1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 13.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.\" from: @(#)syslog.conf.5 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93 33.\" $NetBSD: syslog.conf.5,v 1.5 1997/10/17 13:46:09 lukem Exp $ 34.\" 35.Dd June 9, 1993 36.Dt SYSLOG.CONF 5 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm syslog.conf 40.Nd 41.Xr syslogd 8 42configuration file 43.Sh DESCRIPTION 44The 45.Nm 46file is the configuration file for the 47.Xr syslogd 8 48program. 49It consists of lines with two fields: the 50.Em selector 51field which specifies the types of messages and priorities to which the 52line applies, and an 53.Em action 54field which specifies the action to be taken if a message 55.Xr syslogd 56receives matches the selection criteria. 57The 58.Em selector 59field is separated from the 60.Em action 61field by one or more tab characters. 62.Pp 63The 64.Em Selectors 65function 66are encoded as a 67.Em facility , 68a period (``.''), and a 69.Em level , 70with no intervening white-space. 71Both the 72.Em facility 73and the 74.Em level 75are case insensitive. 76.Pp 77The 78.Em facility 79describes the part of the system generating the message, and is one of 80the following keywords: auth, authpriv, cron, daemon, kern, lpr, mail, 81mark, news, syslog, user, uucp and local0 through local7. 82These keywords (with the exception of mark) correspond to the 83similar 84.Dq Dv LOG_ 85values specified to the 86.Xr openlog 3 87and 88.Xr syslog 3 89library routines. 90.Pp 91The 92.Em level 93describes the severity of the message, and is a keyword from the 94following ordered list (higher to lower): emerg, alert, crit, err, 95warning, notice, info and debug. 96These keywords correspond to the 97similar 98.Pq Dv LOG_ 99values specified to the 100.Xr syslog 101library routine. 102.Pp 103See 104.Xr syslog 3 105for a further descriptions of both the 106.Em facility 107and 108.Em level 109keywords and their significance. 110.Pp 111If a received message matches the specified 112.Em facility 113and is of the specified 114.Em level 115.Em (or a higher level) , 116the action specified in the 117.Em action 118field will be taken. 119.Pp 120Multiple 121.Em selectors 122may be specified for a single 123.Em action 124by separating them with semicolon (``;'') characters. 125It is important to note, however, that each 126.Em selector 127can modify the ones preceding it. 128.Pp 129Multiple 130.Em facilities 131may be specified for a single 132.Em level 133by separating them with comma (``,'') characters. 134.Pp 135An asterisk (``*'') can be used to specify all 136.Em facilities 137or all 138.Em levels . 139.Pp 140The special 141.Em facility 142``mark'' receives a message at priority ``info'' every 20 minutes 143(see 144.Xr syslogd 8 ) . 145This is not enabled by a 146.Em facility 147field containing an asterisk. 148.Pp 149The special 150.Em level 151``none'' disables a particular 152.Em facility . 153.Pp 154The 155.Em action 156field of each line specifies the action to be taken when the 157.Em selector 158field selects a message. 159There are four forms: 160.Bl -bullet 161.It 162A pathname (beginning with a leading slash). 163Selected messages are appended to the file. 164.It 165A hostname (preceded by an at (``@'') sign). 166Selected messages are forwarded to the 167.Xr syslogd 168program on the named host. 169.It 170A comma separated list of users. 171Selected messages are written to those users 172if they are logged in. 173.It 174An asterisk. 175Selected messages are written to all logged-in users. 176.El 177.Pp 178Blank lines and lines whose first non-blank character is a hash (``#'') 179character are ignored. 180.Sh EXAMPLES 181.Pp 182A configuration file might appear as follows: 183.Bd -literal 184# Log all kernel messages, authentication messages of 185# level notice or higher and anything of level err or 186# higher to the console. 187# Don't log private authentication messages! 188*.err;kern.*;auth.notice;authpriv.none /dev/console 189 190# Log anything (except mail) of level info or higher. 191# Don't log private authentication messages! 192*.info;mail.none;authpriv.none /var/log/messages 193 194# The authpriv file has restricted access. 195authpriv.* /var/log/secure 196 197# Log all the mail messages in one place. 198mail.* /var/log/maillog 199 200# Everybody gets emergency messages, plus log them on another 201# machine. 202*.emerg * 203*.emerg @arpa.berkeley.edu 204 205# Root and Eric get alert and higher messages. 206*.alert root,eric 207 208# Save mail and news errors of level err and higher in a 209# special file. 210uucp,news.crit /var/log/spoolerr 211.Ed 212.Sh FILES 213.Bl -tag -width /etc/syslog.conf -compact 214.It Pa /etc/syslog.conf 215The 216.Xr syslogd 8 217configuration file. 218.El 219.Sh BUGS 220The effects of multiple selectors are sometimes not intuitive. 221For example ``mail.crit,*.err'' will select ``mail'' facility messages at 222the level of ``err'' or higher, not at the level of ``crit'' or higher. 223.Sh SEE ALSO 224.Xr syslog 3 , 225.Xr syslogd 8 226.Sh HISTORY 227The 228.Nm 229file appeared in 230.Bx 4.3 , 231along with 232.Xr syslogd 8 . 233