Ubuntu Manpage: syslog-ng - syslog-ng system logger application

Provided by: syslog-ng-core_3.5.6-2.1_amd64

NAME

       syslog-ng - syslog-ng system logger application

SYNOPSIS

       syslog-ng [options]

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page is only an abstract; for the complete documentation of syslog-ng, see The
       syslog-ng Open Source Edition Administrator Guide[1] or the official syslog-ng website[2].

       The syslog-ng OSE application is a flexible and highly scalable system logging
       application. Typically, syslog-ng is used to manage log messages and implement centralized
       logging, where the aim is to collect the log messages of several devices on a single,
       central log server. The different devices - called syslog-ng clients - all run syslog-ng,
       and collect the log messages from the various applications, files, and other sources. The
       clients send all important log messages to the remote syslog-ng server, where the server
       sorts and stores them.

OPTIONS

--cfgfile <file> or -f <file>
Use the specified configuration file.

--chroot <dir> or -C <dir>
Change root to the specified directory. The configuration file is read after chrooting
so, the configuration file must be available within the chroot. That way it is also
possible to reload the syslog-ng configuration after chrooting. However, note that the
--user and --group options are resolved before chrooting.

--debug or -d
Start syslog-ng in debug mode.

--default-modules
A comma-separated list of the modules that are loaded automatically. Modules not
loaded automatically can be loaded by including the @module <modulename> statement in
the syslog-ng OSE configuration file. The following modules are loaded by default:
affile, afprog, afsocket, afuser, basicfuncs, csvparser, dbparser, syslogformat,
afsql. Available only in syslog-ng Open Source Edition 3.3 and later.

--enable-core
Enable syslog-ng to write core files in case of a crash to help support and debugging.

--fd-limit <number>
Set the minimal number of required file descriptors (fd-s); this sets how many files
syslog-ng can keep open simultaneously. Default value: 4096. Note that this does not
override the global ulimit setting of the host.

--foreground or -F
Do not daemonize, run in the foreground.

--group <group> or -g <group>
Switch to the specified group after initializing the configuration file.

--help or -h
Display a brief help message.

--module-registry
Display the list and description of the available modules. Note that not all of these
modules are loaded automatically, only the ones specified in the --default-modules
option. Available only in syslog-ng Open Source Edition 3.3 and later.

--no-caps
Run syslog-ng as root, without capability-support. This is the default behavior. On
Linux, it is possible to run syslog-ng as non-root with capability-support if
syslog-ng was compiled with the --enable-linux-caps option enabled. (Execute syslog-ng
--version to display the list of enabled build parameters.)

--persist-file <persist-file> or -R <persist-file>
Set the path and name of the syslog-ng.persist file where the persistent options and
data are stored.

--pidfile <pidfile> or -p <pidfile>
Set path to the PID file where the pid of the main process is stored.

--preprocess-into <output-file>
After processing the configuration file and resolving included files and variables,
write the resulting configuration into the specified output file. Available only in
syslog-ng Open Source Edition 3.3 and later.

--process-mode <mode>
Sets how to run syslog-ng: in the foreground (mainly used for debugging), in the
background as a daemon, or in safe-background mode. By default, syslog-ng runs in
safe-background mode. This mode creates a supervisor process called supervising
syslog-ng , that restarts syslog-ng if it crashes.

--stderr or -e
Log internal messages of syslog-ng to stderr. Mainly used for debugging purposes in
conjunction with the --foreground option. If not specified, syslog-ng will log such
messages to its internal source.

--syntax-only or -s
Verify that the configuration file is syntactically correct and exit.

--user <user> or -u <user>
Switch to the specified user after initializing the configuration file (and optionally
chrooting). Note that it is not possible to reload the syslog-ng configuration if the
specified user has no privilege to create the /dev/log file.

--verbose or -v
Enable verbose logging used to troubleshoot syslog-ng.

--version or -V
Display version number and compilation information, and also the list and short
description of the available modules. For detailed description of the available
modules, see the --module-registry option. Note that not all of these modules are
loaded automatically, only the ones specified in the --default-modules option.

--worker-threads
Sets the number of worker threads syslog-ng OSE can use, including the main syslog-ng
OSE thread. Note that certain operations in syslog-ng OSE can use threads that are not
limited by this option. This setting has effect only when syslog-ng OSE is running in
multithreaded mode. Available only in syslog-ng Open Source Edition 3.3 and later. See
The syslog-ng Open Source Edition 3.3 Administrator Guide for details.

FILES

       /usr/

       /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf

AUTHOR

       This manual page was written by the BalaBit Documentation Team
       <documentation@balabit.com>.

COPYRIGHT


       The authors grant permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this manual page under the
       terms of the GNU General Public License Version 2 or newer (GPL v2+).

NOTES

        1. The syslog-ng Open Source Edition Administrator Guide
           http://www.balabit.com/support/documentation/

        2. the official syslog-ng website
           http://www.balabit.com/network-security/syslog-ng/

        3. visit the syslog-ng wiki
           http://www.balabit.com/wiki/syslog-ng-faq

        4. syslog-ng mailing list
           https://lists.balabit.hu/mailman/listinfo/syslog-ng

        5. syslog-ng Insider Blog
           http://insider.blogs.balabit.com