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

NAME
     pflogd -- packet filter logging daemon

SYNOPSIS
     pflogd [-Dx] [-d delay] [-f filename] [-i interface] [-s snaplen]
	    [expression]

DESCRIPTION
     pflogd  is  a  background	daemon	which reads packets logged by pf(4) to a
     pflog(4) interface, normally pflog0, and writes the packets  to  a  logfile
     (normally	/var/log/pflog)  in tcpdump(1) binary format.  These logs can be
     reviewed later using the -r option of tcpdump(1), hopefully offline in case
     there are bugs in the packet parsing code of tcpdump(1).

     pflogd closes and then re-opens the log file when it receives SIGHUP,  per-
     mitting  newsyslog(8)  to	rotate	logfiles  automatically.  SIGALRM causes
     pflogd to flush the current logfile buffers to the disk,  thus  making  the
     most  recent logs available.  The buffers are also flushed every delay sec-
     onds.

     If the log file contains data after a restart or a SIGHUP, new logs are ap-
     pended to the existing file.  If the existing log file was created  with  a
     different	snaplen, pflogd temporarily uses the old snaplen to keep the log
     file consistent.

     pflogd tries to preserve the integrity of the log file against I/O  errors.
     Furthermore,  integrity  of an existing log file is verified before append-
     ing.  If there is an invalid log file or an I/O  error,  the  log	file  is
     moved  out  of  the  way and a new one is created.  If a new file cannot be
     created, logging is suspended until a SIGHUP or a SIGALRM is received.

     pflogd will also log the pcap statistics for the pflog(4) interface to sys-
     log when a SIGUSR1 is received.

     The options are as follows:

     -D      Debugging mode.  pflogd does not disassociate from the  controlling
	     terminal.

     -d delay
	     Time  in  seconds	to  delay between automatic flushes of the file.
	     This may be specified with a value between 5 and 3600 seconds.   If
	     not specified, the default is 60 seconds.

     -f filename
	     Log output filename.  Default is /var/log/pflog.

     -i interface
	     Specifies	the  pflog(4) interface to use.  By default, pflogd will
	     use pflog0.

     -p pidfile
	     Writes a file containing the process ID of the program to /var/run.
	     The file name has the form <pidfile>.pid.	The default is pflogd.

     -s snaplen
	     Analyze at most the first snaplen bytes of data  from  each  packet
	     rather than the default of 116.  The default of 116 is adequate for
	     IP,  ICMP,  TCP, and UDP headers but may truncate protocol informa-
	     tion for other protocols.	Other file parsers may desire  a  higher
	     snaplen.

     -x      Check the integrity of an existing log file, and return.

     expression
	     Selects which packets will be dumped, using the regular language of
	     tcpdump(1).

FILES
     /var/run/pflogd.pid  Process ID of the currently running pflogd.
     /var/log/pflog	  Default log file.

EXAMPLES
     Log specific tcp packets to a different log file with a large snaplen (use-
     ful with a log-all rule to dump complete sessions):

	   # pflogd -s 1600 -f suspicious.log port 80 and host evilhost

     Log from another pflog(4) interface, excluding specific packets:

	   # pflogd -i pflog3 -f network3.log "not (tcp and port 23)"

     Display binary logs:

	   # tcpdump -n -e -ttt -r /var/log/pflog

     Display  the  logs in real time (this does not interfere with the operation
     of pflogd):

	   # tcpdump -n -e -ttt -i pflog0

     Tcpdump has been extended to be able to filter on	the  pfloghdr  structure
     defined  in  <net/if_pflog.h>.   Tcpdump can restrict the output to packets
     logged on a specified interface, a rule number, a reason, a  direction,  an
     IP family or an action.

     ip 	      Address family equals IPv4.
     ip6	      Address family equals IPv6.
     ifname kue0      Interface name equals "kue0".
     on kue0	      Interface name equals "kue0".
     ruleset authpf   Ruleset name equals "authpf".
     rulenum 10       Rule number equals 10.
     reason match     Reason  equals  match.   Also accepts "bad-offset", "frag-
		      ment", "bad-timestamp",  "short",  "normalize",  "memory",
		      "congestion",   "ip-option",   "proto-cksum",  "state-mis-
		      match", "state-insert",  "state-limit",  "src-limit",  and
		      "synproxy".
     action pass      Action equals pass.  Also accepts "block".
     inbound	      The direction was inbound.
     outbound	      The direction was outbound.

     Display  the  logs in real time of inbound packets that were blocked on the
     wi0 interface:

	   # tcpdump -n -e -ttt -i pflog0 inbound and action block and on wi0

SEE ALSO
     pcap(3), pf(4), pflog(4), pf.conf(5), newsyslog(8), tcpdump(1)

HISTORY
     The pflogd command appeared in OpenBSD 3.0.

AUTHORS
     pflogd was written by Can Erkin Acar <canacar@openbsd.org>.

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly	 August 11, 2018		       PFLOGD(8)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pflogd&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports.quarterly>

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