The syslog-ng OSE application does not rotate logs by itself. To use syslog-ng OSE for log rotation, consider the following approaches:
It is ideal for workstations or when processing fewer logs.
It is included in most distributions by default.
Less scripting is required, only logrotate has to be configured correctly.
Requires frequent restart (syslog-ng OSE must be reloaded/restarted when the files are rotated). After rotating the log files, reload syslog-ng OSE using the syslog-ng-ctl reload command, or use another method to send a SIGHUP to syslog-ng OSE.
The statistics collected by syslog-ng OSE, and the correlation information gathered with Pattern Database, are lost with each restart.
It is ideal for central log servers, where regular restart of syslog-ng OSE is unfavorable.
Requires shell scripts or cron jobs to remove old logs.
It can be done by using macros in the destination name (in the filename, directory name, or the database table name). (For details on using macros, see Templates and macros.)
This sample file destination configuration stores incoming logs in files that are named based on the current year, month and day, and places these files in directories that are named based on the hostname:
destination d_sorted {
file(
"/var/log/remote/${HOST}/${YEAR}_${MONTH}_${DAY}.log"
create-dirs(yes)
);
};This sample command for cron removes files older than two weeks from the /var/log/remote directory:
find /var/log/remote/ -daystart -mtime +14 -type f -exec rm {} \;This chapter collects the manual pages of syslog-ng OSE and other related applications that are usually distributed and packaged together with the syslog-ng Open Source Edition application.
This chapter collects the manual pages of syslog-ng OSE and other related applications that are usually distributed and packaged together with the syslog-ng Open Source Edition application.
Table of Contents
dqtool — Display the contents of a disk-buffer file created with syslog-ng Open Source Edition
dqtool [command] [options]
NOTE: The dqtool application is distributed with the syslog-ng Open Source Edition system logging application, and is usually part of the syslog-ng package. The latest version of the syslog-ng application is available at the syslog-ng page.
This manual page is only an abstract, for the complete documentation of syslog-ng, see the syslog-ng Documentation page.
The dqtool application is a utility that can be used to display and format the messages stored in a disk-buffer file.
assign [options] [file]
Use the assign command to assign a disk-queue file to a specific entry in the persist file. If the specified entry does not exist in the persist file, it will be automatically created. Note that this option modifies the persist file. Stop syslog-ng before using this command.
The assign command has the following options. You must also add the path to the disk-queue file as parameter, for example, /tmp/syslog-ng-00000.rqf. If you use only the name of the file, dqtool assumes it is in the current working directory.
The entry in the persist file you want to assign the disk-queue file to. For example: "afsocket_dd_qfile(stream,localhost:15554)"
The path to the syslog-ng persist file. The assign command automatically updates or creates the specified entry in the persist file.
Examples:
Relocate a single queue file:
bin/dqtool assign --persist /var/syslog-ng.persist --new_path "afsocket_dd_qfile(stream,localhost:15554)" /tmp/syslog-ng-00000.rqf
cat [options] [file]
Use the cat command to display the log messages stored in the disk-buffer (also called disk-queue) file, and also information from the header of the disk queue file. The messages are printed to the standard output (stdout), so it is possible to use grep and other tools to find particular log messages, e.g., dqtool cat /var/log/messages.lgs |grep 192.168.1.1.
The cat command has the following options:
Print diagnostic and debugging messages to stderr.
Display a brief help message.
Format the messages using the specified template.
Print verbose messages to stderr.
Display version information.
Example:
./dqtool cat ../var/syslog-ng-00000.qf
The output looks like:
Disk-buffer state loaded; filename='../var/syslog-ng-00000.qf', qout_length='65', qbacklog_length='0', qoverflow_length='9205', qdisk_length='0' Mar 3 10:52:05 tristram localprg[1234]: seq: 0000011630, runid: 1267609923, stamp: 2010-03-03T10:52:05 PADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADD Mar 3 10:52:05 tristram localprg[1234]: seq: 0000011631, runid: 1267609923, stamp: 2010-03-03T10:52:05 PADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADDPADD
relocate [options] [files]
Use the relocate command to move or rename disk-buffer (also called disk-queue) files. Note that this option modifies the persist file. Stop syslog-ng before using this command.
The cat command has the following options:
Relocate every disk-buffer file that is listed in the syslog-ng persist file.
The directory where you want to move the disk-buffer files. For example: /var/disk-buffers
The path to the syslog-ng persist file. The relocate command automatically updates the entries of the disk-buffer files in the persist file.
Examples:
Relocate a single queue file:
bin/dqtool relocate --new_path /tmp/dq --persist var/syslog-ng.persist /tmp/syslog-ng-00000.rqf
Relocate multiple queue files:
bin/dqtool relocate --new_path /tmp/dq --persist var/syslog-ng.persist /tmp/syslog-ng-00000.rqf /tmp/syslog-ng-00001.rqf
Relocate every queue file:
bin/dqtool relocate --new_path /tmp/dq --persist var/syslog-ng.persist --all
For the detailed documentation of syslog-ng OSE see the syslog-ng Documentation page
If you experience any problems or need help with syslog-ng, visit the syslog-ng mailing list.
For news and notifications about of syslog-ng, visit the syslog-ng blogs.
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