sysklogd - Linux system logging utilities.


SYNOPSIS

       syslogd  [  -a socket ] [ -d ] [ -f config file ] [ -h ] [
       -l hostlist ] [ -m interval ] [ -n ] [ -p socket ] [ -r  ]
       [ -s domainlist ] [ -v ] [ -x ]


DESCRIPTION

       Sysklogd  provides two system utilities which provide sup­
       port for system logging and kernel message trapping.  Sup­
       port of both internet and unix domain sockets enables this
       utility package to support both local and remote  logging.

       System  logging  is  provided  by  a version of syslogd(8)
       derived from the stock BSD sources.   Support  for  kernel
       logging  is  provided by the klogd(8) utility which allows
       kernel logging to be  conducted  in  either  a  standalone
       fashion or as a client of syslogd.

       Syslogd  provides  a kind of logging that many modern pro­
       grams use.  Every logged message contains at least a  time
       and  a hostname field, normally a program name field, too,
       but that depends on how trusty the logging program is.

       While the syslogd sources have  been  heavily  modified  a
       couple of notes are in order.  First of all there has been
       a systematic attempt to insure that  syslogd  follows  its
       default, standard BSD behavior.  The second important con­
       cept to note is that this  version  of  syslogd  interacts
       transparently  with  the  version  of  syslog found in the
       standard libraries.  If a binary linked  to  the  standard
       shared libraries fails to function correctly we would like
       an example of the anomalous behavior.

       The main configuration file /etc/syslog.conf or an  alter­
       native file, given with the -f option, is read at startup.
       Any lines that begin with the hash mark (``#'') and  empty
       lines  are ignored.  If an error occurs during parsing the
       whole line is ignored.


OPTIONS

       -a socket
              Using this  argument  you  can  specify  additional
              sockets  from  that syslogd has to listen to.  This
              is needed if you're going to let  some  daemon  run
              within  a  chroot() environment.  You can use up to
              19 additional sockets.  If your  environment  needs
              even more, you have to increase the symbol MAXFUNIX
              within the syslogd.c source file.  An example for a
              chroot()  daemon  is  described  by the people from


       -d     Turns  on  debug  mode.  Using this the daemon will
              not proceed a fork(2) to set itself  in  the  back­
              ground, but opposite to that stay in the foreground
              and write much debug  information  on  the  current
              tty.   See  the DEBUGGING section for more informa­
              tion.

       -f config file
              Specify an alternative configuration  file  instead
              of /etc/syslog.conf, which is the default.

       -h     By  default  syslogd  will  not forward messages it
              receives from remote hosts.  Specifying this switch
              on  the  command  line will cause the log daemon to
              forward any remote messages it receives to forward­
              ing hosts which have been defined.

       -l hostlist
              Specify  a hostname that should be logged only with
              its simple hostname and  not  the  fqdn.   Multiple
              hosts may be specified using the colon (``:'') sep­
              arator.

       -m interval
              The syslogd logs a mark timestamp  regularly.   The
              default interval between two -- MARK -- lines is 20
              minutes.  This can be  changed  with  this  option.
              Setting the interval to zero turns it off entirely.

       -n     Avoid auto-backgrounding.   This  is  needed  espe­
              cially  if the syslogd is started and controlled by
              init(8).

       -p socket
              You can specify an alternative unix  domain  socket
              instead of /dev/log.

       -r     This  option  will  enable  the facility to receive
              message from the network using an  internet  domain
              socket  with  the syslog service (see services(5)).
              The default is to not receive any messages from the
              network.

              This  option  is  introduced  in version 1.3 of the
              sysklogd package.  Please  note  that  the  default
              behavior  is  the  opposite  of  how older versions
              behave, so you might have to turn this on.

       -s domainlist
              Specify a domainname that should  be  stripped  off
              before  logging.  Multiple domains may be specified
              using  the  colon  (``:'')  separator.   Please  be

              only entire domains.  For example if -s north.de is
              specified   and   the   host  logging  resolves  to
              satu.infodrom.north.de no domain would be cut,  you
              will   have   to   specify  two  domains  like:  -s
              north.de:infodrom.north.de.

       -v     Print version and exit.

       -x     Disable name lookups  when  receiving  remote  mes­
              sages.   This  avoids deadlocks when the nameserver
              is running on the same machine that runs the syslog
              daemon.


