path: root/usr.bin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8

.\"	$OpenBSD: newsyslog.8,v 1.27 2002/09/17 20:16:43 millert Exp $
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.\" Copyright (c) 1997, Jason Downs.  All rights reserved.
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.\" This file contains changes from the Open Software Foundation.
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.\"	from: @(#)newsyslog.8
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.\" Copyright 1988, 1989 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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.Dd November 11, 1999
.Dt NEWSYSLOG 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm newsyslog
.Nd maintain system log files to manageable sizes
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm newsyslog
.Op Fl Fmnrv
.Op Fl a Ar directory
.Op Fl f Ar config_file
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
is a program that should be scheduled to run periodically by
.Xr cron 8 .
When it is executed it archives log files if necessary.
If a log file is determined to require archiving,
.Nm
rearranges the files so that
.Pa logfile
is empty,
.Pa logfile.0
has
the last period's logs in it,
.Pa logfile.1
has the next to last
period's logs in it, and so on, up to a user-specified number of
archived logs.
Optionally the archived logs can be compressed to save space.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl F
Force
.Nm
to trim logs regardless of the size and/or age requirements specified in
.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf .
This option may be combined with the
.Fl n
or
.Fl v
flags to aid in debugging problems with
.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf .
.It Fl m
Monitoring mode; only entries marked with an
.Sq M
in flags are processed,
and notifications sent if any have changed.
Without this option, monitored entries are not processed.
.It Fl n
Do not trim the logs, but instead print out what would be done if this option
were not specified.
.It Fl r
Removes the restriction that
.Nm
must be running as root.
Of course,
.Nm
will not be able to send a
.Dv SIGHUP
signal to
.Xr syslogd 8 ,
so this option should only be used in debugging.
.It Fl v
Be verbose.
In this mode it will print out each log and its
reasons for either trimming that log or skipping it.
.It Fl a Ar directory
Specify a
.Ar directory
into which archived log files will be written.
If
.Ar directory
is a relative path, it is it is appended to the parent directory
of each log and the archived log is stored in the result.
If an absolute path is given, all archived logs are stored in the given
.Ar directory .
If
.Ar directory
does not exist for a specified log, it is ignored for that entry and
the log is rotated as if the
.Fl a
option was not specified.
.It Fl f Ar config_file
Use
.Ar config_file
instead of
.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf
for the configuration file.
.El
.Pp
A log can be archived because of two reasons.
The log file can have
grown bigger than a preset size in kilobytes, or a preset number of
hours may have elapsed since the last log archive.
The granularity of
.Nm
is dependent on how often it is scheduled to run in
.Xr cron 8 .
Since the program is quite fast, it may be scheduled to run every hour
without any ill effects.
.Pp
When starting up,
.Nm
reads in a configuration file to determine which logs should be looked
at.
By default, this configuration file is
.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf .
Each line of the file contains information about a particular log file
that should be handled by
.Nm newsyslog .
Each line has five mandatory fields and up to three optional fields, with a
whitespace separating each field.
Blank lines or lines beginning with a hash mark
.Pq Ql #
are ignored.
The fields of the configuration file are as
follows:
.Bl -tag -width XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
.It logfile name
The full pathname of the system log file to be archived.
.It owner.group of archives (optional)
Specify an ownership and group for the archive file.
The
.Ql \&.
is essential, even if the
.Ar owner
or
.Ar group
field is left blank.
The fields may be numeric, or a name which is looked up
in the system password and group databases.
.It mode of logfile & archives
Octal mode of created log files and archives.
.It number of archives
Specify the number of archives to be kept besides the log file itself.
.It size of archives
When the size of the log file (in kilobytes) reaches this point, the log
file is trimmed as described above.
If this field is replaced by a
.Ql * ,
then the size of
the log file is not taken into account when determining when to trim the
log file.
By default, files smaller than 512 bytes are not rotated unless the
.Sq B
(binary) flag is set.
This prevents
.Nm
from rotating files consisting solely of a message indicating
that the log file has been turned over.
.It archive interval
Specify the time separation between the trimming of the log file.
If this field is replaced by a
.Ql * ,
the number of hours since the last time the
log was trimmed will not be taken into consideration.
.It flags (optional)
The
.Ar flags
field specifies if the archives should have any special processing
done to the archived log files.
The
.Sq Z
flag will make the archive
files compressed to save space using
.Xr gzip 1
or
.Xr compress 1 ,
depending on compilation options.
The
.Sq B
flag means that the file is a
binary file, and so the ASCII message which
.Nm
inserts to indicate the fact that the logs have been turned over
should not be included.
The
.Sq M
flag marks this entry as a monitored
log file.
The
.Sq F
flag specifies that symbolic links should be followed.
.It monitor notification (optional)
Specify the account that should receive notification messages if this is
a monitored log file.
Notification messages are sent as email; the operator
deserves what they get if they mark the
.Xr sendmail 8
log file as monitored.
.It pid file (optional)
Specify a file containing the PID of a process to send a
.Dv SIGHUP
signal to instead of
.Pa /var/run/syslog.pid .
.It signal (optional)
Specify the signal to send to the process instead of
.Dv SIGHUP .
Signal names
must start with
.Dq SIG
and be the signal name, not the number, e.g.,
.Dv SIGUSR1 .
.It command (optional)
Specify a command to run instead of sending a signal to the process.
The command must be enclosed in double quotes
.Pq Ql \&" ) .
You cannot specify both a command and a PID file.
.Em NOTE:
If you specify a command to be run,
.Nm
will not send a
.Dv SIGHUP to
.Xr syslogd 8 .
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/newsyslog.conf
.It Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf
default configuration file
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr compress 1 ,
.Xr gzip 1 ,
.Xr syslog 3 ,
.Xr syslogd 8
.Sh AUTHORS
.Bd -unfilled
Theodore Ts'o, MIT Project Athena
Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
.Ed