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NEWSYSLOG(8)		     System Manager's Manual		    NEWSYSLOG(8)

NAME
     newsyslog -- maintain system log files to manageable sizes

SYNOPSIS
     newsyslog [-CFnrsv] [-R tagname] [-a directory] [-f config_file] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The  newsyslog  utility should be scheduled to run periodically by cron(8).
     When it is executed it archives log files if necessary.  If a log	file  is
     determined  to  require  archiving,  newsyslog rearranges the files so that
     "logfile"	is  empty,  "logfile.0"  has  the  last  period's  logs  in  it,
     "logfile.1"  has  the  next to last period's logs in it, and so on, up to a
     user-specified number of archived logs.  Optionally the archived  logs  can
     be compressed to save space.

     A log can be archived for three reasons:

	   1.	It is larger than the configured size (in kilobytes).

	   2.	A configured number of hours have elapsed since the log was last
		archived.

	   3.	This is the specific configured hour for rotation of the log.

     The  granularity  of newsyslog is dependent on how often it is scheduled to
     run by cron(8).  Since the program is quite fast, it may  be  scheduled  to
     run every hour without any ill effects, and mode three (above) assumes that
     this is so.

OPTIONS
     The following options can be used with newsyslog:

     -f config_file
	     Instruct	  newsyslog    to    use    config_file    instead    of
	     /etc/newsyslog.conf for its configuration file.

     -a directory
	     Specify a directory into which archived log files will be	written.
	     If a relative path is given, it is appended to the path of each log
	     file and the resulting path is used as the directory into which the
	     archived  log  for  that  log file will be written.  If an absolute
	     path is given,  all  archived  logs  are  written	into  the  given
	     directory.   If any component of the path directory does not exist,
	     it will be created when newsyslog is run.

     -v      Place newsyslog in verbose mode.  In this mode it	will  print  out
	     each  log	and its reasons for either trimming that log or skipping
	     it.

     -n      Cause newsyslog not to trim the logs, but	to  print  out	what  it
	     would do if this option were not specified.

     -r      Remove  the restriction that newsyslog must be running as root.  Of
	     course, newsyslog will not be able to send a  HUP	signal	to  sys-
	     logd(8) so this option should only be used in debugging.

     -s      Specify  that  newsyslog  should not send any signals to any daemon
	     processes that it would normally signal when rotating a  log  file.
	     For  any  log  file which is rotated, this option will usually also
	     mean the rotated log file will not be compressed if there is a dae-
	     mon which would have been signalled without this option.	However,
	     this  option is most likely to be useful when specified with the -R
	     option, and in that case the compression will be done.

     -C      If specified once, then newsyslog will create any log  files  which
	     do  not  exist, and which have the C flag specified in their config
	     file entry.  If specified multiple times, then newsyslog will  cre-
	     ate  all  log  files  which do not already exist.	If log files are
	     given on the command-line, then the -C or -CC will  only  apply  to
	     those specific log files.

     -F      Force  newsyslog to trim the logs, even if the trim conditions have
	     not been met.  This option is useful for diagnosing system problems
	     by providing you with fresh logs that contain only the problems.

     -R tagname
	     Specify that newsyslog should rotate a given list of files, even if
	     trim conditions are not met for those files.  The tagname	is  only
	     used  in  the  messages written to the log files which are rotated.
	     This differs from the -F option in that one or more log files  must
	     also  be  specified,  so  that newsyslog will only operate on those
	     specific files.  This option is mainly intended for the daemons  or
	     programs  which  write some log files, and want to trigger a rotate
	     based on their own criteria.  With this  option  they  can  execute
	     newsyslog	to  trigger  the rotate when they want it to happen, and
	     still give the system administrator a way to specify the  rules  of
	     rotation (such as how many backup copies are kept, and what kind of
	     compression  is  done).   When a daemon does execute newsyslog with
	     the -R option, it should make sure all of the log files are  closed
	     before  calling newsyslog, and then it should re-open the files af-
	     ter newsyslog returns.  Usually the calling process will also  want
	     to  specify  the  -s option, so newsyslog will not send a signal to
	     the very process which called it to force the rotate.  Skipping the
	     signal step will also mean that newsyslog will return faster, since
	     newsyslog normally waits a few seconds after  any	signal	that  is
	     sent.

     If additional command line arguments are given, newsyslog will only examine
     log  files that match those arguments; otherwise, it will examine all files
     listed in the configuration file.

FILES
     /etc/newsyslog.conf      newsyslog configuration file

BUGS
     Doesn't yet automatically read the logs to find security breaches.

AUTHORS
     Theodore Ts'o, MIT Project Athena

     Copyright 1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

COMPATIBILITY
     Previous versions of the newsyslog utility used the dot  (``.'')  character
     to  distinguish  the group name.  Beginning with FreeBSD 3.3, this has been
     changed to a colon (``:'') character so that user and group names may  con-
     tain  the	dot  character.  The dot (``.'') character is still accepted for
     backwards compatibility.

SEE ALSO
     bzip(1), gzip(1), syslog(3), newsyslog.conf(5), chown(8), syslogd(8)

FreeBSD 5.3			 March 10, 2004 		    NEWSYSLOG(8)
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