The program() driver starts an external application or script and sends the log messages to its standard input (stdin). Usually, every message is a single line (ending with a newline character), which your script can process. Make sure that your script runs in a loop and keeps reading the standard input — it should not exit. (If your script exits, syslog-ng OSE tries to restart it.)
The program() driver has a single required parameter, specifying a program name to start. The program is executed with the help of the current shell, so the command may include both file patterns and I/O redirections. For the list of available optional parameters, see program() destination options.
Declaration:
program(command_to_run);
When using the program() driver, consider the following:
-
The syslog-ng OSE application must be able to start and restart the external program, and have the necessary permissions to do so. For example, if your host is running AppArmor, you might have to modify your AppArmor configuration to enable syslog-ng OSE to execute external applications.
-
The syslog-ng OSE application executes program destinations through the standard system shell. If the system shell is not bash and you experience problems with the program destination, try changing the /bin/sh link to /bin/bash.
-
If the external program exits, the syslog-ng OSE application automatically restarts it. However it is not recommended to launch programs for single messages, because if the message rate is high, launching several instances of an application might overload the system, resulting in Denial of Service.
-
When the syslog-ng OSE application stops, it will automatically stop the external program. To avoid restarting the application when syslog-ng OSE is only reloaded, enable the keep-alive() option in the program destination.
-
Certain external applications buffer the log messages, which might cause unexpected latency and other problems. For example, if you send the log messages to an external Perl script, Perl uses a line buffer for terminal output and block buffer otherwise. You might want to disable buffering in the external application.
Example: Using the program() destination driver
The message format does not include the priority and facility values by default. To add these values, specify a template for the program destination, as shown in the following example. Make sure to end your template with a newline character (\n).
destination d_prog { program("/bin/script" template("<${PRI}>${DATE} ${HOST} ${MESSAGE}\n") ); };
The following shell script writes the incoming messages into the /tmp/testlog file.
#!/bin/bash
while read line ; do
echo $line >> /tmp/testlog
done
This driver starts an external application or script and sends the log messages to its standard input (stdin).
The program() destination has the following options:
disk-buffer()
Description: This option enables putting outgoing messages into the disk buffer of the destination to avoid message loss in case of a system failure on the destination side. It has the following options:
| reliable() |
| Type: |
yes|no |
| Default: |
no |
|
Description: If set to yes, syslog-ng OSE cannot lose logs in case of reload/restart, unreachable destination or syslog-ng OSE crash. This solution provides a slower, but reliable disk-buffer option. It is created and initialized at startup and gradually grows as new messages arrive. If set to no, the normal disk-buffer will be used. This provides a faster, but less reliable disk-buffer option.
|
|
Caution:
Hazard of data loss! If you change the value of reliable() option when there are messages in the disk-buffer, the messages stored in the disk-buffer will be lost. | |
| compaction() |
| Type: |
yes|no |
| Default: |
no |
|
Description: If set to yes, syslog-ng OSE prunes the unused space in the LogMessage representation, making the disk queue size smaller at the cost of some CPU time. Setting the compaction() argument to yes is recommended when numerous name-value pairs are unset during processing, or when the same names are set multiple times. |
NOTE: Simply unsetting these name-value pairs by using the unset() rewrite operation is not enough, as due to performance reasons that help when syslog-ng is CPU bound, the internal representation of a LogMessage will not release the memory associated with these name-value pairs. In some cases, however, the size of this overhead becomes significant (the raw message size can grow up to four times its original size), which unnecessarily increases the disk queue file size. For these cases, the compaction will drop "unset" values, making the LogMessage representation smaller at the cost of some CPU time required to perform compaction.
| dir() |
| Type: |
string |
| Default: |
N/A |
|
Description: Defines the folder where the disk-buffer files are stored.
|
|
Caution:
When creating a new dir() option for a disk buffer, or modifying an existing one, make sure you delete the persist file.
