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rsyslog.conf(5) - Linux man page

Name
rsyslog.conf - rsyslogd(8) configuration file

Description
The rsyslog.conf file is the main configuration file for the rsyslogd(8) which logs
system messages on *nix systems. This file specifies rules for logging. For special
features see the rsyslogd(8) manpage. Rsyslog.conf is backward-compatible with
sysklogd's syslog.conf file. So if you migrate from sysklogd you can rename it and it
should work.

Note that this version of rsyslog ships with extensive documentation in html
format. This is provided in the ./doc subdirectory and probably in a separate package
if you installed rsyslog via a packaging system. To use rsyslog's advanced features,
you need to look at the html documentation, because the man pages only cover basic
aspects of operation.

Modules
Rsyslog has a modular design. Consequently, there is a growing number of modules.
See the html documentation for their full description.

omsnmp

SNMP trap output module

omgssapi
Output module for GSS-enabled syslog
ommysql
Output module for MySQL
omrelp

Output module for the reliable RELP protocol (prevents message loss). For details, see
below at imrelp and the html documentation. It can be used like this:

*.* :omrelp:server:port

*.* :omrelp:192.168.0.1:2514 # actual sample

ompgsql
Output module for PostgreSQL
omlibdbi
Generic database output module (Firebird/Interbase, MS SQL, Sybase, SQLite,
Ingres, Oracle, mSQL)
imfile
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Input module for text files

imudp

Input plugin for UDP syslog. Replaces the deprecated -r option. Can be used like this:

$ModLoad imudp

$UDPServerRun 514

imtcp

Input plugin for plain TCP syslog. Replaces the deprecated -t option. Can be used like
this:

$ModLoad imtcp

$InputTCPServerRun 514

imrelp

Input plugin for the RELP protocol. RELP can be used instead of UDP or plain TCP
syslog to provide reliable delivery of syslog messages. Please note that plain TCP
syslog does NOT provide truly reliable delivery, with it messages may be lost
when there is a connection problem or the server shuts down. RELP prevents
message loss in those cases. It can be used like this:
$ModLoad imrelp

$InputRELPServerRun 2514

imgssapi
Input plugin for plain TCP and GSS-enable syslog
immark

Support for mark messages

imklog

Kernel logging. To include kernel log messages, you need to do

$ModLoad imklog

Please note that the klogd daemon is no longer necessary and consequently no
longer provided by the rsyslog package.

imuxsock
Unix sockets, including the system log socket. You need to specify
$ModLoad imuxsock

in order to receive log messages from local system processes. This config
directive should only left out if you know exactly what you are doing.
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Basic Structure
Lines starting with a hash mark ('#') and empty lines are ignored. Rsyslog.conf
should contain following sections (sorted by recommended order in file):

Global directives
Global directives set some global properties of whole rsyslog daemon, for
example size of main message queue ($MainMessageQueueSize), loading
external modules ($ModLoad) and so on. All global directives need to be
specified on a line by their own and must start with a dollar-sign. The complete
list of global directives can be found in html documentation in doc directory or
online on web pages.
Templates
Templates allow you to specify format of the logged message. They are also used
for dynamic file name generation. They have to be defined before they are used
in rules. For more info about templates see TEMPLATES section of this manpage.
Output channels
Output channels provide an umbrella for any type of output that the user might
want. They have to be defined before they are used in rules. For more info about
output channels see OUTPUT CHANNELS section of this manpage.
Rules (selector + action)
Every rule line consists of two fields, a selector field and an action field. These
two fields are separated by one or more spaces or tabs. The selector field
specifies a pattern of facilities and priorities belonging to the specified action.

Selectors
The selector field itself again consists of two parts, a facility and a priority, separated
by a period ('.'). Both parts are case insensitive and can also be specified as decimal
numbers, but don't do that, you have been warned. Both facilities and priorities are
described in syslog(3). The names mentioned below correspond to the similar LOG_-
values in /usr/include/syslog.h.

The facility is one of the following keywords: auth, authpriv, cron, daemon, kern, lpr,
mail, mark, news, security (same as auth), syslog, user, uucp and local0 through
local7. The keyword security should not be used anymore and mark is only for
internal use and therefore should not be used in applications. Anyway, you may want
to specify and redirect these messages here. The facility specifies the subsystem that
produced the message, i.e. all mail programs log with the mail facility (LOG_MAIL) if
they log using syslog.

The priority is one of the following keywords, in ascending order: debug, info, notice,
warning, warn (same as warning), err, error (same as err), crit, alert, emerg, panic
(same as emerg). The keywords error, warn and panic are deprecated and should not
be used anymore. The priority defines the severity of the message.

