syslog-ng Open Source Edition 3.22 - Administration Guide

The stdin() driver collects messages from the standard input stream. When the standard input stream is closed, syslog-ng stops and stdin() inherits all options from the file() source, including multi-line options, or flags(no-parse).

The stdin() driver causes syslog-ng to exit once it hits end-of-file (EOF).

Declaration:

stdin();

Example: Using the stdin() driver

@version: 3.22
log { 
	source { stdin(); };
	destination { file("/dev/stdout"); };
};

The following code snippet is an example of how the stdin() driver is used to collect a test message:

$ echo "this is a test message" | ./syslog-ng -Fe --no-caps
[2017-11-14T13:47:16.757938] syslog-ng starting up; version='3.12.1'
[2017-11-14T13:47:16.758195] syslog-ng shutting down; version='3.12.1'
Nov 14 13:47:16 testserver this is a test message

stdin() source options

source: Read, receive, and collect log messages > stdin: Collecting messages from the standard input stream > stdin() source options

The stdin() driver has the following options:

default-facility()

Type:	facility string
Default:	kern

Description: This parameter assigns a facility value to the messages received from the file source if the message does not specify one.

default-priority()

Type:	priority string
Default:

Description: This parameter assigns an emergency level to the messages received from the file source if the message does not specify one. For example, default-priority(warning).

encoding()

Type:	string
Default:

Description: Specifies the character set (encoding, for example UTF-8) of messages using the legacy BSD-syslog protocol. To list the available character sets on a host, execute the iconv -l command. For details on how encoding affects the size of the message, see Message size and encoding.

flags()

Type:	assume-utf8, empty-lines, expect-hostname, kernel, no-hostname, no-multi-line, no-parse, sanitize-utf8, store-legacy-msghdr, store-raw-message, syslog-protocol, validate-utf8
Default:	empty set

Description: Specifies the log parsing options of the source.

assume-utf8: The assume-utf8 flag assumes that the incoming messages are UTF-8 encoded, but does not verify the encoding. If you explicitly want to validate the UTF-8 encoding of the incoming message, use the validate-utf8 flag.
empty-lines: Use the empty-lines flag to keep the empty lines of the messages. By default, syslog-ng OSE removes empty lines automatically.
expect-hostname: If the expect-hostname flag is enabled, syslog-ng OSE will assume that the log message contains a hostname and parse the message accordingly. This is the default behavior for TCP sources. Note that pipe sources use the no-hostname flag by default.
guess-timezone: Attempt to guess the timezone of the message if this information is not available in the message. Works when the incoming message stream is close to real time, and the timezone information is missing from the timestamp.
kernel: The kernel flag makes the source default to the LOG_KERN | LOG_NOTICE priority if not specified otherwise.
no-hostname: Enable the no-hostname flag if the log message does not include the hostname of the sender host. That way syslog-ng OSE assumes that the first part of the message header is ${PROGRAM} instead of ${HOST}. For example:
```
source s_dell {
    network(
        port(2000)
        flags(no-hostname)
    );
};
```
no-multi-line: The no-multi-line flag disables line-breaking in the messages: the entire message is converted to a single line. Note that this happens only if the underlying transport method actually supports multi-line messages. Currently the file() and pipe() drivers support multi-line messages.
no-parse: By default, syslog-ng OSE parses incoming messages as syslog messages. The no-parse flag completely disables syslog message parsing and processes the complete line as the message part of a syslog message. The syslog-ng OSE application will generate a new syslog header (timestamp, host, and so on) automatically and put the entire incoming message into the MESSAGE part of the syslog message (available using the ${MESSAGE} macro). This flag is useful for parsing messages not complying to the syslog format.

