1 .\" This file contains changes from the Open Software Foundation.
3 .\" from: @(#)newsyslog.8
6 .\" Copyright 1988, 1989 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software
9 .\" and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is
10 .\" hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice
11 .\" appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and
12 .\" this permission notice appear in supporting documentation,
13 .\" and that the names of M.I.T. and the M.I.T. S.I.P.B. not be
14 .\" used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution
15 .\" of the software without specific, written prior permission.
16 .\" M.I.T. and the M.I.T. S.I.P.B. make no representations about
17 .\" the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is
18 .\" provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
25 .Nd maintain system log files to manageable sizes
33 .Op Fl f Ar config_file
39 utility should be scheduled to run periodically by
41 When it is executed it archives log files if necessary.
43 is determined to require archiving,
45 rearranges the files so that
48 .Dq Va logfile Ns Li \&.0
50 the last period's logs in it,
51 .Dq Va logfile Ns Li \&.1
53 period's logs in it, and so on, up to a user-specified number of
55 It is also possible to let archived log filenames be created using the
56 time the log file was archived instead of the sequential number using
60 Optionally the archived logs can be compressed to save
63 A log can be archived for three reasons:
64 .Bl -enum -offset indent
66 It is larger than the configured size (in kilobytes).
68 A configured number of hours have elapsed since the log was last
71 This is the specific configured hour for rotation of the log.
76 is dependent on how often it is scheduled to run by
78 Since the program is quite fast, it may be scheduled to run every hour
79 without any ill effects,
80 and mode three (above) assumes that this is so.
82 The following options can be used with
84 .Bl -tag -width indent
85 .It Fl f Ar config_file
91 .Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf
92 for its configuration file.
96 into which archived log files will be written.
97 If a relative path is given,
98 it is appended to the path of each log file
99 and the resulting path is used as the directory
100 into which the archived log for that log file will be written.
101 If an absolute path is given,
102 all archived logs are written into the given
104 If any component of the path
107 it will be created when
110 .It Fl d Ar directory
113 which all log files will be relative to.
114 To allow archiving of logs outside the root, the
118 option is unaffected.
123 In this mode it will print out each log and its
124 reasons for either trimming that log or skipping it.
128 not to trim the logs, but to print out what it would do if this option
131 Remove the restriction that
133 must be running as root.
136 will not be able to send a HUP signal to
138 so this option should only be used in debugging.
142 should not send any signals to any daemon processes that it would
143 normally signal when rotating a log file.
144 For any log file which is rotated, this option will usually also
145 mean the rotated log file will not be compressed if there is a
146 daemon which would have been signalled without this option.
147 However, this option is most likely to be useful when specified
150 option, and in that case the compression will be done.
156 logfiles using the specified time format instead of the default
157 sequential filenames.
158 The time format is described in the
163 argument is set to an empty string or the string
165 the default built in time format
169 string is changed the old files created using the previous time format
170 will not be be automatically removed (unless the new format is very
171 similar to the old format).
172 This is also the case when changing from sequential filenames to time
173 based file names, and the other way around.
174 The time format should contain at least year, month, day, and hour to
175 make sure rotating of old logfiles can select the correct logfiles.
177 If specified once, then
179 will create any log files which do not exist, and which have the
181 flag specified in their config file entry.
182 If specified multiple times, then
184 will create all log files which do not already exist.
185 If log files are given on the command-line, then the
189 will only apply to those specific log files.
193 to trim the logs, even if the trim conditions have not been met.
195 option is useful for diagnosing system problems by providing you with
196 fresh logs that contain only the problems.
198 Do not perform any rotations.
199 This option is intended to be used with the
203 options when creating log files is the only objective.
205 Prevent further action if we should send signal but the
207 is empty or does not exist.
211 should rotate a given list of files, even if trim conditions are not
215 is only used in the messages written to the log files which are
217 This differs from the
219 option in that one or more log files must also be specified, so that
221 will only operate on those specific files.
222 This option is mainly intended for the daemons or programs which write
223 some log files, and want to trigger a rotate based on their own criteria.
224 With this option they can execute
226 to trigger the rotate when they want it to happen, and still give the
227 system administrator a way to specify the rules of rotation (such as how
228 many backup copies are kept, and what kind of compression is done).
229 When a daemon does execute
233 option, it should make sure all of the log files are closed before
236 and then it should re-open the files after
239 Usually the calling process will also want to specify the
243 will not send a signal to the very process which called it to force
245 Skipping the signal step will also mean that
247 will return faster, since
249 normally waits a few seconds after any signal that is sent.
258 If additional command line arguments are given,
260 will only examine log files that match those arguments; otherwise, it
261 will examine all files listed in the configuration file.
263 .Bl -tag -width /etc/newsyslog.confxxxx -compact
264 .It Pa /etc/newsyslog.conf
269 Previous versions of the
271 utility used the dot (``.'') character to
272 distinguish the group name.
275 this has been changed to a colon (``:'') character so that user and group
276 names may contain the dot character.
277 The dot (``.'') character is still
278 accepted for backwards compatibility.
283 .Xr newsyslog.conf 5 ,
289 utility originated from
291 and first appeared in
297 Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
299 Does not yet automatically read the logs to find security breaches.