---
name: "syslog.conf"
section: "5"
platform: "linux"
package: "inetutils-syslogd"
version: "2:2.6-3+deb13u3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/syslog.conf"
---

# syslog.conf(5)

configuration file for syslogd(8)

## NAME

**syslog.conf** – configuration file for [syslogd(8)](/syslogd/8.md)

## DESCRIPTION

The **syslog.conf** file is the configuration file for the [syslogd(8)](/syslogd/8.md) program. It consists of lines with two fields: the *selector* field which specifies the types of messages and priorities to which the line applies, and an *action* field which specifies the action to be taken if a message syslogd receives matches the selection criteria. The *selector* field is separated from the *action* field by one or more tab or space characters. A rule can be split in several lines if all lines except the last are terminated with a backslash ("

The *Selectors* function are encoded as a *facility*, a period ("."), and a *level*, with no intervening white-space. Both the *facility* and the *level* are case insensitive.

The *facility* describes the part of the system generating the message, and is one of the following keywords: auth, authpriv, cron, daemon, kern, lpr, mail, mark, news, syslog, user, uucp and local0 through local7. These keywords (with the exception of mark) correspond to the similar “LOG\_” values specified to the [openlog(3)](/openlog/3.md) and [syslog(3)](/syslog/3.md) library routines.

The *level* describes the severity of the message, and is a keyword from the following ordered list (higher to lower): emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice and debug. These keywords correspond to the similar (LOG\_) values specified to the syslog library routine.

See [syslog(3)](/syslog/3.md) for a further descriptions of both the *facility* and *level* keywords and their significance.

If a received message matches the specified *facility* and is of the specified *level* *(or* *a* *higher* *level)*, the action specified in the *action* field will be taken.

Multiple *selectors* may be specified for a single *action* by separating them with semicolon (";") characters. It is important to note, however, that each *selector* can modify the ones preceding it.

Multiple *facilities* may be specified for a single *level* by separating them with comma (",") characters.

An asterisk ("\*") can be used to specify all *facilities* or all *levels*.

By default, a *level* applies to all messages with the same or higher *level*. The equal ("=") character can be prepended to a *level* to restrict this line of the configuration file to messages with the very same *level*.

An exclamation mark ("!") prepended to a *level* or the asterisk means that this line of the configuration file does *not* apply to the specified level (and higher ones). In conjunction with the equal sign, you can exclude single *levels* as well.

The special *facility* "mark" receives a message at priority "info" every 20 minutes (see [syslogd(8)](/syslogd/8.md)). This is not enabled by a *facility* field containing an asterisk.

The special *level* "none" disables a particular *facility*.

The *action* field of each line specifies the action to be taken when the *selector* field selects a message. There are five forms:

- A pathname (beginning with a leading slash). Selected messages are appended to the file.

  You may prepend a minus ("-") to the path to omit syncing the file after each message log. This can cause data loss at system crashes, but increases performance for programs which use logging extensively.

- A named pipe (fifo), beginning with a vertical bar ("\|") followed by a pathname. The pipe must be created with mkfifo(8) before syslogd reads its configuration file. This feature is especially useful fo debugging.

- A hostname (preceded by an at ("@") sign). Selected messages are forwarded to the syslogd program on the named host.

- A comma separated list of users. Selected messages are written to those users if they are logged in.

- An asterisk. Selected messages are written to all logged-in users.

Blank lines and lines whose first non-blank character is a hash ("#") character are ignored.

## EXAMPLES

A configuration file might appear as follows:

```
# Log all kernel messages, authentication messages of
# level notice or higher and anything of level err or
# higher to the console.
# Don't log private authentication messages!
*.err;kern.*;auth.notice;authpriv.none	/dev/console
# Log anything (except mail) of level info or higher.
# Don't log private authentication messages!
*.info;mail.none;authpriv.none		/var/log/messages
# The authpriv file has restricted access.
authpriv.*						/var/log/secure
# Log all the mail messages in one place.
mail.*							/var/log/maillog
# Everybody gets emergency messages, plus log them on another
# machine.
*.emerg							*
*.emerg							@arpa.berkeley.edu
# Root and Eric get alert and higher messages.
*.alert							root,eric
# Save mail and news errors of level err and higher in a
# special file.
uucp,news.crit						/var/log/spoolerr
```

## FILES

- */etc/syslog.conf*

  The [syslogd(8)](/syslogd/8.md) configuration file.

## BUGS

The effects of multiple selectors are sometimes not intuitive. For example "mail.crit,\*.err" will select "mail" facility messages at the level of "err" or higher, not at the level of "crit" or higher.

## SEE ALSO

[syslog(3)](/syslog/3.md), [syslogd(8)](/syslogd/8.md)