System Logs

The system log used by Unix-like operating systems has become the industry standard for logging, but that’s not necessarily a good thing, because the log mechanism can be cantankerous. Once you properly configure log collection and rotation, however, OpenBSD’s logging system mostly manages itself.

OpenBSD uses the standard logging system for Unix-like (and many embedded) systems, syslog(3). The syslog protocol marks messages with a facility and a priority, and hands those messages to a daemon.

Any program can write to the local syslogd(8) server, but the key in log management is deciding how those messages are sorted and stored. OpenBSD’s syslogd can sort messages based on facility, priority, and source program.

Facilities

Get Absolute OpenBSD, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.