The behavior of the original BSD syslogd is that all messages of the specified priority
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and higher are logged according to the given action. Rsyslogd behaves the same, but
has some extensions.

In addition to the above mentioned names the rsyslogd(8) understands the following
extensions: An asterisk ('*') stands for all facilities or all priorities, depending on
where it is used (before or after the period). The keyword none stands for no priority
of the given facility.

You can specify multiple facilities with the same priority pattern in one statement
using the comma (',') operator. You may specify as much facilities as you want.
Remember that only the facility part from such a statement is taken, a priority part
would be skipped.

Multiple selectors may be specified for a single action using the semicolon (';')
separator. Remember that each selector in the selector field is capable to overwrite
the preceding ones. Using this behavior you can exclude some priorities from the
pattern.

Rsyslogd has a syntax extension to the original BSD source, that makes its use more
intuitively. You may precede every priority with an equals sign ('=') to specify only
this single priority and not any of the above. You may also (both is valid, too) precede
the priority with an exclamation mark ('!') to ignore all that priorities, either exact this
one or this and any higher priority. If you use both extensions than the exclamation
mark must occur before the equals sign, just use it intuitively.

Actions
The action field of a rule describes what to do with the message. In general, message
content is written to a kind of "logfile". But also other actions might be done, like
writing to a database table or forwarding to another host.

Regular file

Typically messages are logged to real files. The file has to be specified with full
pathname, beginning with a slash ('/').

Example:

*.* /var/log/traditionalfile.log;RSYSLOG_TraditionalFormat # log to a file in the

traditional format
Note: if you would like to use high-precision timestamps in your log files, just remove
the ";RSYSLOG_TraditionalFormat". That will select the default template, which, if not
changed, uses RFC 3339 timestamps.

Example:

*.* /var/log/file.log # log to a file with RFC3339 timestamps

Named pipes
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This version of rsyslogd(8) has support for logging output to named pipes (fifos). A
fifo or named pipe can be used as a destination for log messages by prepending a
pipe symbol ('|') to the name of the file. This is handy for debugging. Note that the
fifo must be created with the mkfifo(1) command before rsyslogd(8) is started.

Terminal and console

If the file you specified is a tty, special tty-handling is done, same with /dev/console.

Remote machine

There are three ways to forward message: the traditional UDP transport, which is
extremely lossy but standard, the plain TCP based transport which loses messages
only during certain situations but is widely available and the RELP transport which
does not lose messages but is currently available only as part of rsyslogd 3.15.0 and
above.

To forward messages to another host via UDP, prepend the hostname with the at sign
("@"). To forward it via plain tcp, prepend two at signs ("@@"). To forward via RELP,
prepend the string ":omrelp:" in front of the hostname.

Example:

*.* @192.168.0.1
In the example above, messages are forwarded via UDP to the machine 192.168.0.1,
the destination port defaults to 514. Due to the nature of UDP, you will probably lose
some messages in transit. If you expect high traffic volume, you can expect to lose a
quite noticeable number of messages (the higher the traffic, the more likely and
severe is message loss).

If you would like to prevent message loss, use RELP:

*.* :omrelp:192.168.0.1:2514
Note that a port number was given as there is no standard port for relp.

Keep in mind that you need to load the correct input and output plugins (see
"Modules" above).

Please note that rsyslogd offers a variety of options in regarding to remote

forwarding. For full details, please see the html documentation.

List of users

Usually critical messages are also directed to ''root'' on that machine. You can specify
a list of users that shall get the message by simply writing ":omusrmsg:" followed by
the login name. You may specify more than one user by separating them with
commas (','). If they're logged in they get the message (for example:
":omusrmsg:root,user1,user2").
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Everyone logged on

Emergency messages often go to all users currently online to notify them that
something strange is happening with the system. To specify this wall(1)-feature use
an ":omusrmsg:*".

Database table

This allows logging of the message to a database table. By default, a MonitorWare-

compatible schema is required for this to work. You can create that schema with the
createDB.SQL file that came with the rsyslog package. You can also use any other
schema of your liking - you just need to define a proper template and assign this
template to the action.

See the html documentation for further details on database logging.

Discard

If the discard action is carried out, the received message is immediately discarded.
Discard can be highly effective if you want to filter out some annoying messages that
otherwise would fill your log files. To do that, place the discard actions early in your
log files. This often plays well with property-based filters, giving you great freedom in
specifying what you do not want.

Discard is just the single tilde character with no further parameters.

Example:

*.* ~ # discards everything.

