Ubuntu Manpage: closelog, openlog, syslog, vsyslog - send messages to the system logger

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NAME

       closelog, openlog, syslog, vsyslog - send messages to the system logger

SYNOPSIS

       #include <syslog.h>

       void openlog(const char *ident, int option, int facility);
       void syslog(int priority, const char *format, ...);
       void closelog(void);

       #include <stdarg.h>

       void vsyslog(int priority, const char *format, va_list ap);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       vsyslog(): _BSD_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

closelog() closes the descriptor being used to write to the system logger. The use of
closelog() is optional.

openlog() opens a connection to the system logger for a program. The string pointed to by
ident is prepended to every message, and is typically set to the program name. If ident
is NULL, the program name is used. (POSIX.1-2008 does not specify the behavior when ident
is NULL.)

The option argument specifies flags which control the operation of openlog() and
subsequent calls to syslog(). The facility argument establishes a default to be used if
none is specified in subsequent calls to syslog(). Values for option and facility are
given below. The use of openlog() is optional; it will automatically be called by
syslog() if necessary, in which case ident will default to NULL.

syslog() generates a log message, which will be distributed by syslogd(8). The priority
argument is formed by ORing the facility and the level values (explained below). The
remaining arguments are a format, as in printf(3) and any arguments required by the
format, except that the two character sequence %m will be replaced by the error message
string strerror(errno). A trailing newline may be added if needed.

The function vsyslog() performs the same task as syslog() with the difference that it
takes a set of arguments which have been obtained using the stdarg(3) variable argument
list macros.

The subsections below list the parameters used to set the values of option, facility, and
priority.

option
The option argument to openlog() is an OR of any of these:

LOG_CONS Write directly to system console if there is an error while sending to
system logger.

LOG_NDELAY Open the connection immediately (normally, the connection is opened when
the first message is logged).

LOG_NOWAIT Don't wait for child processes that may have been created while logging the
message. (The GNU C library does not create a child process, so this
option has no effect on Linux.)

LOG_ODELAY The converse of LOG_NDELAY; opening of the connection is delayed until
syslog() is called. (This is the default, and need not be specified.)

LOG_PERROR (Not in POSIX.1-2001 or POSIX.1-2008.) Print to stderr as well.

LOG_PID Include PID with each message.

facility
The facility argument is used to specify what type of program is logging the message.
This lets the configuration file specify that messages from different facilities will be
handled differently.

LOG_AUTH security/authorization messages

LOG_AUTHPRIV security/authorization messages (private)

LOG_CRON clock daemon (cron and at)

LOG_DAEMON system daemons without separate facility value

LOG_FTP ftp daemon

LOG_KERN kernel messages (these can't be generated from user processes)

LOG_LOCAL0 through LOG_LOCAL7
reserved for local use

LOG_LPR line printer subsystem

LOG_MAIL mail subsystem

LOG_NEWS USENET news subsystem

LOG_SYSLOG messages generated internally by syslogd(8)

LOG_USER (default)
generic user-level messages

LOG_UUCP UUCP subsystem

level
This determines the importance of the message. The levels are, in order of decreasing
importance:

LOG_EMERG system is unusable

LOG_ALERT action must be taken immediately

LOG_CRIT critical conditions

LOG_ERR error conditions

LOG_WARNING warning conditions

LOG_NOTICE normal, but significant, condition

LOG_INFO informational message

LOG_DEBUG debug-level message

The function setlogmask(3) can be used to restrict logging to specified levels only.

CONFORMING TO

       The functions openlog(), closelog(), and syslog() (but not  vsyslog())  are  specified  in
       SUSv2,  POSIX.1-2001,  and  POSIX.1-2008.   POSIX.1-2001  specifies  only the LOG_USER and
       LOG_LOCAL* values for facility.  However, with the exception of LOG_AUTHPRIV and  LOG_FTP,
       the other facility values appear on most UNIX systems.  The LOG_PERROR value for option is
       not specified by POSIX.1-2001 or POSIX.1-2008, but is available in most versions of UNIX.

NOTES

       The argument ident in the call of openlog() is probably stored as-is.  Thus, if the string
       it  points  to  is  changed,  syslog() may start prepending the changed string, and if the
       string it points to ceases to exist, the results are undefined.  Most portable is to use a
       string constant.

       Never pass a string with user-supplied data as a format, use the following instead:

           syslog(priority, "%s", string);

COLOPHON