SYSLOG(3) Linux Programmer's Manual SYSLOG(3)NAME
closelog, openlog, syslog, vsyslog - send messages to the system logger
SYNOPSIS
#include <syslog.h>
void openlog(const char *ident, int option, int facility);
void syslog(int priority, const char *format, ...);
void closelog(void);
#include <stdarg.h>
void vsyslog(int priority, const char *format, va_list ap);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
vsyslog(): _BSD_SOURCE
DESCRIPTIONcloselog() closes the descriptor being used to write to the system log‐
ger. The use of closelog() is optional.
openlog() opens a connection to the system logger for a program. The
string pointed to by ident is prepended to every message, and is typi‐
cally set to the program name. If ident is NULL, the program name is
used. (POSIX.1-2008 does not specify the behavior when ident is NULL.)
The option argument specifies flags which control the operation of
openlog() and subsequent calls to syslog(). The facility argument
establishes a default to be used if none is specified in subsequent
calls to syslog(). Values for option and facility are given below.
The use of openlog() is optional; it will automatically be called by
syslog() if necessary, in which case ident will default to NULL.
syslog() generates a log message, which will be distributed by sys‐
logd(8). The priority argument is formed by ORing the facility and the
level values (explained below). The remaining arguments are a format,
as in printf(3) and any arguments required by the format, except that
the two character sequence %m will be replaced by the error message
string strerror(errno). A trailing newline may be added if needed.
The function vsyslog() performs the same task as syslog() with the dif‐
ference that it takes a set of arguments which have been obtained using
the stdarg(3) variable argument list macros.
The subsections below list the parameters used to set the values of
option, facility, and priority.
option
The option argument to openlog() is an OR of any of these:
LOG_CONS Write directly to system console if there is an error
while sending to system logger.
LOG_NDELAY Open the connection immediately (normally, the connec‐
tion is opened when the first message is logged).
LOG_NOWAIT Don't wait for child processes that may have been cre‐
ated while logging the message. (The GNU C library does
not create a child process, so this option has no effect
on Linux.)
LOG_ODELAY The converse of LOG_NDELAY; opening of the connection is
delayed until syslog() is called. (This is the default,
and need not be specified.)
LOG_PERROR (Not in POSIX.1-2001 or POSIX.1-2008.) Print to stderr
as well.
LOG_PID Include PID with each message.
facility
The facility argument is used to specify what type of program is log‐
ging the message. This lets the configuration file specify that mes‐
sages from different facilities will be handled differently.
LOG_AUTH security/authorization messages
LOG_AUTHPRIV security/authorization messages (private)
LOG_CRON clock daemon (cron and at)
LOG_DAEMON system daemons without separate facility value
LOG_FTP ftp daemon
LOG_KERN kernel messages (these can't be generated from user pro‐
cesses)
LOG_LOCAL0 through LOG_LOCAL7
reserved for local use
LOG_LPR line printer subsystem
LOG_MAIL mail subsystem
LOG_NEWS USENET news subsystem
LOG_SYSLOG messages generated internally by syslogd(8)
LOG_USER (default)
generic user-level messages
LOG_UUCP UUCP subsystem
level
This determines the importance of the message. The levels are, in
order of decreasing importance:
LOG_EMERG system is unusable
LOG_ALERT action must be taken immediately
LOG_CRIT critical conditions
LOG_ERR error conditions
LOG_WARNING warning conditions
LOG_NOTICE normal, but significant, condition
LOG_INFO informational message
LOG_DEBUG debug-level message
The function setlogmask(3) can be used to restrict logging to specified
levels only.
CONFORMING TO
The functions openlog(), closelog(), and syslog() (but not vsyslog())
are specified in SUSv2, POSIX.1-2001, and POSIX.1-2008. POSIX.1-2001
specifies only the LOG_USER and LOG_LOCAL* values for facility. How‐
ever, with the exception of LOG_AUTHPRIV and LOG_FTP, the other facil‐
ity values appear on most UNIX systems. The LOG_PERROR value for
option is not specified by POSIX.1-2001 or POSIX.1-2008, but is avail‐
able in most versions of UNIX.
NOTES
The argument ident in the call of openlog() is probably stored as-is.
Thus, if the string it points to is changed, syslog() may start
prepending the changed string, and if the string it points to ceases to
exist, the results are undefined. Most portable is to use a string
constant.
Never pass a string with user-supplied data as a format, use the fol‐
lowing instead:
syslog(priority, "%s", string);
SEE ALSOlogger(1), setlogmask(3), syslog.conf(5), syslogd(8)COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.54 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2012-08-17 SYSLOG(3)
