syslog-ng.8 (2012 03)

SYSLOG-NG(8) SYSLOG-NG(8)
NAME
syslog-ng - logs system messages
SYNOPSIS
NOTE: This file is not up to date. Please refer to the html documentation.
syslog-ng [ -dFsvV ][-f <config-filename>][-p <pid-filename>][-C <chroot-dir>]
[ -u <user>][-g <group>]
DESCRIPTION
syslog-ng reads and logs messages to the system console, log files, other machines and/or users as
specified by its configuration file.
The configuration file is read at startup and is reread after receipt of a hangup (HUP) signal. When
reloading the configuration file, all destination files are closed and reopened as appropriate. For more
information about the configuration file, see syslog-ng.conf(5).
Typically messages are sent to syslog-ng via a Unix domain socket (/dev/log) or via UDP, to port 514 or
to whatever syslog/udp is defined to be in /etc/services. To receieve messages from the kernel,
/dev/klog is opened for reading.
Messages sent to syslog-ng should be an entire line, prefixed by a priority code in between ’<’ and ’>’.
Definititions of the recognised values can be found in the include file <sys/syslog.h>.
syslog-ng can be configured to pass messages on to other syslog-ng’s and when doing so, it sends the
message on with the priority as a prefix.
It is not necessary to terminate a message with a line feed or carriage return.
OPTIONS
-C <directory>, --chroot=<directory>
Chroot to directory.
-d, --debug
Set "debug mode". Prints out various messages to aid in debugging and stops it from becoming a
daemon. To activate debugging in the yacc parser, either use this option twice or combine with -v.
-F, --foreground
Don’t fork into background.
-f <filename>, --cfgfile=<filename>
Instead of reading the normal /etc/syslog-ng.conf file for configuration information, use the
filename given instead.
-g <group>, --group=<group>
Switch to group.
-p <filename>, --pidfile=<filename>
Write the current PID information to the specified file. Defaults to /var/run/syslog-ng.pid.
-s, --syntax-only
Only read and parse the configuration file. See also the option -f.
-u <user>, --group=<user>
Switch to user.
-v, --verbose
Enable verbose mode. Process will not become a daemon. Prints out fewer messages, compared to
-d.
-V, --version
Print the version number.
DIAGNOSTICS
It is expected that syslog-ng will run as root, however, if not running on a priviledged port of it it owned
its own log directories, etc, it might run as a non-root user.
SEE ALSO
syslog-ng.conf(5), logger(1), syslog(2), syslog(3), services(5), syslog.conf(5), klogd(8), syslogd(8),
sysklogd(8)
HP-UX 11i Version 3: March 2012 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1