newsyslog(8)
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NEWSYSLOG(8) NEWSYSLOG(8)
NAME
newsyslog - maintain system log files to manageable sizes
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/newsyslog [ -vnr ] [ -f configuration file ]
DESCRIPTION
Newsyslog is a program that should be scheduled to run
periodically by crontab. When it is executed it archives
log files if necessary. If a log file is determined to
require archiving, 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 com-
pressed to save space.
A log can be archived because of two reasons. The log
file can have grown bigger than a preset size in kilo-
bytes, or a preset number of hours may have elapsed since
the last log archive. The granularity of newsyslog is
dependent on how often it is scheduled to run in crontab.
Since the program is quite fast, it may be scheduled to
run every hour without any ill effects.
When starting up, newsyslog reads in a configuration file
to determine which logs should be looked at. By default,
this configuration file is /etc/newsyslog.conf. Each line
of the file contains information about a particular log
file that should be handled by 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 con-
figuration file are as follows:
logfile name
owner.group of archives (optional)
mode of logfile & archives
number of archives
size of archives
archive interval
flags (optional)
The logfile name entry is the name of the system log file
to be archived.
The optional owner.group entry specifies an ownership and
group for the archive file. The "." is essential, even if
the owner or group field is left blank. The fields may be
numeric, or a name which is looked up in /etc/passwd or
/etc/group.
The number of archives entry specifies the number of
archives to be kept besides the log file itself.
Project Athena January 12, 1989 1
NEWSYSLOG(8) NEWSYSLOG(8)
When the size of the logfile reaches size of archives, the
logfile becomes trimmed as described above. If this field
is replaced by a ``*'', then the size of the logfile is
not taken into account when determining when to trim the
log file.
The number of hours entry specifies the time separation
between the trimming of the log file. If this field is
replaced by a ``*'', the number of hours since the last
time the log was trimmed will not be taken into considera-
tion.
The flags field specifies if the archives should have any
special processing done to the archived log files. The
``Z'' flag will make the archive files compressed to save
space using /usr/bin/gzip. The ``B'' flag means that the
file is a binary file, and so the ascii message which
newsyslog inserts to indicate the fact that the logs have
been turned over should not be included.
OPTIONS
The following options can be used with newsyslog:
-f config-file
instructs newsyslog to use config-file instead of
/etc/newsyslog.conf for its configuration file.
-v places newsyslog in verbose mode. In this mode it
will print out each log and its reasons for either
trimming that log or skipping it.
-n causes newsyslog not to trim the logs, but to print
out what it would do if this option were not speci-
fied.
-r removes the restriction that newsyslog must be run-
ning as root. Of course, newsyslog will not be
able to send a HUP signal to syslogd, so this
option should only be used in debugging.
FILES
/etc/newsyslog.conf
BUGS
Doesn't yet automatically read the logs to find security
breaches.
AUTHOR
Theodore Ts'o, MIT Project Athena
Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Project Athena January 12, 1989 2
NEWSYSLOG(8) NEWSYSLOG(8)
SEE ALSO
syslogd(8), syslog(3), gzip(1)
Project Athena January 12, 1989 3
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