syslogd

Log system messages


Note: You must be root to run this daemon.

Syntax:

syslogd [-f config_file] [-m mark_interval]
        [-t threads]

Runs on:

Neutrino

Options:

-f config_file
Specify the pathname of an alternate configuration file (the default is /etc/syslog.conf).
-m mark_interval
Select the number of minutes between “mark” messages (the default is 20 minutes).
-t threads
Set the maximum number of threads that syslogd should use (the default is 15).

Description:

The syslogd daemon reads and logs messages to the system console, log files, and other machines as specified by its configuration file. The daemon reads its configuration file when it starts up and whenever it receives a hangup signal. For information on the format of the configuration file, see /etc/syslog.conf.

The messages sent to syslogd should consist of a single line, which may start with a facility/priority (as defined in <syslog.h>) in angle brackets (e.g. "<5> hello"). If the message doesn't specify a priority, it defaults to LOG_USER|LOG_NOTICE ("<13>").

The POSIX syslog() API and the POSIX logger utility (which uses syslog()) send messages to syslogd by opening and writing to /dev/log.

If a log message is submitted to /dev/log, the entry includes the string nto instead of the local host name. If the log message is submitted via the socket interface, the entry includes the host name. If the message is redirected from another syslogd on another host, the entry includes the host name.


Note: If you want to redirect syslogd output to slogger, send the log messages to /dev/console (which slogger monitors) by doing one of the following:
  • Edit /etc/syslog.conf and specify an action that sends the logs to /dev/console, and then start syslogd.
  • Specify the LOG_CONS flag when you call openlog()

Files:

The syslogd daemon requires the following files:

/etc/syslog.conf
This configuration file contains the selection criteria and the action to be taken if a message received by syslogd matches the selection criteria.
/etc/services
This file specifies the Internet domain socket port that syslogd listens to.

The syslogd daemon also requires the libsocket.so shared library.

Environment variables:

SYSLOG
Used by clients to specify which node to look for syslogd.

See also:

logger, /etc/services, /etc/syslog.conf

closelog(), openlog(), setlogmask(), syslog(), vsyslog() in the C Library Reference