syslog-ng(8) - Linux man page

Name

syslog-ng - syslog-ng system logger application

Synopsis

syslog-ng [options]

Description

This manual page is only an abstract; for the complete documentation of syslog-ng, see The syslog-ng Administrator Guide [2] .

The syslog-ng application is a flexible and highly scalable system logging application. Typically, syslog-ng is used to manage log messages and implement centralized logging, where the aim is to collect the log messages of several devices on a single, central log server. The different devices - called syslog-ng clients - all run syslog-ng, and collect the log messages from the various applications, files, and other sources. The clients send all important log messages to the remote syslog-ng server, where the server sorts and stores them.

Options

--cfgfile <file> or -f <file>

Use the specified configuration file.
--chroot <dir> or -C <dir>: Change root to the specified directory after reading the configuration file. The directory must be set up accordingly. Note that it is not possible to reload the syslog-ng configuration after chrooting.
--debug or -d: Start syslog-ng in debug mode.
--enable-core: Enable syslog-ng to write core files in case of a crash to help support and debugging.
--fd-limit: Set the minimal number of required file descriptors (fd-s); this sets how many files syslog-ng can keep open simultaneously. Default value: 4096. Note that this does not override the global ulimit setting of the host.
--foreground or -F: Do not daemonize, run in the foreground.
--group <group> or -g <group>: Switch to the specified group after initializing the configuration file.
--help or -h: Display a brief help message.
--no-caps: Run syslog-ng as root, without capability-support. This is the default behavior. On Linux, it is possible to run syslog-ng as non-root with capability-support if syslog-ng was compiled with the --enable-linux-caps option enabled. (Execute syslog-ng --version to display the list of enabled build parameters.)
--persist-file <persist-file> or -R <persist-file>: Set the path and name of the syslog-ng.persist file where the persistent options and data are stored.
--pidfile <pidfile> or -p <pidfile>: Set path to the PID file where the pid of the main process is stored.
--process-mode <pidfile>: Sets how to run syslog-ng: in the foreground (mainly used for debugging), in the background as a daemon, or in safe-background mode. By default, syslog-ng runs in safe-background mode. This mode creates a supervisor process called supervising syslog-ng , that restarts syslog-ng if it crashes.
--qdisk-dir <path> or -Q <path>: Specify the location of the file used for disk-based buffering. By default, this file is located at /var/lib/syslog-ng/.
--stderr or -e: Log internal messages of syslog-ng to stderr. Mainly used for debugging purposes in conjunction with the --foreground option. If not specified, syslog-ng will log such messages to its internal source.
--syntax-only or -s: Verify that the configuration file is syntactically correct and exit.
--user <user> or -u <user>: Switch to the specified user after initializing the configuration file (and optionally chrooting). Note that it is not possible to reload the syslog-ng configuration if the specified user has no privilege to create the /dev/log file.
--verbose or -v: Enable verbose logging used to troubleshoot syslog-ng.
--version or -V: Display version number and compilation information.

Files

/etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf

Author

This manual page was written by the BalaBit Documentation Team <documentation@balabit.com>.

Copyright

Copyright © 2000-2009 BalaBit IT Security Ltd. Published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works (by-nc-nd) 3.0 license. See http://creativecommons.org/ for details. The latest version is always available at http://www.balabit.com/support/documentation.

Notes

1. official syslog-ng website: http://www.balabit.com/network-security/syslog-ng/
2. The syslog-ng Administrator Guide: http://www.balabit.com/support/documentation/
3. syslog-ng mailing list: https://lists.balabit.hu/mailman/listinfo/syslog-ng
4. BalaBit Documentation Blog: http://robert.blogs.balabit.com

Referenced By

pdbtool(1), syslog-ng-ctl(1)