syslog-ng OSE creates disk-buffer files based on the path recorded in the persist file. Therefore, if the persist file is not deleted after modifying the dir() option, then following a restart, syslog-ng OSE will look for or create disk-buffer files in their old location. To ensure that syslog-ng OSE uses the new dir() setting, the persist file must not contain any information about the destinations which the disk-buffer file in question belongs to. | |
| disk-buf-size() |
| Type: |
number (bytes) |
| Default: |
|
| Description: This is a required option. The maximum size of the disk-buffer in bytes. The minimum value is 1048576 bytes. If you set a smaller value, the minimum value will be used automatically. It replaces the old log-disk-fifo-size() option. |
| mem-buf-length() |
| Type: |
number (messages) |
| Default: |
10000 |
| Description: Use this option if the option reliable() is set to no. This option contains the number of messages stored in overflow queue. It replaces the old log-fifo-size() option. It inherits the value of the global log-fifo-size() option if provided. If it is not provided, the default value is 10000 messages. Note that this option will be ignored if the option reliable() is set to yes. |
| mem-buf-size() |
| Type: |
number (bytes) |
| Default: |
163840000 |
| Description: Use this option if the option reliable() is set to yes. This option contains the size of the messages in bytes that is used in the memory part of the disk buffer. It replaces the old log-fifo-size() option. It does not inherit the value of the global log-fifo-size() option, even if it is provided. Note that this option will be ignored if the option reliable() is set to no. |
| qout-size() |
| Type: |
number (messages) |
| Default: |
64 |
| Description: The number of messages stored in the output buffer of the destination. Note that if you change the value of this option and the disk-buffer already exists, the change will take effect when the disk-buffer becomes empty. |
Options reliable() and disk-buf-size() are required options.
Example: Examples for using disk-buffer()
In the following case reliable disk-buffer() is used.
destination d_demo {
network(
"127.0.0.1"
port(3333)
disk-buffer(
mem-buf-size(10000)
disk-buf-size(2000000)
reliable(yes)
dir("/tmp/disk-buffer")
)
);
};
In the following case normal disk-buffer() is used.
destination d_demo {
network(
"127.0.0.1"
port(3333)
disk-buffer(
mem-buf-length(10000)
disk-buf-size(2000000)
reliable(no)
dir("/tmp/disk-buffer")
)
);
};
flags()
| Type: |
no-multi-line, syslog-protocol |
| Default: |
empty set |
Description: Flags influence the behavior of the destination driver.
-
no-multi-line: The no-multi-line flag disables line-breaking in the messages: the entire message is converted to a single line.
-
syslog-protocol: The syslog-protocol flag instructs the driver to format the messages according to the new IETF syslog protocol standard (RFC5424), but without the frame header. If this flag is enabled, macros used for the message have effect only for the text of the message, the message header is formatted to the new standard. Note that this flag is not needed for the syslog driver, and that the syslog driver automatically adds the frame header to the messages.
flush-lines()
| Type: |
number |
| Default: |
Use global setting (exception: for http() destination, the default is 1). |
Description: Specifies how many lines are flushed to a destination at a time. The syslog-ng OSE application waits for this number of lines to accumulate and sends them off in a single batch. Increasing this number increases throughput as more messages are sent in a single batch, but also increases message latency.
The syslog-ng OSE application flushes the messages if it has sent flush-lines() number of messages, or the queue became empty. If you stop or reload syslog-ng OSE or in case of network sources, the connection with the client is closed, syslog-ng OSE automatically sends the unsent messages to the destination.
For optimal performance when sending messages to an syslog-ng OSE server, make sure that the value of flush-lines() is smaller than the window size set in the log-iw-size() option in the source of your server.
frac-digits()
Description: The syslog-ng application can store fractions of a second in the timestamps according to the ISO8601 format. The frac-digits() parameter specifies the number of digits stored. The digits storing the fractions are padded by zeros if the original timestamp of the message specifies only seconds. Fractions can always be stored for the time the message was received.
NOTE: The syslog-ng OSE application can add the fractions to non-ISO8601 timestamps as well.
NOTE: As syslog-ng OSE is precise up to the microsecond, when the frac-digits() option is set to a value higher than 6, syslog-ng OSE will truncate the fraction seconds in the timestamps after 6 digits.
hook-commands()
Description: This option makes it possible to execute external programs when the relevant driver is initialized or torn down. The hook-commands() can be used with all source and destination drivers with the exception of the usertty() and internal() drivers.
NOTE: The syslog-ng OSE application must be able to start and restart the external program, and have the necessary permissions to do so. For example, if your host is running AppArmor or SELinux, you might have to modify your AppArmor or SELinux configuration to enable syslog-ng OSE to execute external applications.
Using the hook-commands() when syslog-ng OSE starts or stops
To execute an external program when syslog-ng OSE starts or stops, use the following options:
| startup() |
| Type: |
string |
| Default: |
N/A |
|
Description: Defines the external program that is executed as syslog-ng OSE starts. |
| shutdown() |
| Type: |
string |
| Default: |
N/A |
|
Description: Defines the external program that is executed as syslog-ng OSE stops. |
Using the hook-commands() when syslog-ng OSE reloads
To execute an external program when the syslog-ng OSE configuration is initiated or torn down, for example, on startup/shutdown or during a syslog-ng OSE reload, use the following options:
| setup() |
| Type: |
string |
| Default: |
N/A |
|
Description: Defines an external program that is executed when the syslog-ng OSE configuration is initiated, for example, on startup or during a syslog-ng OSE reload. |
| teardown() |
| Type: |
string |
| Default: |
N/A |
|
Description: Defines an external program that is executed when the syslog-ng OSE configuration is stopped or torn down, for example, on shutdown or during a syslog-ng OSE reload. |
Example: Using the hook-commands() with a network source
In the following example, the hook-commands() is used with the network() driver and it opens an iptables port automatically as syslog-ng OSE is started/stopped.