Output channel

Binds an output channel definition (see there for details) to this action. Output
channel actions must start with a $-sign, e.g. if you would like to bind your output
channel definition "mychannel" to the action, use "$mychannel". Output channels
support template definitions like all all other actions.

Shell execute

This executes a program in a subshell. The program is passed the template-generated

message as the only command line parameter. Rsyslog waits until the program
terminates and only then continues to run.

Example:

^program-to-execute;template
The program-to-execute can be any valid executable. It receives the template string
as a single parameter (argv[1]).

Filter Conditions
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Rsyslog offers three different types "filter conditions":

* "traditional" severity and facility based selectors
* property-based filters
* expression-based filters

Blocks

Rsyslogd supports BSD-style blocks inside rsyslog.conf. Each block of lines is

separated from the previous block by a program or hostname specification. A block
will only log messages corresponding to the most recent program and hostname
specifications given. Thus, a block which selects "ppp" as the program, directly
followed by a block that selects messages from the hostname "dialhost", then the
second block will only log messages from the ppp program on dialhost.

Selectors

Selectors are the traditional way of filtering syslog messages. They have been
kept in rsyslog with their original syntax, because it is well-known, highly effective
and also needed for compatibility with stock syslogd configuration files. If you just
need to filter based on priority and facility, you should do this with selector lines.
They are not second-class citizens in rsyslog and offer the best performance for this
job.

Property-Based Filters

Property-based filters are unique to rsyslogd. They allow to filter on any property, like
HOSTNAME, syslogtag and msg.

A property-based filter must start with a colon in column 0. This tells rsyslogd that it
is the new filter type. The colon must be followed by the property name, a comma,
the name of the compare operation to carry out, another comma and then the value
to compare against. This value must be quoted. There can be spaces and tabs
between the commas. Property names and compare operations are case-sensitive, so
"msg" works, while "MSG" is an invalid property name. In brief, the syntax is as
follows:

:property, [!]compare-operation, "value"

The following compare-operations are currently supported:
contains

Checks if the string provided in value is contained in the property

isequal

Compares the "value" string provided and the property contents. These two values
must be exactly equal to match.

startswith
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Checks if the value is found exactly at the beginning of the property value

regex

Compares the property against the provided regular expression.

Expression-Based Filters

See the html documentation for this feature.

Templates
Every output in rsyslog uses templates - this holds true for files, user messages and
so on. Templates compatible with the stock syslogd formats are hardcoded into
rsyslogd. If no template is specified, we use one of these hardcoded templates.
Search for "template_" in syslogd.c and you will find the hardcoded ones.

A template consists of a template directive, a name, the actual template text and
optional options. A sample is:

$template MyTemplateName,"\7Text %property% some more text\n",

<options>
The "$template" is the template directive. It tells rsyslog that this line contains a
template. The backslash is an escape character. For example, \7 rings the bell (this is
an ASCII value), \n is a new line. The set in rsyslog is a bit restricted currently.

All text in the template is used literally, except for things within percent signs. These
are properties and allow you access to the contents of the syslog message. Properties
are accessed via the property replacer and it can for example pick a substring or do
date-specific formatting. More on this is the PROPERTY REPLACER section of this
manpage.

To escape:
% = \%
\ = \\ --> '\' is used to escape (as in C)
$template TraditionalFormat,"%timegenerated% %HOSTNAME%
%syslogtag%%msg%0

Properties can be accessed by the property replacer (see there for details).

Please note that templates can also by used to generate selector lines with
dynamic file names. For example, if you would like to split syslog messages from
different hosts to different files (one per host), you can define the following template:

$template DynFile,"/var/log/system-%HOSTNAME%.log"
This template can then be used when defining an output selector line. It will result in
something like "/var/log/system-localhost.log"

Template options
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The <options> part is optional. It carries options influencing the template as whole.
See details below. Be sure NOT to mistake template options with property options -
the later ones are processed by the property replacer and apply to a SINGLE
property, only (and not the whole template).

Template options are case-insensitive. Currently defined are:

sql

format the string suitable for a SQL statement in MySQL format. This will replace
single quotes ("'") and the backslash character by their backslash-escaped
counterpart ("'" and "\") inside each field. Please note that in MySQL
configuration, the NO_BACKSLASH_ESCAPES mode must be turned off for this
format to work (this is the default).

stdsql

format the string suitable for a SQL statement that is to be sent to a standards-
compliant sql server. This will replace single quotes ("'") by two single quotes
("''") inside each field. You must use stdsql together with MySQL if in MySQL
configuration the NO_BACKSLASH_ESCAPES is turned on.

