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); |
![[Note]](../stylesheet/note.png) |
Note | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
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. 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 lists 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 untilsyslog() is called. (This is the default, and need not be specified.) LOG_PERROR-
(Not in POSIX.1-2001.) Print to
stderras 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 (DEPRECATED Use
LOG_AUTHPRIVinstead) 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
LOG_LOCAL0throughLOG_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 and
POSIX.1-2001. 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, but is available in most
versions of Unix.
NOTES
The parameter 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
This page is part of release 2.79 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting
bugs, can be found at
http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
|
Written Feb 1994 by Steve Greenland (stevegrneosoft.com) Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date. The author(s) assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. The author(s) may not have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual, which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working professionally. Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work. Updated 1999.12.19 by Karl M. Hegbloom <karlhegdebian.org> Updated 13 Oct 2001, Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpagesgmail.com> Added description of vsyslog Added descriptions of LOG_ODELAY and LOG_NOWAIT Added brief description of facility and option arguments Added CONFORMING TO section 2001-10-13, aeb, minor changes Modified 13 Dec 2001, Martin Schulze <joeyinfodrom.org> Modified 3 Jan 2002, Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpagesgmail.com> |