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syslog-ng-ctl(1) The syslog-ng OSE control tool manual page syslog-ng-ctl(1) NAME syslog-ng-ctl --- Display message statistics and enable verbose, debug and trace modes in {{ site.product.short_name }} Synopsis syslog-ng-ctl [command] [options] Description NOTE: The syslog-ng-ctl application is distributed with the syslog-ng OSE system logging application, and is usually part of the syslog-ng OSE package. 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 syslog-ng-ctl application is a utility that can be used to: • enable/disable various syslog-ng OSE messages for trou- bleshooting • display statistics about the processed messages • handling password-protected private keys • display the currently running configuration of syslog-ng OSE • reload the configuration of syslog-ng OSE. Enabling troubleshooting messages command [options] Use the syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=on command to display verbose, trace, or debug messages. If you are trying to solve configuration problems, the verbose (and occasionally trace) messages are usually sufficient. Debug messages are needed mostly for finding software er- rors. After solving the problem, do not forget to turn these messages off using the syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=off Note that enabling de- bug messages does not enable verbose and trace messages. Use syslog-ng-ctl <command> without any parameters to display whether the particular type of messages are enabled or not. If you need to use a non-standard control socket to access syslog-ng OSE, use the syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=on --control=<socket> com- mand to specify the socket to use. • verbose Print verbose messages. If syslog-ng OSE was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng OSE will log such messages to its in- ternal source. • trace Print trace messages of how messages are processed. If syslog-ng OSE was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng OSE will log such messages to its internal source. • debug Print debug messages. If syslog-ng OSE was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng OSE will log such messages to its in- ternal source. Example syslog-ng-ctl verbose --set=on syslog-ng-ctl query The syslog-ng OSE application stores various data, metrics, and statis- tics in a hash table. Every property has a name and a value. For exam- ple: [syslog-ng] | |_[destinations]-[network]-[tcp]->[stats]->{received=12;dropped=2} | |_[sources]-[sql]-[stats]->{received=501;dropped=0} You can query the nodes of this tree, and also use filters to select the information you need. A query is actually a path in the tree. You can also use the ? and * wildcards. For example: • Select every property: * • Select all dropped value from every stats node: *.stats.dropped The nodes and properties available in the tree depend on your syslog-ng OSE configuration (that is, the sources, destinations, and other ob- jects you have configured), and also on your stats-level() settings. The list command syslog-ng-ctl query list Use the syslog-ng-ctl query list command to display the list of metrics that syslog-ng OSE collects about the processed messages. An example output: center.received.stats.processed center.queued.stats.processed destination.delastic.stats.processed source.stcp.stats.processed source.severity.7.stats.processed source.sever- ity.0.stats.processed source.severity.1.stats.processed source.severity.2.stats.processed source.sever- ity.3.stats.processed source.severity.4.stats.processed source.severity.5.stats.processed source.sever- ity.6.stats.processed source.facility.7.stats.processed source.facility.16.stats.processed source.facil- ity.8.stats.processed source.facility.17.stats.processed source.facility.9.stats.processed source.facil- ity.18.stats.processed source.facility.19.stats.processed source.facility.20.stats.processed source.facil- ity.0.stats.processed source.facility.21.stats.processed source.facility.1.stats.processed source.facil- ity.10.stats.processed source.facility.22.stats.processed source.facility.2.stats.processed source.facil- ity.11.stats.processed source.facility.23.stats.processed source.facility.3.stats.processed source.facil- ity.12.stats.processed source.facility.4.stats.processed source.facility.13.stats.processed source.facil- ity.5.stats.processed source.facility.14.stats.processed source.facility.6.stats.processed source.facil- ity.15.stats.processed source.facility.other.stats.processed global.payloadreallocs.stats.processed global.msg- clones.stats.processed global.sdataupdates.stats.processed tag..source.stcp.stats.processed The syslog-ng-ctl query list command has the following options: • --reset Use --reset to set the selected counters to 0 after executing the query. Displaying metrics and statistics syslog-ng-ctl query get [options] The syslog-ng-ctl query get <query> command lists the nodes that match the query, and their values. For example, the destination query lists the configured destinations, and the metrics related to each destination. An example output: destination.d_elastic.stats.processed=0 The syslog-ng-ctl query get command has the following options: • --sum Add up the result of each matching node and return only a single number. For example, the syslog-ng-ctl query get --sum \"destina- tion*.dropped\" command displays the number of messages dropped by the syslog-ng OSE instance. • --reset Use --reset to set the selected counters to 0 after executing the query. The stats command stats [options] Use the stats command to display statistics about the processed mes- sages. For details about the displayed statistics, see The syslog-ng OSE Administration Guide. The stats command has the following options: • --control=<socket> or -c Specify the socket to use to access syslog-ng PE. Only needed when using a non-standard socket. • --reset=<socket> or -r Reset all statistics to zero, except for the queued counters. (The queued counters show the number of messages in the message queue of the destination driver, waiting to be sent to the des- tination.) • --remove-orphans Safely removes all counters that are not referenced by any sys- log-ng stat producer objects. The flag can be used to prune dynamic and static counters manu- ally. This is useful, for example, when a templated file desti- nation produces a lot of stats: dst.file;#anon-destina- tion0#0;/tmp/2021-08-16.log;o;processed;253592 dst.file;#anon-destina- tion0#0;/tmp/2021-08-17.log;o;processed;156 dst.file;#anon-destina- tion0#0;/tmp/2021-08-18.log;a;processed;961 NOTE: The stats(lifetime()) can be used to do the same automati- cally and periodically, but currently stats(lifetime()) removes only dynamic counters that have a timestamp field set. Example - stats syslog-ng-ctl stats An example output: src.internal;sall#0;;a;processed;6445 src.inter- nal;sall#0;;a;stamp;1268989330 destina- tion;dfauth;;a;processed;404 destination;dfnewsdotno- tice;;a;processed;0 destination;dfnewsdoterr;;a;processed;0 des- tination;dssb;;a;processed;7128 destination;dfu- ucp;;a;processed;0 source;sall;;a;processed;7128 destination;df- mail;;a;processed;0 destination;dfuser;;a;processed;1 destina- tion;dfdaemon;;a;processed;1 destination;dfdebug;;a;processed;15 destination;dfmessages;;a;processed;54 destination;dpxcon- sole;;a;processed;671 dst.tcp;dnet- work#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;dropped;5080 dst.tcp;dnet- work#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;processed;7128 dst.tcp;dnet- work#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;queued;2048 destination;dfsys- log;;a;processed;6724 destination;dffacilitydot- warn;;a;processed;0 destination;dfnewsdotcrit;;a;processed;0 destination;dflpr;;a;processed;0 destination;du- all;;a;processed;0 destination;dffacilitydotinfo;;a;processed;0 center;;received;a;processed;0 destination;dfk- ern;;a;processed;70 center;;queued;a;processed;0 destination;df- facilitydot_err;;a;processed;0 Handling password-protected private keys syslog-ng-ctl credentials [options] The syslog-ng-ctl credentials status command allows you to query the status of the private keys that syslog-ng OSE uses in the network() and syslog() drivers. You can also provide the passphrase for password-pro- tected private keys using the syslog-ng-ctl credentials add command. For details on using password-protected keys, see The syslog-ng OSE Ad- ministrator Guide. Displaying the status of private keys syslog-ng-ctl credentials status [options] The syslog-ng-ctl credentials status command allows you to query the status of the private keys that syslog-ng OSE uses in the network() and syslog() drivers. The command returns the list of private keys used, and their status. For example: syslog-ng-ctl credentials status Secret store status: /home/user/ssl_test/client-1/client-en- crypted.key SUCCESS If the status of a key is PENDING, you must provide the passphrase for the key, otherwise syslog-ng OSE cannot use it. The sources and desti- nations that use these keys will not work until you provide the pass- words. Other parts of the syslog-ng OSE configuration will be unaf- fected. You must provide the passphrase of the password-protected keys every time syslog-ng OSE is restarted. The following log message also notifies you of PENDING passphrases: Waiting for password; keyfile='private.key' • --control=<socket> or -c Specify the socket to use to access syslog-ng OSE. Only needed when using a non-standard socket. Opening password-protected private keys syslog-ng-ctl credentials add [options] You can add the passphrase to a password-protected private key file us- ing the following command. syslog-ng OSE will display a prompt for you to enter the passphrase. We recommend that you use this method. syslog-ng-ctl credentials add --id=<path-to-the-key> Alternatively, you can include the passphrase in the --secret parame- ter: syslog-ng-ctl credentials add --id=<path-to-the-key> --secret=<passphrase-of-the-key> Or you can pipe the passphrase to the syslog-ng-ctl command, for exam- ple: echo "<passphrase-of-the-key>" | syslog-ng-ctl credentials add --id=<path-to-the-key> • --control=<socket> or -c Specify the socket to use to access syslog-ng PE. Only needed when using a non-standard socket. • --id=<path-to-the-key> or -i The path to the password-protected private key file. This is the same path that you use in the key-file() option of the syslog-ng OSE configuration file. • --secret=<passphrase-of-the-key> or -s The password or passphrase of the private key. Displaying the configuration syslog-ng-ctl config [options] Use the syslog-ng-ctl config command to display the configuration that syslog-ng OSE is currently running. Note by default, only the content of the main configuration file are displayed, included files are not resolved. To resolve included files and display the entire configura- tion, use the syslog-ng-ctl config --preprocessed command. Reloading the configuration syslog-ng-ctl reload [options] Use the syslog-ng-ctl reload command to reload the configuration file of syslog-ng OSE without having to restart the syslog-ng OSE applica- tion. The syslog-ng-ctl reload works like a SIGHUP. The syslog-ng-ctl reload command returns 0 if the operation was suc- cessful, 1 otherwise. Files /usr/local/sbin/syslog-ng-ctl 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 syslog-ng-ctl(1)
NAME | Synopsis | Description | Enabling troubleshooting messages | syslog-ng-ctl query | The list command | Displaying metrics and statistics | The stats command | Handling password-protected private keys | Displaying the status of private keys | Opening password-protected private keys | Displaying the configuration | Reloading the configuration | Files | AUTHOR | COPYRIGHT | NOTES
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