freebsd-dev/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8

.\" 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 "January 12, 1989"
.Dt NEWSYSLOG 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm newsyslog
.Nd maintain system log files to manageable sizes
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm newsyslog
.Op Fl rnv
.Op Fl f Ar config_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 by
.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 two 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 logfile_namexxxx
.It Ar logfile_name
Name of the system log file to be archived.
.It Ar owner.group
Specifies the owner and group for the archive file.
The "." is essential, even if the
.Ar owner
or
.Ar group
field is left blank.  The field may be numeric, or a name which is 
present in
.Pa /etc/passwd
or
.Pa /etc/group.
.It Ar mode 
Specifies the mode of the log file and archives.
.It Ar count
Specifies the number of archive files to be kept
besides the log file itself.
.It Ar size
When the size of the log file reaches
.Ar size ,
the log file will be trimmed as described above.  If this field
is replaced by a
.Ar * ,
then the size of the log file is not taken into account
when determining when to trim the log file.
of archives
.It Ar interval
When 
.Ar interval
hours have passed, the log file will be trimmed.  If this field is
replaced by a
.Ar * ,
then the number of hours since the last time the log was
trimmed will not be taken into consideration.
.It Ar flags
This optional field specifies if the archive should have any
special processing done to the archived log files.
The
.Ar Z
flag will make the archive files compress to save space by
using
.Xr gzip 1 .
The
.Ar 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.
.El
.Sh OPTIONS
The following options can be used with newsyslog:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl f Ar config_file
instructs newsyslog to use 
.Ar config_file
instead of
.Pa /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.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/newsyslog.confxxxx -comapct
.It Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf
.Nm newsyslog
configuration file.
.El
.Sh BUGS
Doesn't yet automatically read the logs to find security breaches.
.Sh AUTHOR
Theodore Ts'o, MIT Project Athena
.Pp
Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
.Sh "SEE ALSO"
.Xr gzip 1 ,
.Xr syslog 3 ,
.Xr syslogd 8