The assumption in this example is that the LOGCHAIN chain is part of a larger ruleset that routes traffic to it. Whenever the syslog-ng OSE created rule is there, packets can flow, otherwise the port is closed.
source {
network(transport(udp)
hook-commands(
startup("iptables -I LOGCHAIN 1 -p udp --dport 514 -j ACCEPT")
shutdown("iptables -D LOGCHAIN 1")
)
);
};
log-fifo-size()
| Type: |
number |
| Default: |
Use global setting. |
Description: The number of messages that the output queue can store.
inherit-environment()
| Type: |
yes|no |
| Default: |
yes |
Description: By default, when program() starts an external application or script, it inherits the entire environment of the parent process (that is, syslog-ng OSE). Use inherit-environment(no) to prevent this.
keep-alive()
| Type: |
yes or no |
| Default: |
no |
Description: Specifies whether the external program should be closed when syslog-ng OSE is reloaded.
mark-freq()
| Accepted values: |
number [seconds] |
| Default: |
1200 |
Description: An alias for the obsolete mark() option, retained for compatibility with syslog-ng version 1.6.x.
The number of seconds between two MARK messages. MARK messages are generated when there was no message traffic to inform the receiver that the connection is still alive. If set to zero (0), no MARK messages are sent. The mark-freq() can be set for global option and/or every MARK capable destination driver if mark-mode() is periodical or dst-idle or host-idle. If mark-freq() is not defined in the destination, then the mark-freq() will be inherited from the global options. If the destination uses internal mark-mode(), then the global mark-freq() will be valid (does not matter what mark-freq() set in the destination side).
mark-mode()
| Accepted values: |
internal | dst-idle | host-idle | periodical | none | global |
| Default: |
internal for pipe, program drivers
none for file, unix-dgram, unix-stream drivers
global for syslog, tcp, udp destinations
host-idle for global option |
Description: The mark-mode() option can be set for the following destination drivers: file(), program(), unix-dgram(), unix-stream(), network(), pipe(), syslog() and in global option.
-
internal: When internal mark mode is selected, internal source should be placed in the log path as this mode does not generate mark by itself at the destination. This mode only yields the mark messages from internal source. This is the mode as syslog-ng OSE 3.3 worked. MARK will be generated by internal source if there was NO traffic on local sources:
file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram(), program()
-
dst-idle: Sends MARK signal if there was NO traffic on destination drivers. MARK signal from internal source will be dropped.
MARK signal can be sent by the following destination drivers: network(), syslog(), program(), file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram().
-
host-idle: Sends MARK signal if there was NO local message on destination drivers. for example, MARK is generated even if messages were received from tcp. MARK signal from internal source will be dropped.
MARK signal can be sent by the following destination drivers: network(), syslog(), program(), file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram().
-
periodical: Sends MARK signal perodically, regardless of traffic on destination driver. MARK signal from internal source will be dropped.
MARK signal can be sent by the following destination drivers: network(), syslog(), program(), file(), pipe(), unix-stream(), unix-dgram().
-
none: Destination driver drops all MARK messages. If an explicit mark-mode() is not given to the drivers where none is the default value, then none will be used.
-
global: Destination driver uses the global mark-mode() setting. Note that setting the global mark-mode() to global causes a syntax error in syslog-ng OSE.
NOTE: In case of dst-idle, host-idle and periodical, the MARK message will not be written in the destination, if it is not open yet.
Available in syslog-ng OSE 3.4 and later.
Note that in earlier versions of syslog-ng OSE, the default for the mark-mode of the program destination was none. Now it defaults to the global setting, so the program destination will emit a MARK message every mark-freq interval. To avoid such messages, set the mark-mode() option of the destination to none.
suppress()
| Type: |
seconds |
| Default: |
0 (disabled) |
Description: If several identical log messages would be sent to the destination without any other messages between the identical messages (for example, an application repeated an error message ten times), syslog-ng can suppress the repeated messages and send the message only once, followed by the Last message repeated n times. message. The parameter of this option specifies the number of seconds syslog-ng waits for identical messages.
template()
| Type: |
string |
| Default: |
A format conforming to the default logfile format. |
Description: Specifies a template defining the logformat to be used in the destination. Macros are described in Macros of syslog-ng OSE. Please note that for network destinations it might not be appropriate to change the template as it changes the on-wire format of the syslog protocol which might not be tolerated by stock syslog receivers (like syslogd or syslog-ng itself). For network destinations make sure the receiver can cope with the custom format defined.