If you are using the flags(no-parse) option, then syslog message parsing is completely disabled, and the entire incoming message is treated as the ${MESSAGE} part of a syslog message. In this case, syslog-ng OSE generates a new syslog header (timestamp, host, and so on) automatically. Note that since flags(no-parse) disables message parsing, it interferes with other flags, for example, disables flags(no-multi-line).
dont-store-legacy-msghdr: By default, syslog-ng stores the original incoming header of the log message. This is useful if the original format of a non-syslog-compliant message must be retained (syslog-ng automatically corrects minor header errors, for example, adds a whitespace before msg in the following message: Jan 22 10:06:11 host program:msg). If you do not want to store the original header of the message, enable the dont-store-legacy-msghdr flag.
sanitize-utf8: When using the sanitize-utf8 flag, syslog-ng OSE converts non-UTF-8 input to an escaped form, which is valid UTF-8.
store-raw-message: Save the original message as received from the client in the ${RAWMSG} macro. You can forward this raw message in its original form to another syslog-ng node using the syslog-ng() destination, or to a SIEM system, ensuring that the SIEM can process it. Available only in 3.16 and later.
syslog-protocol: The syslog-protocol flag specifies that incoming messages are expected to be formatted according to the new IETF syslog protocol standard (RFC5424), but without the frame header. Note that this flag is not needed for the syslog driver, which handles only messages that have a frame header.
validate-utf8: The validate-utf8 flag enables encoding-verification for messages formatted according to the new IETF syslog standard (for details, see IETF-syslog messages). If the BOM1 character is missing, but the message is otherwise UTF-8 compliant, syslog-ng automatically adds the BOM character to the message.

follow-freq()

Type:	number
Default:	1

Description: Indicates that the source should be checked periodically. This is useful for files which always indicate readability, even though no new lines were appended. If this value is higher than zero, syslog-ng will not attempt to use poll() on the file, but checks whether the file changed every time the follow-freq() interval (in seconds) has elapsed. Floating-point numbers (for example 1.5) can be used as well.

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")
        )
     );
};

keep-timestamp()

Type:	yes or no
Default:	yes

Description: Specifies whether syslog-ng should accept the timestamp received from the sending application or client. If disabled, the time of reception will be used instead. This option can be specified globally, and per-source as well. The local setting of the source overrides the global option if available.

Caution:

To use the S_ macros, the keep-timestamp() option must be enabled (this is the default behavior of syslog-ng OSE).

log-fetch-limit()

Type:	number
Default:	100

Description: The maximum number of messages fetched from a source during a single poll loop. The destination queues might fill up before flow-control could stop reading if log-fetch-limit() is too high.

log-iw-size()

Type:	number
Default:	10000

Description: The size of the initial window, this value is used during flow control. Make sure that log-iw-size() is larger than the value of log-fetch-limit().

log-msg-size()

Type:	number (bytes)
Default:	Use the global log-msg-size() option, which defaults to 65536.

Description: Maximum length of a message in bytes. This length includes the entire message (the data structure and individual fields). The maximal value that can be set is 268435456 bytes (256MB). For messages using the IETF-syslog message format (RFC5424), the maximal size of the value of an SDATA field is 64kB.

In most cases, it is not recommended to set log-msg-size() higher than 10 MiB.

For details on how encoding affects the size of the message, see Message size and encoding.

Uses the value of the global option if not specified.

log-prefix() (DEPRECATED)

Type:	string
Default:

Description: A string added to the beginning of every log message. It can be used to add an arbitrary string to any log source, though it is most commonly used for adding kernel: to the kernel messages on Linux.

NOTE:

This option is deprecated. Use program-override() instead.

multi-line-garbage()

Type:	regular expression
Default:	empty string

Description: Use the multi-line-garbage() option when processing multi-line messages that contain unneeded parts between the messages. Specify a string or regular expression that matches the beginning of the unneeded message parts. If the multi-line-garbage() option is set, syslog-ng OSE ignores the lines between the line matching the multi-line-garbage() and the next line matching multi-line-prefix(). See also the multi-line-prefix() option.

When receiving multi-line messages from a source when the multi-line-garbage() option is set, but no matching line is received between two lines that match multi-line-prefix(), syslog-ng OSE will continue to process the incoming lines as a single message until a line matching multi-line-garbage() is received.

To use the multi-line-garbage() option, set the multi-line-mode() option to prefix-garbage.

