NEWSYSLOG(8)            OpenBSD System Manager's Manual           NEWSYSLOG(8)

NAME
     newsyslog - maintain system log files to manageable sizes



SYNOPSIS
     /usr/bin/newsyslog [-vmnr] [-f configuration file]

DESCRIPTION
     Newsyslog is a program that should be scheduled to run periodically by
     cron(8).  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 compressed to save space.

     A log can be archived because of two reasons.  The log file can have
     grown bigger than a preset size in kilobytes, 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 cron(8).
     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 up to three optional fields, with a whitespace
     separating each field.  Blank lines or lines beginning with ``#'' are ig-
     nored.  The fields of the configuration file are as follows:

     logfile name      The full pathname of the system log file to be
                       archived.

     owner.group of archives (optional)
                       Specify 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 the system password and group
                       databases.

     mode of logfile & archives
                       Octal mode of created log files and archives.

     number of archives
                       Specify the number of archives to be kept besides the
                       log file itself.

     size of archives  When the size of the log file reaches this point, the
                       log file becomes trimmed as described above.  If this
                       field is replaced by a ``*'', then the size of the log
                       file is not taken into account when determining when to
                       trim the log file.

     archive interval  Specify 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 consideration.

     flags (optional)  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 gzip(1) or compress(1),  depending
                       on compilation options.  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.  The
                       ``M'' flag marks this entry as a monitored log file.

     monitor notification (optional)
                       Specify the account that should receive notification
                       messages if this is a monitored log file.  Notification
                       messages are sent as email; the operator deserves what
                       they get if they mark the sendmail(8) log file as moni-
                       tored.

OPTIONS
     The following options can be used with newsyslog:

     -f config-file
          instructs newsyslog to use config-file instead of /etc/newsys-
          log.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 specified.

     -r   removes the restriction that newsyslog must be running as root.  Of
          course, newsyslog will not be able to send a HUP signal to
          syslogd(8),  so this option should only be used in debugging.

     -m   places newsyslog in monitoring mode; only entries marked with an
          ``M'' in flags are processed, and notifications sent if any have
          changed.  Without this option, monitored entries are not processed.

FILES
     /etc/newsyslog.conf  Default configuration file.

SEE ALSO
     gzip(1),  compress(1),  syslog(3),  syslogd(8).

AUTHOR
           Theodore Ts'o, MIT Project Athena
           Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

OpenBSD                          July 7, 1997                                2