The syslog.cfg file is the configuration file for the syslogd program. It consists of lines with two fields: the selector field which specifies the types of messages and priorities to which the line applies, and an action field which specifies the action to be taken if a message syslogd receives matches the selection criteria. The selector field is separated from the action field by one or more tab characters.

The Selectors function are encoded as a facility, a period ("."), and a level, with no intervening white-space. Both the facility and the level are case insensitive.

The facility describes the part of the system generating the message, and is one of the following keywords: auth, authpriv, cron, daemon, kern, lpr, mail, news, syslog, user, uucp and local0 through local7. These keywords (with the exception of mark) correspond to the similar "LOG_" values specified to the openlog and syslog library routines.

The level describes the severity of the message, and is a keyword from the following ordered list (higher to lower): emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice and debug. These keywords correspond to the similar (LOG_) values specified to the syslog library routine.

See syslog for a further descriptions of both the facility and level keywords and their significance.

If a received message matches the specified facility and is of the specified level (or a higher level), the action specified in the action field will be taken.

Multiple selectors may be specified for a single action by separating them with semicolon (";") characters. It is important to note, however, that each selector can modify the ones preceding it.

Multiple facilities may be specified for a single level by separating them with comma (",") characters.

An asterisk ("*") can be used to specify all facilities or all levels.

The action field of each line specifies the action to be taken when the selector field selects a message.There are four forms:

• A pathname (beginning with a leading slash). Selected messages are appended to the file.
• A hostname (preceded by an at ("@") sign). Selected messages are forwarded to the syslogd program on the named host.
• %console. Messages are written to the system console.
• An asterisk. Messages are written to the system console.

Blank lines and lines whose first non-blank character is a hash ("#") character are ignored.

EXAMPLES A configuration file might appear as follows:

# 
# 
# 
# Log some message levels to console 
*.emerg;*.crit;*.err;*.alert    %console

# Put FTP messages in their own logfile 
ftp.*       /config/nodea/ftp.log

# Put all messages in this file 
*.*         /config/nodea/syslog.log

# Forward all messages to another host 
*.*         @logger.mydomain.com

Files 

/config/nodea/etc/syslog.cfg

The syslogd configuration file.

Notes

The effects of multiple selectors are sometimes not intuitive. For example "mail.crit,*.err" will select "mail" facility messages at the level of "err" or higher, not at the level of "crit" or higher.