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

NAME

     newsyslog -- maintain system log files to manageable sizes

SYNOPSIS

     newsyslog [-CFNnrsv] [-R tagname] [-a directory] [-d 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 sched-
     uled 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 and /etc/newsyslog.d/*.conf for its configuration file.

     -a directory
	     Specify a directory into which archived log files will be written.  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 abso-
	     lute 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.

     -d directory
	     Specify a directory which all log files will be relative to.  To allow archiving of logs outside the root, the directory passed to
	     the -a option is unaffected.

     -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.

     -s      Specify that newsyslog should not send any signals to any daemon processes that it would normally signal when rotating a log file.
	     For any log file which is rotated, this option will usually also mean the rotated log file will not be compressed if there is a dae-
	     mon which would have been signalled without this option.  However, this option is most likely to be useful when specified with the -R
	     option, and in that case the compression will be done.

     -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 prob-
	     lems by providing you with fresh logs that contain only the problems.

     -N      Do not perform any rotations.  This option is intended to be used with the -C or -CC options when creating log files is the only
	     objective.

     -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 trigger 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 execute 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 examine log files that match those arguments; otherwise, it will examine
     all files listed in the configuration file(s).

FILES

     /etc/newsyslog.conf      newsyslog configuration file
     /etc/newsyslog.d/	      newsyslog configuration directory

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.

HISTORY

     The newsyslog utility originated from NetBSD and first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2.

AUTHORS

     Theodore Ts'o, MIT Project Athena

     Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

SEE ALSO

     bzip2(1), gzip(1), syslog(3), newsyslog.conf(5), chown(8), syslogd(8)

BUGS

     Does not yet automatically read the logs to find security breaches.

BSD
								 February 24, 2005							       BSD