Either the sql or stdsql option MUST be specified when a template is used for writing
to a database, otherwise injection might occur. Please note that due to the
unfortunate fact that several vendors have violated the sql standard and introduced
their own escape methods, it is impossible to have a single option doing all the work.
So you yourself must make sure you are using the right format. If you choose the
wrong one, you are still vulnerable to sql injection.

Please note that the database writer *checks* that the sql option is present in the
template. If it is not present, the write database action is disabled. This is to guard
you against accidental forgetting it and then becoming vulnerable to SQL injection.
The sql option can also be useful with files - especially if you want to import them into
a database on another machine for performance reasons. However, do NOT use it if
you do not have a real need for it - among others, it takes some toll on the
processing time. Not much, but on a really busy system you might notice it ;)

The default template for the write to database action has the sql option set.

Template examples

Please note that the samples are split across multiple lines. A template MUST NOT
actually be split across multiple lines.

A template that resembles traditional syslogd file output:

$template TraditionalFormat,"%timegenerated% %HOSTNAME%

%syslogtag%%msg:::drop-last-lf%0
A template that tells you a little more about the message:
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$template
precise,"%syslogpriority%,%syslogfacility%,%timegenerated%,%HOSTNAME%,
%syslogtag%,%msg%0
A template for RFC 3164 format:
$template RFC3164fmt,"<%PRI%>%TIMESTAMP% %HOSTNAME%
%syslogtag%%msg%"
A template for the format traditionally used for user messages:
$template usermsg," XXXX%syslogtag%%msg%0r"
And a template with the traditional wall-message format:
$template wallmsg,"\r\n\7Message from syslogd@%HOSTNAME% at
%timegenerated%"
A template that can be used for writing to a database (please note the SQL
template option)
$template MySQLInsert,"insert iut, message, receivedat values ('%iut%',
'%msg:::UPPERCASE%', '%timegenerated:::date-mysql%') into
systemevents\r\n", SQL

NOTE 1: This template is embedded into core application under name StdDBFmt
, so you don't need to define it.

NOTE 2: You have to have MySQL module installed to use this template.

Output Channels
Output Channels are a new concept first introduced in rsyslog 0.9.0. As of this
writing, it is most likely that they will be replaced by something different in the
future. So if you use them, be prepared to change you configuration file syntax when
you upgrade to a later release.

Output channels are defined via an $outchannel directive. It's syntax is as follows:

$outchannel name,file-name,max-size,action-on-max-size
name is the name of the output channel (not the file), file-name is the file name to be
written to, max-size the maximum allowed size and action-on-max-size a command
to be issued when the max size is reached. This command always has exactly one
parameter. The binary is that part of action-on-max-size before the first space, its
parameter is everything behind that space.

Keep in mind that $outchannel just defines a channel with "name". It does not
activate it. To do so, you must use a selector line (see below). That selector line
includes the channel name plus ":omfile:$" in front of it. A sample might be:

*.* :omfile:$mychannel

Property Replacer
The property replacer is a core component in rsyslogd's output system. A syslog
message has a number of well-defined properties (see below). Each of this properties
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can be accessed and manipulated by the property replacer. With it, it is easy to use
only part of a property value or manipulate the value, e.g. by converting all
characters to lower case.

Accessing Properties

Syslog message properties are used inside templates. They are accessed by putting
them between percent signs. Properties can be modified by the property replacer. The
full syntax is as follows:
%propname:fromChar:toChar:options%
propname is the name of the property to access. It is case-sensitive.

Available Properties

msg

the MSG part of the message (aka "the message" ;))

rawmsg

the message exactly as it was received from the socket. Should be useful for
debugging.

HOSTNAME
hostname from the message
FROMHOST
hostname of the system the message was received from (in a relay chain, this is
the system immediately in front of us and not necessarily the original sender)
syslogtag
TAG from the message
programname
the "static" part of the tag, as defined by BSD syslogd. For example, when TAG
is "named[12345]", programname is "named".
PRI

PRI part of the message - undecoded (single value)

PRI-text
the PRI part of the message in a textual form (e.g. "syslog.info")
IUT

the monitorware InfoUnitType - used when talking to a MonitorWare backend (also for
phpLogCon)

syslogfacility
the facility from the message - in numerical form
syslogfacility-text
the facility from the message - in text form
syslogseverity
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severity from the message - in numerical form

syslogseverity-text
severity from the message - in text form
timegenerated
timestamp when the message was RECEIVED. Always in high resolution
timereported
timestamp from the message. Resolution depends on what was provided in the
message (in most cases, only seconds)
TIMESTAMP
alias for timereported
PROTOCOL-VERSION
The contents of the PROTOCOL-VERSION field from IETF draft draft-ietf-syslog-
protocol
STRUCTURED-DATA
The contents of the STRUCTURED-DATA field from IETF draft draft-ietf-syslog-
protocol
APP-NAME
The contents of the APP-NAME field from IETF draft draft-ietf-syslog-protocol
PROCID

