Synopsis: in-list("</path/to/file.list>", value("<field-to-filter>"))

Description: Matches the value of the specified field to a list stored in a file, allowing you to do simple, file-based black- and whitelisting. The file must be a plain-text file, containing one entry per line. The syslog-ng PE application loads the entire file, and compares the value of the specified field (for example, ${PROGRAM}) to entries in the file. When you use the in-list() filter, note the following points:

  • Comparing the values is case-sensitive.

  • Only exact matches are supported, partial and substring matches are not.

  • If you modify the list file, reload the configuration of syslog-ng PE for the changes to take effect.

Available in syslog-ng PE 3.5 and later.

Example: Selecting messages using the in-list() filter

Create a text file that contains the programs (as in the ${PROGRAM} field of their log messages) you want to select. For example, you want to forward only the logs of a few applications from a host: kernel, sshd, and sudo. Create the /etc/syslog-ng/programlist.list file with the following contents:

kernel
sshd
sudo

The following filter selects only the messages of the listed applications:

filter f_whitelist { in-list("/etc/syslog-ng/programlist.list", value("PROGRAM")); };

Create the appropriate sources and destinations for your environment, then create a log path that uses the previous filter to select only the log messages of the applications you need:

log {
    source(s_all);
    filter(f_whitelist);
    destination(d_logserver); };

To create a blacklist filter, simply negate the in-list() filter:

filter f_blacklist { not in-list("/etc/syslog-ng/programlist.list", value("PROGRAM")); };