Make sure to end your template with a newline character (\n).
template-escape()
| Type: |
yes or no |
| Default: |
no |
Description: Turns on escaping for the ', ", and backspace characters in templated output files. This is useful for generating SQL statements and quoting string contents so that parts of the log message are not interpreted as commands to the SQL server.
throttle()
Description: Sets the maximum number of messages sent to the destination per second. Use this output-rate-limiting functionality only when using disk-buffer as well to avoid the risk of losing messages. Specifying 0 or a lower value sets the output limit to unlimited.
time-zone()
| Type: |
name of the timezone, or the timezone offset |
| Default: |
unspecified |
Description: Convert timestamps to the timezone specified by this option. If this option is not set, then the original timezone information in the message is used. Converting the timezone changes the values of all date-related macros derived from the timestamp, for example, HOUR. For the complete list of such macros, see Date-related macros.
The timezone can be specified by using the name, for example, time-zone("Europe/Budapest")), or as the timezone offset in +/-HH:MM format, for example, +01:00). On Linux and UNIX platforms, the valid timezone names are listed under the /usr/share/zoneinfo directory.
ts-format()
| Type: |
rfc3164, bsd, rfc3339, iso |
| Default: |
rfc3164 |
Description: Override the global timestamp format (set in the global ts-format() parameter) for the specific destination. For details, see ts-format().
NOTE: This option applies only to file and file-like destinations. Destinations that use specific protocols (for example, network(), or syslog()) ignore this option. For protocol-like destinations, use a template locally in the destination, or use the proto-template option.
The pseudofile() destination driver is a very simple driver, aimed at delivering messages to special files such as files in the /proc, /dev or /sys directories. It opens and closes the file after each write operation, instead of keeping it open. It does not append further data. It does not support templates in the filename, and does not have a queue, processing is performed immediately as read by the source. Therefore, no loss is possible, but it takes CPU time from the source, so it is not adequate in high-traffic situations.
Declaration:
pseudofile(filename options());
The pseudofile() destination has the following options:
file()
| Type: |
filename with path |
| Default: |
|
Description: The file to write messages to, including the path.
hook-commands()
Description: This option makes it possible to execute external programs when the relevant driver is initialized or torn down. The hook-commands() can be used with all source and destination drivers with the exception of the usertty() and internal() drivers.
NOTE: The syslog-ng OSE application must be able to start and restart the external program, and have the necessary permissions to do so. For example, if your host is running AppArmor or SELinux, you might have to modify your AppArmor or SELinux configuration to enable syslog-ng OSE to execute external applications.
Using the hook-commands() when syslog-ng OSE starts or stops
To execute an external program when syslog-ng OSE starts or stops, use the following options:
| startup() |
| Type: |
string |
| Default: |
N/A |
|
Description: Defines the external program that is executed as syslog-ng OSE starts. |
| shutdown() |
| Type: |
string |
| Default: |
N/A |
|
Description: Defines the external program that is executed as syslog-ng OSE stops. |
Using the hook-commands() when syslog-ng OSE reloads
To execute an external program when the syslog-ng OSE configuration is initiated or torn down, for example, on startup/shutdown or during a syslog-ng OSE reload, use the following options:
| setup() |
| Type: |
string |
| Default: |
N/A |
|
Description: Defines an external program that is executed when the syslog-ng OSE configuration is initiated, for example, on startup or during a syslog-ng OSE reload. |
| teardown() |
| Type: |
string |
| Default: |
N/A |
|
Description: Defines an external program that is executed when the syslog-ng OSE configuration is stopped or torn down, for example, on shutdown or during a syslog-ng OSE reload. |
Example: Using the hook-commands() with a network source
In the following example, the hook-commands() is used with the network() driver and it opens an iptables port automatically as syslog-ng OSE is started/stopped.
The assumption in this example is that the LOGCHAIN chain is part of a larger ruleset that routes traffic to it. Whenever the syslog-ng OSE created rule is there, packets can flow, otherwise the port is closed.
source {
network(transport(udp)
hook-commands(
startup("iptables -I LOGCHAIN 1 -p udp --dport 514 -j ACCEPT")
shutdown("iptables -D LOGCHAIN 1")
)
);
};
template()
| Type: |
string |
| Default: |
A format conforming to the default logfile format. |
Description: Specifies a template defining the logformat to be used in the destination. Macros are described in Macros of syslog-ng OSE. Please note that for network destinations it might not be appropriate to change the template as it changes the on-wire format of the syslog protocol which might not be tolerated by stock syslog receivers (like syslogd or syslog-ng itself). For network destinations make sure the receiver can cope with the custom format defined.
