newsyslog.conf(5)

NAME

newsyslog.conf - newsyslog(8) configuration file

DESCRIPTION

The newsyslog.conf file is used to set log file rotation

configuration
for the newsyslog(8) utility. Configuration may designate

that logs are
rotated based on size, last rotation time, or time of day.

The
newsyslog.conf file can also be used to designate secure

permissions to
log files at rotation time. During initialization, newsys

log(8) reads a
configuration file, normally /etc/newsyslog.conf, to deter

mine which logs
may potentially be rotated and archived. Each line has five

mandatory
fields and four optional fields, separated with whitespace.

Blank lines
or lines beginning with `#' are ignored. If `#' is placed

in the middle
of the line, the `#' character and the rest of the line af

ter it is
ignored. To prevent special meaning, the `#' character may

be escaped
with `´; in this case preceding `´ is removed and `#' is

treated as
an ordinary character. The fields of the configuration file

are as follows:

logfile_name

Name of the system log file to be archived, or the

literal string
``<default>''. The special default entry will only

be used if a
log file name is given as a command line argument to
newsyslog(8), and if that log file name is not

matched by any
other line in the configuration file.

owner:group

This optional field specifies the owner and group

for the archive
file. The `:' is essential regardless if the owner

or group
field is left blank or contains a value. The field

may be
numeric, or a name which is present in /etc/passwd

or /etc/group.

mode Specify the file mode of the log file and archives.

count Specify the maximum number of archive files which

may exist.

This does not consider the current log file.

size When the size of the log file reaches size in kilo

bytes, the log

file will be trimmed as described above. If this

field contains
an asterisk (`*'), the log file will not be trimmed

based on
size.

when The when field may consist of an interval, a specif

ic time, or

both. If the when field contains an asterisk (`*'),

log rotation
will solely depend on the contents of the size

field. Otherwise,
the when field consists of an optional interval in

hours, usually
followed by an `@'-sign and a time in restricted ISO

8601 format.
Additionally, the format may also be constructed

with a `$' sign
along with a rotation time specification of once a

day, once a
week, or once a month.

If a time is specified, the log file will only be

trimmed if
newsyslog(8) is run within one hour of the specified

time. If an
interval is specified, the log file will be trimmed

if that many
hours have passed since the last rotation. When

both a time and
an interval are specified then both conditions must

be satisfied
for the rotation to take place.

There is no provision for the specification of a

timezone. There
is little point in specifying an explicit minutes or

seconds component in the current implementation, since the only

comparison
is ``within the hour''.

ISO 8601 restricted time format:

The lead-in character for a restricted ISO 8601 time

is an `@'
sign. The particular format of the time in re

stricted ISO 8601
is: [[[[[cc]yy]mm]dd][T[hh[mm[ss]]]]]. Optional

date fields
default to the appropriate component of the current

date;
optional time fields default to midnight; hence if

today is January 22, 1999, the following date specifications are

all equivalent:

`19990122T000000'
`990122T000000'
`0122T000000'
`22T000000'
`T000000'
`T0000'
`T00'
`22T'
`T'
`'

Day, week, and month time format:

The lead-in character for day, week, and month spec

ification is a
`$' sign. The particular format of day, week, and

month specification is: [Dhh], [Ww[Dhh]], and [Mdd[Dhh]], respec

tively.
Optional time fields default to midnight. The

ranges for day and
hour specifications are:

hh hours, range 0..23
w day of week, range 0..6, 0 = Sunday
dd day of month, range 1..31, or one of

the letters

`L' or `l' to specify the last day of

the month.

Some examples:

$D0 rotate every night at midnight (same

as @T00)
$D23 rotate every day at 23:00 (same as

@T23)
$W0D23 rotate every week on Sunday at 23:00
$W5D16 rotate every week on Friday at 16:00
$M1D0 rotate at the first day of every month

at midnight

(i.e., the start of the day; same as

@01T00)

$M5D6 rotate on every 5th day of month at

6:00 (same as

@05T06)

flags This optional field is made up of one or more char

acters that

specify any special processing to be done for the

log files
matched by this line. The following are valid

flags:

B indicates that the log file is a binary

file, or has some

special format. Usually newsyslog(8) in

serts an ASCII
message into a log file during rotation.

This message is
used to indicate when, and sometimes why the

log file was
rotated. If B is specified, then that in

formational message will not be inserted into the log file.

C indicates that the log file should be creat

ed if it does

not already exist, and if the -C option was

also specified on the command line.

D indicates that newsyslog(8) should set the

UF_NODUMP flag

when creating a new version of this log

file. This
option would effect how the dump(8) command

treats the
log file when making a file system backup.

G indicates that the specified logfile_name is

a shell pat

tern, and that newsyslog(8) should archive

all filenames
matching that pattern using the other op

tions on this
line. See glob(3) for details on syntax and

matching
rules.

J indicates that newsyslog(8) should attempt

to save disk

space by compressing the rotated log file

using bzip2(1).

N indicates that there is no process which

needs to be sig

naled when this log file is rotated.

U indicates that the file specified by

path_to_pid_file

will contain the ID for a process group in

stead of a process. This option also requires that the

first line in
that file be a negative value to distinguish

it from a
process ID.

W if used with the Z or J flag, this indicates

that

newsyslog(8) should wait for previously

started compression jobs to complete before starting a new

one for this
entry. If this is used with the G flag and

if multiple
log files match the given pattern, then

newsyslog(8) will
compress those logs one by one. This en

sures that only
one compression job is running at a time.

Z indicates that newsyslog(8) should attempt

to save disk

space by compressing the rotated log file

using gzip(1).

- a minus sign will not cause any special pro

cessing, but

it can be used as a placeholder to create a

flags field
when you need to specify any of the follow

ing fields.

path_to_pid_file

This optional field specifies the file name contain

ing a daemon's
process ID or to find a group process ID if the U

flag was specified. If this field is present, a signal_number is

sent the process ID contained in this file. If this field is

not present,
then a SIGHUP signal will be sent to syslogd(8), un

less the N
flag has been specified. This field must start with

`/' in order
to be recognized properly.

signal_number

This optional field specifies the signal number that

will be sent
to the daemon process (or to all processes in a pro

cess group, if
the U flag was specified). If this field is not

present, then a
SIGHUP signal will be sent.

SEE ALSO

bzip2(1), gzip(1), syslog(3), chown(8), newsyslog(8), sys

logd(8)

HISTORY

This manual page first appeared in FreeBSD 4.10.

BSD June 3, 2004

BSD