.\" $OpenBSD: newsyslog.8,v 1.5 1997/07/08 00:00:48 downsj Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1997, Jason Downs. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by Jason Downs for the .\" OpenBSD system. .\" 4. Neither the name(s) of the author(s) nor the name OpenBSD .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR(S) ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS .\" OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED .\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE .\" DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR(S) BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, .\" INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES .\" (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR .\" SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER .\" CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" This file contains changes from the Open Software Foundation. .\" .\" from: @(#)newsyslog.8 .\" .\" Copyright 1988, 1989 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software .\" and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is .\" hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice .\" appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and .\" this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, .\" and that the names of M.I.T. and the M.I.T. S.I.P.B. not be .\" used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution .\" of the software without specific, written prior permission. .\" M.I.T. and the M.I.T. S.I.P.B. make no representations about .\" the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is .\" provided "as is" without express or implied warranty. .\" .Dd July 7, 1997 .Dt NEWSYSLOG 8 .Os OpenBSD .Sh NAME .Nm newsyslog .Nd maintain system log files to manageable sizes .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm /usr/bin/newsyslog .Op Fl vmnr .Op Fl f Ar configuration file .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm Newsyslog 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 newsyslog rearranges the files so that ``logfile'' is empty, ``logfile.0'' has the last period's logs in it, ``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 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 newsyslog 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 newsyslog 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 ``#'' are ignored. The fields of the configuration file are as follows: .Pp .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 "." 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 he number of archives to be kept besides the log file itself. .It size of archives When the size of the log file reaches this point, the log file becomes trimmed as described above. If this field is replaced by a ``*'', then the size of the log file is not taken into account when determining when to trim the log file. .It archive interval Specify the time separation between the trimming of the log file. If this field is replaced by a ``*'', 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 ``Z'' flag will make the archive files compressed to save space using .Xr gzip 1 or .Xr compress 1 , depending on compilation options. The ``B'' flag means that the file is a binary file, and so the ascii message which .Nm newsyslog inserts to indicate the fact that the logs have been turned over should not be included. The ``M'' flag marks this entry as a monitored log file. .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 log file .Xr sendmail 8 logs to as monitored. .El .Pp .Sh OPTIONS The following options can be used with newsyslog: .Bl -tag -width XXX .It Fl f Ar config-file instructs newsyslog to use .Ar config-file instead of /etc/newsyslog.conf for its configuration file. .It Fl v places .Nm newsyslog in verbose mode. In this mode it will print out each log and its reasons for either trimming that log or skipping it. .It Fl n causes .Nm newsyslog not to trim the logs, but to print out what it would do if this option were not specified. .It Fl r removes the restriction that .Nm newsyslog must be running as root. Of course, .Nm newsyslog will not be able to send a HUP signal to .Xr syslogd 8 , so this option should only be used in debugging. .It Fl m places .Nm newsyslog in monitoring mode; only entries marked with an ``M'' in flags are processed, and notifications sent if any have changed. Without this option, monitored entries are not processed. .El .Pp .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /etc/newsyslog.conf .It Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf Default configuration file. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr gzip 1 , .Xr compress 1 , .Xr syslog 3 , .Xr syslogd 8 . .Sh AUTHOR .Bd -unfilled -offset indent Theodore Ts'o, MIT Project Athena Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology .Ed