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32 .\" @(#)syslog.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33 .\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/gen/syslog.3,v 1.22 2001/10/01 16:08:51 ru Exp $
34 .\"
35 .Dd June 4, 1993
36 .Dt SYSLOG 3
37 .Os
38 .Sh NAME
39 .Nm closelog ,
40 .Nm openlog ,
41 .Nm setlogmask ,
42 .Nm syslog ,
43 .Nm vsyslog
44 .Nd control system log
45 .Sh LIBRARY
46 .Lb libc
47 .Sh SYNOPSIS
48 .In syslog.h
49 .Ft void
50 .Fo closelog
51 .Fa void
52 .Fc
53 .Ft void
54 .Fo openlog
55 .Fa "const char *ident"
56 .Fa "int logopt"
57 .Fa "int facility"
58 .Fc
59 .Ft int
60 .Fo setlogmask
61 .Fa "int maskpri"
62 .Fc
63 .Ft void
64 .Fo syslog
65 .Fa "int priority"
66 .Fa "const char *message"
67 .Fa "..."
68 .Fc
69 .In syslog.h
70 .In stdarg.h
71 .Ft void
72 .Fo vsyslog
73 .Fa "int priority"
74 .Fa "const char *message"
75 .Fa "va_list args"
76 .Fc
77 .Sh DESCRIPTION
78 The
79 .Fn syslog
80 function
81 writes
82 .Fa message
83 to the system message logger.
84 The message is then written to the system console, log files,
85 logged-in users, or forwarded to other machines as appropriate.
86 (See
87 .Xr syslogd 8 . )
88 .Pp
89 The message is identical to a
90 .Xr printf 3
91 format string, except that
92 .Ql %m
93 is replaced by the current error
94 message.
95 (As denoted by the global variable
96 .Va errno ;
97 see
98 .Xr strerror 3 . )
99 A trailing newline is added if none is present.
100 .Pp
101 Newlines and other non-printable characters embedded in the message string are printed in an alternate format.
102 This prevents someone from using non-printable characters to construct misleading log messages in an output file.
103 Newlines are printed as "\\n",
104 tabs are printed as "\\t".
105 Other control characters are printed using a caret ("^") representation, for example "^M" for carriage return.
106 .Pp
107 The
108 .Fn vsyslog
109 function
110 is an alternate form in which the arguments have already been captured
111 using the variable-length argument facilities of
112 .Xr stdarg 3 .
113 .Pp
114 The message is tagged with
115 .Fa priority .
116 Priorities are encoded as a
117 .Fa facility
118 and a
119 .Em level .
120 The facility describes the part of the system
121 generating the message.
122 The level is selected from the following
123 .Em ordered
124 (high to low) list:
125 .Bl -tag -width LOG_AUTHPRIV
126 .It Dv LOG_EMERG
127 A panic condition.
128 This is normally broadcast to all users.
129 .It Dv LOG_ALERT
130 A condition that should be corrected immediately, such as a corrupted
131 system database.
132 .It Dv LOG_CRIT
133 Critical conditions, e.g., hard device errors.
134 .It Dv LOG_ERR
135 Errors.
136 .It Dv LOG_WARNING
137 Warning messages.
138 .It Dv LOG_NOTICE
139 Conditions that are not error conditions,
140 but should possibly be handled specially.
141 .It Dv LOG_INFO
142 Informational messages.
143 .It Dv LOG_DEBUG
144 Messages that contain information
145 normally of use only when debugging a program.
146 .El
147 .Pp
148 The
149 .Fn openlog
150 function
151 provides for more specialized processing of the messages sent
152 by
153 .Fn syslog
154 and
155 .Fn vsyslog .
156 The parameter
157 .Fa ident
158 is a string that will be prepended to every message.
159 The
160 .Fa logopt
161 argument
162 is a bit field specifying logging options, which is formed by
163 .Tn OR Ns 'ing
164 one or more of the following values:
165 .Bl -tag -width LOG_AUTHPRIV
166 .It Dv LOG_CONS
167 If
168 .Fn syslog
169 cannot pass the message to
170 .Xr syslogd 8
171 it will attempt to write the message to the console
172 .Pq Dq Pa /dev/console .
173 .It Dv LOG_NDELAY
174 Open the connection to
175 .Xr syslogd 8
176 immediately.
177 Normally the open is delayed until the first message is logged.
178 Useful for programs that need to manage the order in which file
179 descriptors are allocated.
