logger(1)

💖 logger — bestie's guide to yelling into the system log 💖

okay so you're holding the logger(1) page from the User's Reference Manual and honestly? it's giving main character energy for such a tiny command. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

logger — make entries in the system log

like. that's it. that's the whole job. she writes stuff into the log. iconic behavior honestly 👑

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

logger [options ...] [message ...]

yeah that's the whole vibe. options, then a message, or don't. she's flexible 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so logger is basically a lil shell-command front door to the syslog(3) system log module. that's the tea. you run it, it talks to syslog, syslog writes the line. no cap. ✨

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

okay this is the part everyone skips and then wonders why nothing works. NOT you tho. you're gonna read all of them. periodt.

• -4, --ipv4 — use IPv4 to connect to hosts. old reliable fr fr.
• -6, --ipv6 — use IPv6 to connect to hosts. the future is now bestie 🌈
• -S, --source _ip_ — set the source IP address. you're picking which face she shows up with 😌
• -h, --host _host_ — log to _host_ instead of to the default /dev/log. going remote, we love a road trip 🚗
• -u, --unix _sock_ — log to UNIX socket _sock_ instead of /dev/log. different socket, same energy 🧦
• -i, --id [_pid_] — log the process id of the logger process with each line. so people know who said it. very "no anonymous messages" of her 💀
• -s, --stderr — log the message to standard error, as well as the system log. double posting. she contains multitudes.
• -f, --file _file_ — log the specified _file_. whole file, one go 📄
• -p, --priority _pri_ — enter the message with the specified priority. the priority can be numeric or a "facility.level" pair. for example, "-p local3.info" logs the message(s) as informational level in the local3 facility. the default is "user.notice." — remember that default, it's the one people always forget 🙈
• -t, --tag _tag_ — mark every line in the log with the specified _tag_. your lil signature. brand it 🎀
• --usage — display a short usage message. the tl;dr version.
• -?, --help — display a help list. the slightly longer tl;dr version.
• -V, --version — display program version. for when you need to know which era of her you're talking to.
• _message_ — write the message to log; if not specified, and the -f flag is not provided, standard input is logged. so like, if you give her nothing, she'll take it from stdin. she's not picky 💖

🫶 important lil note bestie: the logger utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. check that exit status. always. it's free information.

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🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

look at her go:

logger System rebooted

logger -p local0.notice -t HOSTIDM -f /dev/idmc

first one: just says the thing. second one: priority local0.notice, tag HOSTIDM, reading from the file /dev/idmc. chef's kiss 🤌✨

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• syslog(3)
• syslogd(8)

go read those too. iykyk 🧚

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👑 STANDARDS 👑

the logger command is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (“POSIX.2”) compatible. so like, standards-compliant. she's not just cute, she's certified cute 💜

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and that's the page!! this came from GNU Network Utilities, dated February 15, 2019. go log something slay-worthy, bestie 🌸💖✨