300 lines
7.8 KiB
Groff
300 lines
7.8 KiB
Groff
.\" This file contains changes from the Open Software Foundation.
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.\"
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.\" from: @(#)newsyslog.8
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.\" $FreeBSD$
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.\"
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.\" Copyright 1988, 1989 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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.\"
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.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software
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.\" and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is
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.\" hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice
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.\" appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and
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.\" this permission notice appear in supporting documentation,
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.\" and that the names of M.I.T. and the M.I.T. S.I.P.B. not be
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.\" used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution
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.\" of the software without specific, written prior permission.
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.\" M.I.T. and the M.I.T. S.I.P.B. make no representations about
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.\" the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is
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.\" provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
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.\"
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.Dd January 31, 2011
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.Dt NEWSYSLOG 8
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.Os
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.Sh NAME
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.Nm newsyslog
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.Nd maintain system log files to manageable sizes
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.Sh SYNOPSIS
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.Nm
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.Op Fl CFNPnrsv
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.Op Fl a Ar directory
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.Op Fl d Ar directory
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.Op Fl f Ar config_file
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.Op Fl S Ar pidfile
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.Op Fl t Ar timefmt
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.Op Oo Fl R Ar tagname Oc Ar
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.Sh DESCRIPTION
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The
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.Nm
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utility should be scheduled to run periodically by
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.Xr cron 8 .
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When it is executed it archives log files if necessary.
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If a log file
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is determined to require archiving,
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.Nm
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rearranges the files so that
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.Dq Va logfile
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is empty,
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.Dq Va logfile Ns Li \&.0
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has
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the last period's logs in it,
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.Dq Va logfile Ns Li \&.1
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has the next to last
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period's logs in it, and so on, up to a user-specified number of
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archived logs.
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It is also possible to let archived log filenames be created using the
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time the log file was archived instead of the sequential number using
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the
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.Fl t
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option.
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Optionally the archived logs can be compressed to save
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space.
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.Pp
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A log can be archived for three reasons:
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.Bl -enum -offset indent
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.It
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It is larger than the configured size (in kilobytes).
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.It
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A configured number of hours have elapsed since the log was last
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archived.
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.It
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This is the specific configured hour for rotation of the log.
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.El
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.Pp
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The granularity of
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.Nm
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is dependent on how often it is scheduled to run by
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.Xr cron 8 .
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Since the program is quite fast, it may be scheduled to run every hour
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without any ill effects,
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and mode three (above) assumes that this is so.
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.Sh OPTIONS
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The following options can be used with
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.Nm :
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.Bl -tag -width indent
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.It Fl f Ar config_file
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Instruct
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.Nm
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to use
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.Ar config_file
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instead of
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.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf
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for its configuration file.
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.It Fl a Ar directory
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Specify a
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.Ar directory
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into which archived log files will be written.
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If a relative path is given,
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it is appended to the path of each log file
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and the resulting path is used as the directory
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into which the archived log for that log file will be written.
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If an absolute path is given,
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all archived logs are written into the given
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.Ar directory .
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If any component of the path
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.Ar directory
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does not exist,
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it will be created when
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.Nm
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is run.
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.It Fl d Ar directory
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Specify a
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.Ar directory
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which all log files will be relative to.
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To allow archiving of logs outside the root, the
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.Ar directory
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passed to the
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.Fl a
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option is unaffected.
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.It Fl v
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Place
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.Nm
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in verbose mode.
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In this mode it will print out each log and its
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reasons for either trimming that log or skipping it.
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.It Fl n
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Cause
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.Nm
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not to trim the logs, but to print out what it would do if this option
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were not specified.
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.It Fl r
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Remove the restriction that
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.Nm
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must be running as root.
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Of course,
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.Nm
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will not be able to send a HUP signal to
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.Xr syslogd 8
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so this option should only be used in debugging.
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.It Fl s
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Specify that
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.Nm
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should not send any signals to any daemon processes that it would
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normally signal when rotating a log file.
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For any log file which is rotated, this option will usually also
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mean the rotated log file will not be compressed if there is a
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daemon which would have been signalled without this option.