SIGNALS

       Syslogd reacts to a set of signals.  You may easily send a
       signal to syslogd using the following:

              kill -SIGNAL `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid`

       SIGHUP This lets syslogd perform a re-initialization.  All
              open  files  are  closed,  the  configuration  file
              (default is /etc/syslog.conf) will  be  reread  and
              the syslog(3) facility is started again.

       SIGTERM
              The syslogd will die.

       SIGINT, SIGQUIT
              If  debugging  is enabled these are ignored, other­
              wise syslogd will die.

       SIGUSR1
              Switch debugging on/off.  This option can  only  be
              used  if  syslogd  is  started  with  the  -d debug
              option.

       SIGCHLD
              Wait for childs  if  some  were  born,  because  of
              wall'ing messages.


CONFIGURATION FILE SYNTAX DIFFERENCES

       Syslogd  uses a slightly different syntax for its configu­
       ration file than the original BSD sources.  Originally all
       messages  of  a specific priority and above were forwarded
       to the log file.

              For example the following line  caused  ALL  output
              from  daemons using the daemon facilities (debug is
              the lowest priority,  so  every  higher  will  also
              match) to go into /usr/adm/daemons:

                   daemon.debug             /usr/adm/daemons

       Under  the new scheme this behavior remains the same.  The
       difference is the addition of  four  new  specifiers,  the
       asterisk (*) wildcard, the equation sign (=), the exclama­
       tion mark (!), and the minus sign (-).

       The * specifies that all messages for the specified facil­
       ity are to be directed to the destination.  Note that this
       behavior is degenerate with specifying a priority level of
       debug.  Users have indicated that the asterisk notation is
       more intuitive.

       The = wildcard is used to restrict logging to  the  speci­
       fied  priority  class.   This allows, for example, routing
       only debug messages to a particular logging source.

              For example the following line in syslog.conf would
              direct  debug  messages  from  all  sources  to the
              /usr/adm/debug file.

                   # Sample syslog.conf
                   *.=debug            /usr/adm/debug

       The ! is used to exclude logging of the specified  priori­
       ties.   This  affects  all (!) possibilities of specifying
       priorities.

              For example the following lines would log all  mes­
              sages  of  the  facility mail except those with the
              priority info to the /usr/adm/mail file.   And  all
              messages  from  news.info  (including) to news.crit
              (excluding) would be logged  to  the  /usr/adm/news
              file.

                   # Sample syslog.conf
                   mail.*;mail.!=info       /usr/adm/mail
                   news.info;news.!crit     /usr/adm/news

       You may use it intuitively as an exception specifier.  The
       above mentioned interpretation is simply inverted.   Doing
       that you may use

            mail.none
       or
            mail.!*
       or
            mail.!debug

       to  skip  every  message  that comes with a mail facility.
       There is much room to play with it. :-)

       The - may only be used to prefix a filename if you want to


       This  may  take some acclimatization for those individuals
       used to the pure BSD behavior but testers  have  indicated
       that  this  syntax  is somewhat more flexible than the BSD
       behavior.  Note that these changes should not affect stan­
       dard  syslog.conf(5)  files.  You must specifically modify
       the configuration files to obtain the enhanced behavior.


SUPPORT FOR REMOTE LOGGING

       These modifications provide network support to the syslogd
       facility.  Network support means that messages can be for­
       warded from one node running syslogd to another node  run­
       ning  syslogd where they will be actually logged to a disk
       file.

       To enable this you have to specify the -r  option  on  the
       command  line.  The default behavior is that syslogd won't
       listen to the network.

       The strategy is to have syslogd listen on  a  unix  domain
       socket  for locally generated log messages.  This behavior
       will allow syslogd to inter-operate with the syslog  found
       in  the standard C library.  At the same time syslogd lis­
       tens on the standard syslog port  for  messages  forwarded
       from  other  hosts.   To have this work correctly the ser­
       vices(5) files (typically found in  /etc)  must  have  the
       following entry:

                   syslog          514/udp

       If  this  entry  is  missing  syslogd  neither can receive
       remote messages nor send them, because the UDP  port  cant
       be  opened.  Instead syslogd will die immediately, blowing
       out an error message.

       To cause messages to be forwarded to another host  replace
       the normal file line in the syslog.conf file with the name
       of the host to which the messages is to be sent  prepended
       with an @.