Caution:

If the multi-line-garbage() option is set, syslog-ng OSE discards lines between the line matching the multi-line-garbage() and the next line matching multi-line-prefix().

multi-line-mode()

Type:	indented\|regexp
Default:	empty string

Description: Use the multi-line-mode() option when processing multi-line messages. The syslog-ng OSE application provides the following methods to process multi-line messages:

The indented mode can process messages where each line that belongs to the previous line is indented by whitespace, and the message continues until the first non-indented line. For example, the Linux kernel (starting with version 3.5) uses this format for /dev/log, as well as several applications, like Apache Tomcat.
Example: Processing indented multi-line messages
```
source s_tomcat {
    file("/var/log/tomcat/xxx.log" multi-line-mode(indented));
};
```
The prefix-garbage mode uses a string or regular expression (set in multi-line-prefix()) that matches the beginning of the log messages, ignores newline characters from the source until a line matches the regular expression again, and treats the lines between the matching lines as a single message. For details on using multi-line-mode(prefix-garbage), see the multi-line-prefix() and multi-line-garbage() options.
The prefix-suffix mode uses a string or regular expression (set in multi-line-prefix()) that matches the beginning of the log messages, ignores newline characters from the source until a line matches the regular expression set in multi-line-suffix(), and treats the lines between multi-line-prefix() and multi-line-suffix() as a single message. Any other lines between the end of the message and the beginning of a new message (that is, a line that matches the multi-line-prefix() expression) are discarded. For details on using multi-line-mode(prefix-suffix), see the multi-line-prefix() and multi-line-suffix() options.

The prefix-suffix mode is similar to the prefix-garbage mode, but it appends the garbage part to the message instead of discarding it.

TIP:

To make multi-line messages more readable when written to a file, use a template in the destination and instead of the ${MESSAGE} macro, use the following: $(indent-multi-line ${MESSAGE}). This expression inserts a tab after every newline character (except when a tab is already present), indenting every line of the message after the first. For example:
```
destination d_file {
    file ("/var/log/messages"
        template("${ISODATE} ${HOST} $(indent-multi-line ${MESSAGE})\n")
    );
};
```
For details on using templates, see Templates and macros.
To actually convert the lines of multi-line messages to single line (by replacing the newline characters with whitespaces), use the flags(no-multi-line) option in the source.

multi-line-prefix()

Type:	regular expression starting with the ^ character
Default:	empty string

Description: Use the multi-line-prefix() option to process multi-line messages, that is, log messages that contain newline characters (for example, Tomcat logs). Specify a string or regular expression that matches the beginning of the log messages (always start with the ^ character). Use as simple regular expressions as possible, because complex regular expressions can severely reduce the rate of processing multi-line messages. If the multi-line-prefix() option is set, syslog-ng OSE ignores newline characters from the source until a line matches the regular expression again, and treats the lines between the matching lines as a single message. See also the multi-line-garbage() option.

TIP:

To make multi-line messages more readable when written to a file, use a template in the destination and instead of the ${MESSAGE} macro, use the following: $(indent-multi-line ${MESSAGE}). This expression inserts a tab after every newline character (except when a tab is already present), indenting every line of the message after the first. For example:
```
destination d_file {
    file ("/var/log/messages"
        template("${ISODATE} ${HOST} $(indent-multi-line ${MESSAGE})\n")
    );
};
```
For details on using templates, see Templates and macros.
To actually convert the lines of multi-line messages to single line (by replacing the newline characters with whitespaces), use the flags(no-multi-line) option in the source.

Example: Processing Tomcat logs

The log messages of the Apache Tomcat server are a typical example for multi-line log messages. The messages start with the date and time of the query in the YYYY.MM.DD HH:MM:SS format, as you can see in the following example.

