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newsyslog(8)

NAME

     newsyslog -- maintain system log files to manageable sizes

SYNOPSIS

     newsyslog [-CFnrsv] [-R tagname] [-a directory] [-f config_file]
	       [file ...]

DESCRIPTION

     The newsyslog utility 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 for three reasons:

	   1.	It is larger than the configured size (in kilobytes).

	   2.	A configured number of hours have elapsed since the log was
		last archived.

	   3.	This is the specific configured hour for rotation of the log.

     The granularity of newsyslog is dependent on how often it is scheduled to
     run by cron(8).  Since the program is quite fast, it may be scheduled to
     run every hour without any ill effects, and mode three (above) assumes
     that this is so.

OPTIONS

     The following options can be used with newsyslog:

     -f config_file
	     Instruct newsyslog to use config_file instead of
	     /etc/newsyslog.conf for its configuration file.

     -a directory
	     Specify a directory into which archived log files will be writ-
	     ten.  If a relative path is given, it is appended to the path of
	     each log file and the resulting path is used as the directory
	     into which the archived log for that log file will be written.
	     If an absolute path is given, all archived logs are written into
	     the given directory.  If any component of the path directory does
	     not exist, it will be created when newsyslog is run.

     -v      Place 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      Cause newsyslog not to trim the logs, but to print out what it
	     would do if this option were not specified.

     -r      Remove 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.

     -C      If specified once, then newsyslog will create any log files which
	     do not exist, and which have the C flag specified in their config
	     file entry.  If specified multiple times, then newsyslog will
	     create all log files which do not already exist.  If log files
	     are given on the command-line, then the -C or -CC will only apply
	     to those specific log files.

     -F      Force newsyslog to trim the logs, even if the trim conditions
	     have not been met.  This option is useful for diagnosing system
	     problems by providing you with fresh logs that contain only the
	     problems.

     -R tagname
	     Specify that newsyslog should rotate a given list of files, even
	     if trim conditions are not met for those files.  The tagname is
	     only used in the messages written to the log files which are
	     rotated.  This differs from the -F option in that one or more log
	     files must also be specified, so that newsyslog will only operate
	     on those specific files.  This option is mainly intended for the
	     daemons or programs which write some log files, and want to trig-
	     ger a rotate based on their own criteria.	With this option they
	     can execute newsyslog to trigger the rotate when they want it to
	     happen, and still give the system administrator a way to specify
	     the rules of rotation (such as how many backup copies are kept,
	     and what kind of compression is done).  When a daemon does exe-
	     cute newsyslog with the -R option, it should make sure all of the
	     log files are closed before calling newsyslog, and then it should
	     re-open the files after newsyslog returns.  Usually the calling
	     process will also want to specify the -s option, so newsyslog
	     will not send a signal to the very process which called it to
	     force the rotate.	Skipping the signal step will also mean that
	     newsyslog will return faster, since newsyslog normally waits a
	     few seconds after any signal that is sent.

     If additional command line arguments are given, newsyslog will only exam-
     ine log files that match those arguments; otherwise, it will examine all
     files listed in the configuration file.

FILES

     /etc/newsyslog.conf      newsyslog configuration file

BUGS

     Doesn't yet automatically read the logs to find security breaches.

AUTHORS

     Theodore Ts'o, MIT Project Athena

     Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

COMPATIBILITY

     Previous versions of the newsyslog utility used the dot (``.'') character
     to distinguish the group name.  Beginning with FreeBSD 3.3, this has been
     changed to a colon (``:'') character so that user and group names may
     contain the dot character.  The dot (``.'') character is still accepted
     for backwards compatibility.

SEE ALSO

     bzip(1), gzip(1), syslog(3), newsyslog.conf(5), chown(8), syslogd(8)

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