.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" 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. .Pp 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. .Pp The .Em facility describes the part of the system generating the message, and is one of the following keywords: 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. .Pp 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 .Pq Dv LOG_ values specified to the .Xr syslog library routine. .Pp See .Xr syslog 3 for a further descriptions of both the .Em facility and .Em level keywords and their significance. .Pp 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. .Pp 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. .Pp Multiple .Em facilities may be specified for a single .Em level by separating them with comma (``,'') characters. .Pp An asterisk (``*'') can be used to specify all .Em facilities or all .Em levels . .Pp 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. .Pp The special .Em level ``none'' disables a particular .Em facility . .Pp 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: .Bl -bullet .It A pathname (beginning with a leading slash). Selected messages are appended to the file. .It A hostname (preceded by an at (``@'') sign). Selected messages are forwarded to the .Xr syslogd program on the named host. .It A comma separated list of users. Selected messages are written to those users if they are logged in. .It An asterisk. Selected messages are written to all logged-in users. .El .Pp Blank lines and lines whose first non-blank character is a hash (``#'') character are ignored. .Sh EXAMPLES .Pp A configuration file might appear as follows: .Bd -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 .Bl -tag -width /etc/syslog.conf -compact .It 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 syslog 3 , .Xr syslogd 8 .Sh HISTORY The .Nm file appeared in .Bx 4.3 , along with .Xr syslogd 8 .