2010.06.09. 12:07:39 org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
SEVERE: Catalina.start:
LifecycleException:  service.getName(): "Catalina";  Protocol handler start failed: java.net.BindException: Address already in use null:8080
       at org.apache.catalina.connector.Connector.start(Connector.java:1138)
       at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:531)
       at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
       at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:583)
       at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
       at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
       at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
       at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
       at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:288)
       at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
       at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
       at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
       at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
       at org.apache.commons.daemon.support.DaemonLoader.start(DaemonLoader.java:177)
2010.06.09. 12:07:39 org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
INFO: Server startup in 1206 ms
2010.06.09. 12:45:08 org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol pause
INFO: Pausing Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8080
2010.06.09. 12:45:09 org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService stop
INFO: Stopping service Catalina

To process these messages, specify a regular expression matching the timestamp of the messages in the multi-line-prefix() option. Such an expression is the following:

source s_file{file("/var/log/tomcat6/catalina.2010-06-09.log" follow-freq(0) multi-line-mode(regexp) multi-line-prefix("[0-9]{4}\.[0-9]{2}\.[0-9]{2}\.") flags(no-parse));};
};

Note that flags(no-parse) is needed to prevent syslog-ng OSE trying to interpret the date in the message.

multi-line-suffix()

Type:	regular expression
Default:	empty string

Description: Use the multi-line-suffix() option when processing multi-line messages. Specify a string or regular expression that matches the end of the multi-line message.

To use the multi-line-suffix() option, set the multi-line-mode() option to prefix-suffix. See also the multi-line-prefix() option.

pad-size()

Type:	number
Default:	0

Description: Specifies input padding. Some operating systems (such as HP-UX) pad all messages to block boundary. This option can be used to specify the block size. The syslog-ng OSE application will pad reads from the associated device to the number of bytes set in pad-size(). Mostly used on HP-UX where /dev/log is a named pipe and every write is padded to 2048 bytes. If pad-size() was given and the incoming message does not fit into pad-size(), syslog-ng will not read anymore from this pipe and displays the following error message:

Padding was set, and couldn't read enough bytes

program-override()

Type:	string
Default:

Description: Replaces the ${PROGRAM} part of the message with the parameter string. For example, to mark every message coming from the kernel, include the program-override("kernel") option in the source containing /proc/kmsg.

tags()

Type:	string
Default:

Description: Label the messages received from the source with custom tags. Tags must be unique, and enclosed between double quotes. When adding multiple tags, separate them with comma, for example tags("dmz", "router"). This option is available only in syslog-ng 3.1 and later.

time-zone()

Type:	name of the timezone, or the timezone offset
Default:

Description: The default timezone for messages read from the source. Applies only if no timezone is specified within the message itself.

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.

destination: Forward, send, and store log messages

A destination is where a log message is sent if the filtering rules match. Similarly to sources, destinations consist of one or more drivers, each defining where and how messages are sent.

TIP:

If no drivers are defined for a destination, all messages sent to the destination are discarded. This is equivalent to omitting the destination from the log statement.

To define a destination, add a destination statement to the syslog-ng configuration file using the following syntax:

destination <identifier> {
    destination-driver(params); destination-driver(params); ...
};

Example: A simple destination statement

The following destination statement sends messages to the TCP port 1999 of the 10.1.2.3 host.

destination d_demo_tcp {
    network("10.1.2.3" port(1999));
};

If name resolution is configured, you can use the hostname of the target server as well.

destination d_tcp {
    network("target_host" port(1999));
};

Caution:

Do not define the same drivers with the same parameters more than once, because it will cause problems. For example, do not open the same file in multiple destinations.
Do not use the same destination in different log paths, because it can cause problems with most destination types. Instead, use filters and log paths to avoid such situations.
Sources and destinations are initialized only when they are used in a log statement. For example, syslog-ng OSE starts listening on a port or starts polling a file only if the source is used in a log statement. For details on creating log statements, see log: Filter and route log messages using log paths, flags, and filters.

The following table lists the destination drivers available in syslog-ng OSE. If these destinations do not satisfy your needs, you can extend syslog-ng OSE and write your own destination, for example, in C, Java, or Python. For details, see Write your own custom destination in Java or Python.