The contents of the PROCID field from IETF draft draft-ietf-syslog-protocol

MSGID

The contents of the MSGID field from IETF draft draft-ietf-syslog-protocol

$NOW

The current date stamp in the format YYYY-MM-DD

$YEAR

The current year (4-digit)

$MONTH

The current month (2-digit)

$DAY

The current day of the month (2-digit)

$HOUR

The current hour in military (24 hour) time (2-digit)

$MINUTE
The current minute (2-digit)
Properties starting with a $-sign are so-called system properties. These do NOT stem
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from the message but are rather internally-generated.

Character Positions

FromChar and toChar are used to build substrings. They specify the offset within the
string that should be copied. Offset counting starts at 1, so if you need to obtain the
first 2 characters of the message text, you can use this syntax: "%msg:1:2%". If you
do not wish to specify from and to, but you want to specify options, you still need to
include the colons. For example, if you would like to convert the full message text to
lower case, use "%msg:::lowercase%". If you would like to extract from a position
until the end of the string, you can place a dollar-sign ("$") in toChar (e.g.
%msg:10:$%, which will extract from position 10 to the end of the string).

There is also support for regular expressions. To use them, you need to place a "R"
into FromChar. This tells rsyslog that a regular expression instead of position-based
extraction is desired. The actual regular expression must then be provided in toChar.
The regular expression must be followed by the string "--end". It denotes the end of
the regular expression and will not become part of it. If you are using regular
expressions, the property replacer will return the part of the property text that
matches the regular expression. An example for a property replacer sequence with a
regular expression is: "%msg:R:.*Sev:. \(.*\) \[.*--end%"

Also, extraction can be done based on so-called "fields". To do so, place a "F" into
FromChar. A field in its current definition is anything that is delimited by a delimiter
character. The delimiter by default is TAB (US-ASCII value 9). However, if can be
changed to any other US-ASCII character by specifying a comma and the decimal US-
ASCII value of the delimiter immediately after the "F". For example, to use comma
(",") as a delimiter, use this field specifier: "F,44". If your syslog data is delimited, this
is a quicker way to extract than via regular expressions (actually, a *much* quicker
way). Field counting starts at 1. Field zero is accepted, but will always lead to a "field
not found" error. The same happens if a field number higher than the number of fields
in the property is requested. The field number must be placed in the "ToChar"
parameter. An example where the 3rd field (delimited by TAB) from the msg property
is extracted is as follows: "%msg:F:3%". The same example with semicolon as
delimiter is "%msg:F,59:3%".

Please note that the special characters "F" and "R" are case-sensitive. Only upper
case works, lower case will return an error. There are no white spaces permitted
inside the sequence (that will lead to error messages and will NOT provide the
intended result).

Property Options

Property options are case-insensitive. Currently, the following options are defined:
uppercase
convert property to lowercase only
lowercase
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convert property text to uppercase only

drop-last-lf
The last LF in the message (if any), is dropped. Especially useful for PIX.
date-mysql
format as mysql date
date-rfc3164
format as RFC 3164 date
date-rfc3339
format as RFC 3339 date
escape-cc
replace control characters (ASCII value 127 and values less then 32) with an
escape sequence. The sequence is "#<charval>" where charval is the 3-digit
decimal value of the control character. For example, a tabulator would be
replaced by "#009".
space-cc
replace control characters by spaces
drop-cc
drop control characters - the resulting string will neither contain control
characters, escape sequences nor any other replacement character like space.

Queued Operations
Rsyslogd supports queued operations to handle offline outputs (like remote syslogd's
or database servers being down). When running in queued mode, rsyslogd buffers
messages to memory and optionally to disk (on an as-needed basis). Queues survive
rsyslogd restarts.

It is highly suggested to use remote forwarding and database writing in queued

mode, only.

To learn more about queued operations, see the html documentation.

Files
/etc/rsyslog.conf

Configuration file for rsyslogd

See Also
rsyslogd(8), logger(1), syslog(3)

The complete documentation can be found in the doc folder of the rsyslog distribution
or online at

http://www.rsyslog.com/doc
Please note that the man page reflects only a subset of the configuration options. Be
sure to read the html documentation for all features and details. This is especially
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vital if you plan to set up a more-then-extremely-simple system.

Authors
rsyslogd is taken from sysklogd sources, which have been heavily modified by Rainer
Gerhards ([email protected]) and others.

Referenced By
pmdarsyslog(1)