              For  example,  to  forward ALL messages to a remote
              host use the following syslog.conf entry:

                   # Sample syslogd configuration file to
                   # messages to a remote host forward all.
                   *.*            @hostname

              To forward all kernel messages to a remote host the
              configuration file would be as follows:

                   # Sample configuration file to forward all kernel
                   # messages to a remote host.


       If  the  remote  hostname  cannot  be resolved at startup,
       because the name-server might not be accessible (it may be
       started  after  syslogd) you don't have to worry.  Syslogd
       will retry to resolve the name ten  times  and  then  com­
       plain.   Another possibility to avoid this is to place the
       hostname in /etc/hosts.

       With normal syslogds you would  get  syslog-loops  if  you
       send out messages that were received from a remote host to
       the same host (or more complicated to a  third  host  that
       sends  it back to the first one, and so on).  In my domain
       (Infodrom Oldenburg) we accidently got one and  our  disks
       filled up with the same single message. :-(

       To  avoid  this  in  further  times  no messages that were
       received from a remote host are sent out  to  another  (or
       the  same)  remote  host  anymore.  If there are scenarios
       where this doesn't make sense, please  drop  me  (Joey)  a
       line.

       If  the  remote  host is located in the same domain as the
       host, syslogd is running on, only the simple hostname will
       be logged instead of the whole fqdn.

       In a local network you may provide a central log server to
       have all the important information kept  on  one  machine.
       If  the  network  consists  of different domains you don't
       have to  complain  about  logging  fully  qualified  names
       instead  of  simple  hostnames.   You  may want to use the
       strip-domain feature -s of this server.  You can tell  the
       syslogd  to  strip  off several domains other than the one
       the server is located in and only log simple hostnames.

       Using the -l option there's also a possibility  to  define
       single  hosts  as  local  machines.  This, too, results in
       logging only their simple hostnames and not the fqdns.

       The UDP socket used to forward messages to remote hosts or
       to  receive  messages  from them is only opened when it is
       needed.  In releases prior to 1.3-23 it was  opened  every
       time  but  not  opened  for  reading or forwarding respec­
       tively.


OUTPUT TO NAMED PIPES (FIFOs)

       This version of syslogd has support for logging output  to
       named  pipes (fifos).  A fifo or named pipe can be used as
       a destination for log messages by prepending a pipy symbol
       (``|'') to the name of the file.  This is handy for debug­
       ging.  Note that the fifo must be created with the  mkfifo
       command before syslogd is started.

              sages from the kernel to a fifo:

                   # Sample configuration to route kernel debugging
                   # messages ONLY to /usr/adm/debug which is a
                   # named pipe.
                   kern.=debug              |/usr/adm/debug


INSTALLATION CONCERNS

       There  is  probably  one  important   consideration   when
       installing  this version of syslogd.  This version of sys­
       logd is dependent on proper formatting of messages by  the
       syslog  function.   The functioning of the syslog function
       in the shared libraries changed somewhere in the region of
       libc.so.4.[2-4].n.  The specific change was to null-termi­
       nate the message before transmitting it  to  the  /dev/log
       socket.   Proper functioning of this version of syslogd is
       dependent on null-termination of the message.

       This problem will typically manifest itself if old  stati­
       cally linked binaries are being used on the system.  Bina­
       ries using old versions of the syslog function will  cause
       empty  lines to be logged followed by the message with the
       first character in the message removed.   Relinking  these
       binaries  to  newer  versions of the shared libraries will
       correct this problem.

       Both the syslogd(8) and the klogd(8)  can  either  be  run
       from init(8) or started as part of the rc.*  sequence.  If
       it is started from init the option -n must be set,  other­
       wise  you'll  get tons of syslog daemons started.  This is
       because init(8) depends on the process ID.


SECURITY THREATS

       There is the potential for the syslogd daemon to  be  used
       as a conduit for a denial of service attack.  Thanks go to
       John Morrison (jmorriso@rflab.ee.ubc.ca) for  alerting  me
       to this potential.  A rogue program(mer) could very easily
       flood the syslogd daemon with syslog messages resulting in
       the  log  files  consuming  all the remaining space on the
       filesystem.  Activating logging over the inet domain sock­
       ets  will  of  course  expose a system to risks outside of
       programs or individuals on the local machine.

