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loggen(1) The loggen manual page loggen(1) NAME loggen --- Generate syslog messages at a specified rate Synopsis loggen [options] target [port] Description NOTE: The loggen application is distributed with the syslog-ng OSE sys- tem logging application, and is usually part of the syslog-ng OSE pack- age. The latest version of the syslog-ng OSE application is available at the syslog-ng OSE page. This manual page is only an abstract. The loggen application is a tool to test and stress-test your syslog server and the connection to the server. It can send syslog messages to the server at a specified rate using a number of connection types and protocols, including TCP, UDP, and unix domain sockets. The messages can be generated automatically (repeating the PADDstring over and over), or read from a file or the standard input. When loggen finishes sending the messages, it displays the following statistics: • average rate: The average rate of the sent messages in mes- sages/second. • count: The total number of messages sent. • time: The time required to send the messages in seconds. • average message size: The average size of the sent messages in bytes. • bandwidth: The average bandwidth used for sending the messages in kilobytes/second. Options • --active-connections <number-of-connections> Number of connections loggen will use to send messages to the destination. This option is usable only when using TCP or TLS connections to the destination. Default value: 1 The loggen utility waits until every connection is established before starting to send messages. See also the --idle-connec- tions option. • --csv or -C Send the statistics of the sent messages to stdout as CSV. This can be used for plotting the message rate. • --dgram or -D Use datagram socket (UDP or unix-dgram) to send the messages to the target. Requires the --inet option as well. • dont-parse or -d Do not parse the lines read from the input files, send them as received. • --help or -h Display a brief help message. • --idle-connection <number-of-connections> Number of idle connections loggen will establish to the destina- tion. Note that loggen will not send any messages on idle con- nections, but the connection is kept open using keep-alive mes- sages. This option is usable only when using TCP or TLS connec- tions to the destination. See also the --active-connections op- tion. Default value: 0 • --inet or -i Use the TCP (by default) or UDP (when used together with the --dgram option) protocol to send the messages to the target. • --interval <seconds> or -I <seconds> The number of seconds loggen will run. Default value: 10 NOTE: When --interval and --number are used together, loggen will send messages until the period set in --interval expires or the amount of messages set in --number is reached, whichever happens first. • --ipv6 or -6 Specify the destination using its IPv6 address. Note that the destination must have a real IPv6 address. • --loop-reading or -l Read the file specified in --read-file option in loop: loggen will start reading from the beginning of the file when it reaches the end of the file. • --number <number-of-messages> or -n <number-of-messages> Number of messages to generate. NOTE: When --interval and --number are used together, loggen will send messages until the period set in --interval expires or the amount of messages set in --number is reached, whichever happens first. • --no-framing or -F Do not use the framing of the IETF-syslog protocol style, even if the --syslog-proto option is set. • --quiet or -Q Display statistics only when loggen is finished. If not set, the statistics are displayed every second. • --permanent or -T Keep sending logs indefinitely, without time limit. • --rate <message/second> or -r <message/second> The number of messages generated per second for every active connection. Default value: 1000 If you want to change the message rate while loggen is running, send SIGUSR1 to double the message rate, or SIGUSR2 to halve it: kill -USR1 <loggen-pid>kill -USR2 <loggen-pid> • --read-file <filename> or -R <filename> Read the messages from a file and send them to the target. See also the --skip-tokens option. Specify - as the input file to read messages from the standard input (stdio). Note that when reading messages from the standard input, loggen can only use a single thread. The -R -parameters must be placed at end of command, like: loggen 127.0.0.1 1061 --read-file - • --sdata <data-to-send> or -p <data-to-send> Send the argument of the --sdata option as the SDATA part of IETF-syslog (RFC-5424 formatted) messages. Use it together with the --syslog-proto option. For example: --sdata \"[test name=\\"value\\"] • --size <message-size> or -s <message-size> The size of a syslog message in bytes. Default value: 256. Mini- mum value: 127 bytes, maximum value: 8192 bytes. • --skip-tokens <number> Skip the specified number of space-separated tokens (words) at the beginning of every line. For example, if the messages in the file look like foo bar message, --skip-tokens 2 skips the foo bar part of the line, and sends only the message part. Works only when used together with the --read-file parameter. Default value: 0 • --stream or -S Use a stream socket (TCP or unix-stream) to send the messages to the target. • --syslog-proto or -P Use the new IETF-syslog message format. By default, loggen uses the legacy BSD-syslog message format. See also the --no-framing option. • --unix </path/to/socket> or -x </path/to/socket> Use a UNIX domain socket to send the messages to the target. • --use-ssl or -U Use an SSL-encrypted channel to send the messages to the target. Note that it is not possible to check the certificate of the target, or to perform mutual authentication. • --version or -V Display version number of syslog-ng. Examples The following command generates 100 messages per second for ten min- utes, and sends them to port 2010 of the localhost via TCP. Each mes- sage is 300 bytes long. loggen --size 300 --rate 100 --interval 600 127.0.0.1 2010 The following command is similar to the one above, but uses the UDP protocol. loggen --inet --dgram --size 300 --rate 100 --interval 600 127.0.0.1 2010 Send a single message on TCP6 to the ::1 IPv6 address, port 1061: loggen --ipv6 --number 1 ::1 1061 Send a single message on UDP6 to the ::1 IPv6 address, port 1061: loggen --ipv6 --dgram --number 1 ::1 1061 Send a single message using a unix domain-socket: loggen --unix --stream --number 1 </path/to/socket> Read messages from the standard input (stdio) and send them to the lo- calhost: loggen 127.0.0.1 1061 --read-file - Files /usr/local/bin/loggen NOTE: If you experience any problems or need help with syslog-ng OSE, see the syslog-ng OSE Administration Guide[1], or visit the syslog-ng OSE mailing list[2]. For news and notifications about syslog-ng OSE, visit the syslog-ng OSE blogs[3]. AUTHOR This manual page was generated from the syslog-ng OSE Administration Guide[1], which was written by several contributors to whom we'd like to extend our sincere thanks. COPYRIGHT NOTES [1] syslog-ng OSE Administration Guide <https://syslog-ng.github.io/admin-guide/README> [2] syslog-ng OSE mailing list <https://lists.balabit.hu/mailman/listinfo/syslog-ng> [3] syslog-ng OSE blogs <https://syslog-ng.com/blog/> 4.9.0 03 September 2025 loggen(1)
NAME | Synopsis | Description | Options | Files | AUTHOR | COPYRIGHT | NOTES
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