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However, this option is most likely to be useful when specified
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with the
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.Fl R
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option, and in that case the compression will be done.
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.It Fl t Ar timefmt
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If specified
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.Nm
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will create the
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.Dq rotated
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logfiles using the specified time format instead of the default
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sequential filenames.
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The time format is described in the
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.Xr strftime 3
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manual page.
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If the
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.Ar timefmt
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argument is set to an empty string or the string
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.Dq DEFAULT ,
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the default built in time format
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is used.
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If the
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.Ar timefmt
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string is changed the old files created using the previous time format
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will not be be automatically removed (unless the new format is very
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similar to the old format).
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This is also the case when changing from sequential filenames to time
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based file names, and the other way around.
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The time format should contain at least year, month, day, and hour to
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make sure rotating of old logfiles can select the correct logfiles.
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.It Fl C
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If specified once, then
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.Nm
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will create any log files which do not exist, and which have the
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.Sy C
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flag specified in their config file entry.
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If specified multiple times, then
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.Nm
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will create all log files which do not already exist.
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If log files are given on the command-line, then the
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.Fl C
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or
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.Fl CC
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will only apply to those specific log files.
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.It Fl F
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Force
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.Nm
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to trim the logs, even if the trim conditions have not been met.
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This
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option is useful for diagnosing system problems by providing you with
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fresh logs that contain only the problems.
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.It Fl N
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Do not perform any rotations.
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This option is intended to be used with the
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.Fl C
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or
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.Fl CC
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options when creating log files is the only objective.
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.It Fl P
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Prevent further action if we should send signal but the
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.Dq pidfile
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is empty or does not exist.
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.It Fl R Ar tagname
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Specify that
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.Nm
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should rotate a given list of files, even if trim conditions are not
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met for those files.
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The
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.Ar tagname
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is only used in the messages written to the log files which are
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rotated.
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This differs from the
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.Fl F
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option in that one or more log files must also be specified, so that
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.Nm
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will only operate on those specific files.
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This option is mainly intended for the daemons or programs which write
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some log files, and want to trigger a rotate based on their own criteria.
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With this option they can execute
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.Nm
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to trigger the rotate when they want it to happen, and still give the
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system administrator a way to specify the rules of rotation (such as how
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many backup copies are kept, and what kind of compression is done).
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When a daemon does execute
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.Nm
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with the
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.Fl R
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option, it should make sure all of the log files are closed before
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calling
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.Nm ,
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and then it should re-open the files after
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.Nm
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returns.
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Usually the calling process will also want to specify the
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.Fl s
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option, so
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.Nm
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will not send a signal to the very process which called it to force
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the rotate.
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Skipping the signal step will also mean that
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.Nm
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will return faster, since
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.Nm
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normally waits a few seconds after any signal that is sent.
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.It Fl S Ar pidfile
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Use
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.Ar pidfile
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as
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.Xr syslogd 8 Ns 's
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pidfile.
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.El
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.Pp
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If additional command line arguments are given,
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.Nm
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will only examine log files that match those arguments; otherwise, it
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will examine all files listed in the configuration file.
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.Sh FILES
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.Bl -tag -width /etc/newsyslog.confxxxx -compact
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.It Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf
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.Nm
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configuration file
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.El
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.Sh COMPATIBILITY
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Previous versions of the
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.Nm
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utility used the dot (``.'') character to
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distinguish the group name.
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Beginning with
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.Fx 3.3 ,
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this has been changed to a colon (``:'') character so that user and group
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names may contain the dot character.
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The dot (``.'') character is still
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accepted for backwards compatibility.
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.Sh SEE ALSO
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.Xr bzip2 1 ,
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.Xr gzip 1 ,
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.Xr xz 1 ,
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.Xr syslog 3 ,
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.Xr newsyslog.conf 5 ,
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.Xr chown 8 ,
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.Xr syslogd 8
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.Sh HISTORY
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The
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.Nm
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utility originated from
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.Nx
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and first appeared in
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.Fx 2.2 .
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.Sh AUTHORS
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.An Theodore Ts'o ,
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MIT Project Athena
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.Pp
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Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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.Sh BUGS
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Does not yet automatically read the logs to find security breaches.
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