       There are a number of methods of protecting a machine:

       1.     Implement kernel firewalling to limit  which  hosts
              or networks have access to the 514/UDP socket.

       2.     Logging  can be directed to an isolated or non-root
              filesystem which, if filled, will  not  impair  the
              machine.

              figured to limit a certain percentage of a filesys­
              tem  to  usage  by  root only.  NOTE that this will
              require syslogd to be run as  a  non-root  process.
              ALSO  NOTE  that  this will prevent usage of remote
              logging since syslogd will be unable to bind to the
              514/UDP socket.

       4.     Disabling  inet  domain  sockets will limit risk to
              the local machine.

       5.     Use step 4 and if the problem persists and  is  not
              secondary  to  a  rogue program/daemon get a 3.5 ft
              (approx. 1 meter) length of sucker rod* and have  a
              chat with the user in question.

              Sucker  rod def. -- 3/4, 7/8 or 1in. hardened steel
              rod, male threaded on each end.  Primary use in the
              oil  industry  in  Western  North  Dakota and other
              locations to pump 'suck' oil from oil wells.   Sec­
              ondary uses are for the construction of cattle feed
              lots and for dealing with the  occasional  recalci­
              trant or belligerent individual.


DEBUGGING

       When  debugging  is turned on using -d option then syslogd
       will be very verbose by writing much of what  it  does  on
       stdout.  Whenever the configuration file is reread and re-
       parsed you'll see a tabular, corresponding to the internal
       data structure.  This tabular consists of four fields:

       number This  field  contains  a  serial number starting by
              zero.  This number represents the position  in  the
              internal  data  structure (i.e. the array).  If one
              number is left out then there might be an error  in
              the corresponding line in /etc/syslog.conf.

       pattern
              This  field  is  tricky and represents the internal
              structure  exactly.   Every  column  stands  for  a
              facility  (refer  to  syslog(3)).   As you can see,
              there are still some facilities left free for  for­
              mer  use, only the left most are used.  Every field
              in a column represents  the  priorities  (refer  to
              syslog(3)).

       action This  field  describes  the  particular action that
              takes place whenever a  message  is  received  that
              matches  the  pattern.  Refer to the syslog.conf(5)
              manpage for all possible actions.

       arguments
              This  field  shows  additional  arguments  to   the

              is the filename for the logfile;  for  user-logging
              this is a list of users; for remote logging this is
              the hostname of the machine to log to; for console-
              logging  this  is the used console; for tty-logging
              this is the specified tty; wall has  no  additional
              arguments.


FILES

       /etc/syslog.conf
              Configuration file for syslogd.  See syslog.conf(5)
              for exact information.
       /dev/log
              The Unix domain socket to from where  local  syslog
              messages are read.
       /var/run/syslogd.pid
              The file containing the process id of syslogd.


BUGS

       If  an error occurs in one line the whole rule is ignored.

       Syslogd doesn't change the filemode of opened logfiles  at
       any  stage  of  process.  If a file is created it is world
       readable.  If you want to avoid this, you have  to  create
       it and change permissions on your own.  This could be done
       in combination with rotating logfiles using the savelog(8)
       program  that  is  shipped  in the smail 3.x distribution.
       Remember that it might be a security hole if everybody  is
       able  to read auth.* messages as these might contain pass­
       words.


SEE ALSO

       syslog.conf(5), klogd(8), logger(1), syslog(2), syslog(3),
       services(5), savelog(8)


COLLABORATORS

       Syslogd   is   taken  from  BSD  sources,  Greg  Wettstein
       (greg@wind.enjellic.com) performed the port to Linux, Mar­
       tin Schulze (joey@linux.de) fixed some bugs and added sev­
       eral new features.  Klogd was originally written by  Steve
       Lord  (lord@cray.com),  Greg Wettstein made major improve­
       ments.

       Dr. Greg Wettstein
       Enjellic Systems Development
       Oncology Research Division Computing Facility
       Roger Maris Cancer Center
       Fargo, ND
       greg@wind.enjellic.com

       Stephen Tweedie

       Edinburgh University, Scotland
       sct@dcs.ed.ac.uk

       Juha Virtanen
       jiivee@hut.fi

       Shane Alderton
       shane@ion.apana.org.au

       Martin Schulze
       Infodrom Oldenburg
       joey@linux.de


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