files that are listed in that file. syslogd exits when it receives a TERM signal. As it starts up, syslogd creates the file /etc/syslog.pid, if possible, containing its process identifier (PID). If message ID generation is enabled (see log(7D)), each message will be preceded by an identifier in the following format: [ID msgid facil- ity.priority]. msgid is the message's numeric identifier described in msgid(1M). facility and priority are described in syslog.conf(4). [ID 123456 kern.notice] is an example of an identifier when message ID gen- eration is enabled. If the message originated in a loadable kernel module or driver, the kernel module's name (for example, ufs) will be displayed instead of unix. See EXAMPLES for sample output from syslogd with and without mes- sage ID generation enabled. In an effort to reduce visual clutter, message IDs are not displayed when writing to the console; message IDs are only written to the log file. See EXAMPLES. The /etc/default/syslogd file contains the following default parameter settings. See FILES. LOG_FROM_REMOTE Specifies whether remote messages are logged. LOG_FROM_REMOTE=NO is equivalent to the -t command-line option. The default value for LOG_FROM_REMOTE is YES. OPTIONS The following options are supported: -d Turn on debugging. This option should only be used interactively in a root shell once the system is in multi-user mode. It should not be used in the system start-up scripts, as this will cause the system to hang at the point where syslogd is started. -f configfile Specify an alternate configuration file. -m markinterval Specify an interval, in minutes, between mark messages. -p path Specify an alternative log device name. The default is /dev/log. -T Enable the syslogd UDP port to turn on logging of remote mes- sages. This is the default behavior. See FILES. -t Disable the syslogd UDP port to turn off logging of remote mes- sages. See FILES. EXAMPLES Example 1: syslogd Output Without Message ID Generation Enabled The following example shows the output from syslogd when message ID generation is not enabled: Sep 29 21:41:18 cathy unix: alloc /: file system full Example 2: syslogd Output with ID generation Enabled The following example shows the output from syslogd when message ID generation is enabled. The message ID is displayed when writing to log file/var/adm/messages. Sep 29 21:41:18 cathy ufs: [ID 845546 kern.notice] alloc /: file system full Example 3: syslogd Output with ID Generation Enabled The following example shows the output from syslogd when message ID generation is enabled when writing to the console. Even though message ID is enabled, the message ID is not displayed at the console. Sep 29 21:41:18 cathy ufs: alloc /: file system full FILES /etc/syslog.conf Configuration file /etc/syslog.pid Process ID /etc/default/syslogd Contains default settings. You can override some of the settings by command-line options. /dev/log STREAMS log driver /etc/netconfig Transport providers available on the system /etc/net/transport/hosts Network hosts for each transport /etc/net/transport/services Network services for each transport ATTRIBUTES See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |Availability |SUNWcsu | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO logger(1), msgid(1M),syslog(3C), syslog.conf(4), attributes(5), sig- nal(3HEAD), log(7D) NOTES The mark message is a system time stamp, and so it is only defined for the system on which syslogd is running. It can not be forwarded to other systems. When syslogd receives a HUP signal, it attempts to close all log files to which it is currently logging messages. If, for some reason, one of these files does not close within a generous grace period, syslogd shuts down, logging an error message to the console. If the console is one of the files that did not successfully close, syslogd instead sends a mail message to the superuser on the current system stating that it shut down, and that the console was not responding. Care should be taken to ensure that each window displaying messages forwarded by syslogd (especially console windows) is run in the system default locale (which is syslogd's locale). If this advice is not fol- lowed, it is possible for a syslog message to alter the terminal set- tings for that window, possibly even allowing remote execution of arbi- trary commands from that window. SunOS 5.9 4 Jan 2002 syslogd(1M)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXAMPLES | FILES | ATTRIBUTES | SEE ALSO | NOTES
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