Table 10: Destination drivers available in syslog-ng
Name	Description
amqp()	Publishes messages using the AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol).
elasticsearch-http()	Sends messages to an Elasticsearch server over HTTP using its REST API.
file()	Writes messages to the specified file.
graphite()	Sends metrics to a Graphite server to store numeric time-series data.
graylog2()	Sends syslog messages to Graylog.
hdfs()	Sends messages into a file on a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) node.
http()	Sends messages over the HTTP protocol. There are two different implementations of this driver: a Java-based http driver, and an http driver without Java.
kafka()	Publishes log messages to the Apache Kafka message bus, where subscribers can access them.
loggly()	Sends log messages to the Loggly Logging-as-a-Service provider.
logmatic()	Sends log messages to the Logmatic.io Logging-as-a-Service provider.
mongodb()	Sends messages to a MongoDB database.
network()	Sends messages to a remote host using the BSD-syslog protocol over IPv4 and IPv6. Supports the TCP, UDP, and TLS network protocols.
logstore()	Writes messages to the specified binary logstore file.
pipe()	Writes messages to the specified named pipe.
program()	Forks and launches the specified program, and sends messages to its standard input.
python()	Send messages to a custom destination written in Python.
redis()	Sends messages as name-value pairs to a Redis key-value store.
slack()	Sends messages and alerts to a Slack channel using the Slack Web API.
riemann()	Sends metrics or events to a Riemann monitoring system.
smtp()	Sends e-mail messages to the specified recipients.
snmp()	Sends sends SNMP traps using the Simple Network Management Protocol version 2c or version 3.
sql()	Sends messages into an SQL database. In addition to the standard syslog-ng packages, the sql() destination requires database-specific packages to be installed. Refer to the section appropriate for your platform in Installing syslog-ng.
snmp()	Sends messages to the specified remote host using the SNMP v2c or v3 protocol.
stomp()	Sends messages to a STOMP server.
syslog()	Sends messages to the specified remote host using the IETF-syslog protocol. The IETF standard supports message transport using the UDP, TCP, and TLS networking protocols.
telegram()	Sends log messages to Telegram, which is a secure, cloud-based mobile and desktop messaging app.
unix-dgram()	Sends messages to the specified unix socket in SOCK_DGRAM style (BSD).
unix-stream()	Sends messages to the specified unix socket in SOCK_STREAM style (Linux).
usertty()	Sends messages to the terminal of the specified user, if the user is logged in.

amqp: Publishing messages using AMQP

destination: Forward, send, and store log messages > amqp: Publishing messages using AMQP

The amqp() driver publishes messages using the AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol). syslog-ng OSE supports AMQP versions 0.9.1 and 1.0. The syslog-ng OSE amqp() driver supports persistence, and every available exchange types.

The name-value pairs selected with the value-pairs() option will be sent as AMQP headers, while the body of the AMQP message is empty by default (but you can add custom content using the body() option). Publishing the name-value pairs as headers makes it possible to use the Headers exchange-type and subscribe only to interesting log streams. This solution is more flexible than using the routing-key() option.

For the list of available parameters, see amqp() destination options.

Declaration:

amqp( host("<amqp-server-address>") );

Example: Using the amqp() driver

The following example shows the default values of the available options.

destination d_amqp {
    amqp(
        vhost("/")
        host("127.0.0.1")
        port(5672)
        exchange("syslog")
        exchange-type("fanout")
        routing-key("")
        body("")
        persistent(yes)
        value-pairs(
            scope("selected-macros" "nv-pairs" "sdata")
        )
    );
};

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syslog-ng Open Source Edition 3.22 - Administration Guide

stdin: Collecting messages from the standard input stream

Declaration:

Example: Using the stdin() driver

stdin() source options

default-facility()

default-priority()

encoding()

flags()

follow-freq()

hook-commands()

Using the hook-commands() when syslog-ng OSE starts or stops

Using the hook-commands() when syslog-ng OSE reloads

Example: Using the hook-commands() with a network source

keep-timestamp()

log-fetch-limit()

log-iw-size()

log-msg-size()

log-prefix() (DEPRECATED)

multi-line-garbage()

multi-line-mode()

Example: Processing indented multi-line messages

multi-line-prefix()

Example: Processing Tomcat logs

multi-line-suffix()

pad-size()

program-override()

tags()

time-zone()

destination: Forward, send, and store log messages

Example: A simple destination statement

amqp: Publishing messages using AMQP

Declaration:

Example: Using the amqp() driver