180 .It Dv LOG_PERROR
181 Write the message to standard error output as well to the system log.
182 .It Dv LOG_PID
183 Log the process id with each message: useful for identifying
184 instantiations of daemons.
185 .El
186 .Pp
187 The
188 .Fa facility
189 parameter encodes a default facility to be assigned to all messages
190 that do not have an explicit facility encoded:
191 .Bl -tag -width LOG_AUTHPRIV
192 .It Dv LOG_AUTH
193 The authorization system:
194 .Xr login 1 ,
195 .Xr su 1 ,
196 .Xr getty 8 ,
197 etc.
198 .It Dv LOG_AUTHPRIV
199 The same as
200 .Dv LOG_AUTH ,
201 but logged to a file readable only by
202 selected individuals.
203 .It Dv LOG_CRON
204 The cron daemon:
205 .Xr cron 8 .
206 .It Dv LOG_DAEMON
207 System daemons, such as
208 .Xr routed 8 ,
209 that are not provided for explicitly by other facilities.
210 .It Dv LOG_FTP
211 The file transfer protocol daemons:
212 .Xr ftpd 8 ,
213 .Xr tftpd 8 .
214 .It Dv LOG_KERN
215 Messages generated by the kernel.
216 These cannot be generated by any user processes.
217 .It Dv LOG_LPR
218 The line printer spooling system:
219 .Xr cups-lpd 8 ,
220 .Xr cupsd 8 ,
221 etc.
222 .It Dv LOG_MAIL
223 The mail system.
224 .It Dv LOG_NEWS
225 The network news system.
226 .It Dv LOG_SECURITY
227 Security subsystems, such as
228 .Xr ipfw 4 .
229 .It Dv LOG_SYSLOG
230 Messages generated internally by
231 .Xr syslogd 8 .
232 .It Dv LOG_USER
233 Messages generated by random user processes.
234 This is the default facility identifier if none is specified.
235 .It Dv LOG_UUCP
236 The uucp system.
237 .It Dv LOG_LOCAL0
238 Reserved for local use.
239 Similarly for
240 .Dv LOG_LOCAL1
241 through
242 .Dv LOG_LOCAL7 .
243 .El
244 .Pp
245 The
246 .Fn closelog
247 function
248 can be used to close the log file.
249 .Pp
250 The
251 .Fn setlogmask
252 function
253 sets the log priority mask to
254 .Fa maskpri
255 and returns the previous mask.
256 Calls to
257 .Fn syslog
258 with a priority not set in
259 .Fa maskpri
260 are rejected.
261 The mask for an individual priority
262 .Fa pri
263 is calculated by the macro
264 .Fn LOG_MASK pri ;
265 the mask for all priorities up to and including
266 .Fa toppri
267 is given by the macro
268 .Fn LOG_UPTO toppri ; .
269 The default allows all priorities to be logged.
270 .Sh RETURN VALUES
271 The routines
272 .Fn closelog ,
273 .Fn openlog ,
274 .Fn syslog ,
275 and
276 .Fn vsyslog
277 return no value.
278 .Pp
279 The routine
280 .Fn setlogmask
281 always returns the previous log mask level.
282 .Sh EXAMPLES
283 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
284 syslog(LOG_ALERT, "who: internal error 23");
285
286 openlog("ftpd", LOG_PID | LOG_NDELAY, LOG_FTP);
287
288 setlogmask(LOG_UPTO(LOG_ERR));
289
290 syslog(LOG_INFO, "Connection from host %d", CallingHost);
291
292 syslog(LOG_INFO|LOG_LOCAL2, "foobar error: %m");
293 .Ed
294 .Sh LEGACY SYNOPSIS
295 .Fd #include <syslog.h>
296 .Fd #include <stdarg.h>
297 .Pp
298 These include files are necessary for all functions.
299 .Sh SEE ALSO
300 .Xr asl 3 ,
301 .Xr logger 1 ,
302 .Xr compat 5 ,
303 .Xr syslogd 8
304 .Sh HISTORY
305 These
306 functions appeared in
307 .Bx 4.2 .
308 .Sh BUGS
309 Never pass a string with user-supplied data as a format without using
310 .Ql %s .
311 An attacker can put format specifiers in the string to mangle your stack,
312 leading to a possible security hole.
313 This holds true even if the string was built using a function like
314 .Fn snprintf ,
315 as the resulting string may still contain user-supplied conversion specifiers
316 for later interpolation by
317 .Fn syslog .
318 .Pp
319 Always use the proper secure idiom:
320 .Pp
321 .Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
322 syslog(LOG_ERR, "%s", string);
323 .Ed