27719c46cd
Add the much-needed and long-desired ability to force the log rotation to take place on a specific day or time, and document same. This works by extending the syntax of the `when' field to allow a restricted ISO 8601 time specification, and performing the log rotation if newsyslog is run during the same hour as is specified.
280 lines
6.9 KiB
Groff
280 lines
6.9 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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.\" $Id: newsyslog.8,v 1.14 1998/06/09 18:24:04 ache Exp $
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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 22, 1999
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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 newsyslog
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.Op Fl Fnrv
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.Op Fl f Ar config_file
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.Sh DESCRIPTION
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.Nm Newsyslog
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is a program that 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. 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. 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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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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.Pp
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When starting up,
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.Nm
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reads in a configuration file to determine which logs may potentially
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be archived.
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By default, this configuration file is
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.Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf .
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Each line of the file contains information about a particular log file
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that should be handled by
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.Nm newsyslog .
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Each line has five mandatory fields and three optional fields, with a
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whitespace separating each field. Blank lines or lines beginning with
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``#'' are ignored. The fields of the configuration file are as
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follows:
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.Pp
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.Bl -tag -width indent
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.It Ar logfile_name
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Name of the system log file to be archived.
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.It Ar owner.group
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Specify the owner and group for the archive file.
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The "." is essential, even if the
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.Ar owner
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or
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.Ar group
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field is left blank. The field may be numeric, or a name which is
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present in
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.Pa /etc/passwd
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or
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.Pa /etc/group .
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.It Ar mode
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Specify the mode of the log file and archives.
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.It Ar count
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Specify the number of archive files to be kept
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besides the log file itself.
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.It Ar size
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When the size of the log file reaches
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.Ar size ,
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the log file will be trimmed as described above. If this field
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is replaced by an asterisk
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.Pq Ql \&* ,
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then the size of the log file is not taken into account
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when determining when to trim the log file.
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.It Ar when
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The
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.Ar when
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field can consist of an interval, a specific time, or both. If
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the
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.Ar when
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field is an asterisk
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.Pq Ql \&*
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log rotation will depend only on the contents of the
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.Ar size
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field.
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Otherwise, the
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.Ar when
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field consists of an optional interval in hours, optionally followed
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by an
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.So Li \&@ Sc Ns No -sign
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and a time in a restricted
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.Tn ISO 8601
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format. If a time is specified, the log file will only be trimmed
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if
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.Nm newsyslog
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is run within one hour of the specified time. If an
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interval is specified, the log file will be trimmed if that many hours have
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passed since the last rotation. When both a time and an interval are
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specified, both conditions must be satisfied for the rotation to take
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place.
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.Pp
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The particular format of the time is
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.Sm off
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.Oo
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.Oo
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.Oo
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.Oo
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.Oo
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.Va \&cc
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.Oc
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.Va \&yy
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.Oc
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.Va \&mm
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.Oc
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.Va \&dd
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.Oc
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.Oo
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.Li \&T
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.Oo
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.Va \&hh
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.Oo
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.Va \&mm
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.Oo
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.Va \&ss
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.Oc
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.Oc
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.Oc
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.Oc
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.Oc .
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.Sm on
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Optional date fields default to the appropriate component of the
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current date; optional time fields default to midnight; hence if today
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is January 22, 1999, the following date specifications are all
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equivalent:
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.Pp
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.Bl -item -compact -offset indent
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.It
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.Sq Li 19990122T000000
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.It
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.Sq Li 990122T000000
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.It
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.Sq Li 0122T000000
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.It
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.Sq Li 22T000000
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.It
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.Sq Li T000000
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.It
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.Sq Li T0000
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.It
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.Sq Li T00
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.It
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.Sq Li 22T
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.It
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.Sq Li \&T
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.It
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.Sq Li \&
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.El
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.Pp
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There is no provision for specification of a timezone. There is
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little point in specifying an explicit minutes or seconds component in
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the current implementation, since the only comparison is `within the
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hour'.
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.It Ar flags
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This optional field specifies if the archive should have any
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special processing done to the archived log files.
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The
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.Ar Z
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flag will make the archive files compress to save space by
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using
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.Xr gzip 1 .
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The
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.Ar B
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flag means that the file is a binary file, and so the
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.Tn ASCII
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message which
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.Nm
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inserts to indicate the fact that the logs have been
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turned over should not be included. The
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.Ar -
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flag means nothing, but can be used as a placeholder when the
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.Ar path_to_pid_file
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field is specified.
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.It Ar path_to_pid_file
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This optional field specifies
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the file name to read to find the daemon process id. If this
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field is present, a
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.Ar signal_number
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is sent the process id contained in this
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file. This field must start with "/" in order to be recognized
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properly.
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.It Ar signal_number
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This optional field specifies
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the signal number will be sent to the daemon process. By default
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a SIGHUP will be sent.
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.El
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.Sh OPTIONS
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The following options can be used with newsyslog:
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.Bl -tag -width indent
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.It Fl f Ar config_file
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Instruct newsyslog 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 v
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Place
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.Nm
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in verbose mode. 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. 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 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. 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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.El
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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 BUGS
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Doesn't yet automatically read the logs to find security breaches.
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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 "SEE ALSO"
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.Xr gzip 1 ,
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.Xr syslog 3 ,
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.Xr syslogd 8
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