newsyslog man page on OpenBSD

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

NAME
     newsyslog - rotate log files

SYNOPSIS
     newsyslog [-Fmnrv] [-a directory] [-f config_file] [log ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The newsyslog utility rotates log files when they exceed a configurable
     size or age.  The log file is renamed to log.0 and an empty file is
     created in its place.  An archive of older logs may be kept: in order of
     increasing age, these files are named log.1, log.2, and so on.  When
     their number exceeds a given limit, the oldest is removed.	 The archived
     logs may also be compressed.

     The options are as follows:

     -a directory
	     Specify a directory into which archived log files will be
	     written.  If directory is a relative path, it is appended to the
	     parent directory of each log and the archived log is stored in
	     the result.  If an absolute path is given, all archived logs are
	     stored in the given directory.  If directory does not exist for a
	     specified log, it is ignored for that entry and the log is
	     rotated as if the -a option was not specified.

     -F	     Force newsyslog to trim logs regardless of the size and/or age
	     requirements specified in /etc/newsyslog.conf.  This option may
	     be combined with the -n or -v flags to aid in debugging problems
	     with /etc/newsyslog.conf.

     -f config_file
	     Use config_file instead of /etc/newsyslog.conf for the
	     configuration file.

     -m	     Monitoring mode; only entries marked with an `M' in flags are
	     processed.	 For each log file being monitored, any log output
	     since the last time newsyslog was run with the -m flag is mailed
	     to the user listed in the monitor notification section.

     -n	     Do not trim the logs, but instead print out what would be done if
	     this option were not specified.

     -r	     Removes the restriction that newsyslog must be running as root.
	     Note that in this mode newsyslog will not be able to send a
	     SIGHUP signal to syslogd(8).

     -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.

     In the default system configuration, newsyslog is run by cron(8), but it
     may also be run manually.	If one or more log files are specified on the
     command line, only the specified files are rotated.  Note that each log
     specified must have an entry in /etc/newsyslog.conf.

     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 whitespace
     separating each field.  Blank lines or lines beginning with a hash mark
     (`#') are ignored.	 The fields of the configuration file are as follows:

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

     owner:group       This optional field specifies the owner 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.  For backwards
		       compatibility, a `.' may be used instead of a `:'.  If
		       either owner or group is not specified, the owner
		       and/or group of the existing log file is used.

     mode	       File mode (in octal) to use for created log files and
		       archives.

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

     size	       When the size of the log file (in kilobytes) reaches
		       this point, the log file is trimmed as described above.
		       If this field is replaced by an `*', or set to `0',
		       then the size of the log file is not taken into account
		       when determining when to trim the log file.  By
		       default, files smaller than 512 bytes are not rotated
		       unless the `B' (binary) flag is set or the -F option is
		       specified.  This prevents newsyslog from rotating files
		       consisting solely of a message indicating that the log
		       file has been turned over.

     when	       The when field can consist of an interval, a specific
		       time, or both.  If the when field consists of an
		       asterisk (`*'), log rotation will depend only on the
		       contents of the size field.  Otherwise, the when field
		       consists of an optional interval in hours, possibly
		       followed by an `@'-sign and a time in a restricted ISO
		       8601 format or by a `$'-sign and a time specification
		       for logfile rotation at a fixed time once per day, per
		       week or per month.

		       If a time is specified, the log file will only be
		       trimmed if newsyslog 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, both conditions must be
		       satisfied for the rotation to take place.

		       There is no provision for the specification of a time
		       zone.  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 restricted 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.
		       For example, 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 specification is a `$'-sign.
		       The particular format of day, week and month
		       specification is: [Dhh], [Ww[Dhh]] and [Mdd[Dhh]],
		       respectively.  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 the
				     letter 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 hr (same as
				     @T23)
			     $W0D23  rotate every week on Sunday at 23:00 hr
			     $W5D16  rotate every week on Friday at 16:00 hr
			     $M1D0   rotate on 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 the month at
				     6:00 hr (same as @05T06)

     flags	       The optional 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.  The `F' flag specifies that symbolic links
		       should be followed.

     monitor	       Specify the username (or email address) 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 monitored.  This field is only
		       valid when the `M' flag is set.

     pid_file	       This optional field specifies a file containing the PID
		       of a process to send a signal (usually SIGHUP) to
		       instead of /var/run/syslog.pid.

     signal	       Specify the signal to send to the process instead of
		       SIGHUP.	Signal names must start with ``SIG'' and be
		       the signal name, not the number, e.g., SIGUSR1.

     command	       This optional field specifies a command to run instead
		       of sending a signal to the process.  The command must
		       be enclosed in double quotes (`"').  The empty string,
		       `""', can be used to prevent newsyslog from sending a
		       signal or running a command.  You cannot specify both a
		       command and a PID file.	NOTE: If you specify a command
		       to be run, newsyslog will not send a SIGHUP to
		       syslogd(8).

FILES
     /etc/newsyslog.conf  default configuration file

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

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

OpenBSD 4.9		       November 28, 2009		   OpenBSD 4.9
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