metalog(8)

💖 metalog(8) — the syslog daemon that actually gets you 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're talking about metalog, aka an alternative syslog daemon, and she is the moment. yes this is section 8 of the manual, yes it's a daemon, no it's not boring, i promise.

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✨ NAME ✨

metalog — an alternative syslog daemon 🦋

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✨ SYNTAX ✨

metalog [options]

that's it. that's the whole summoning ritual. no cap.

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so Metalog is a modern replacement for syslogd and klogd and honestly? she ate. the whole vibe is that every logged message can be dispatched based on its facility, its urgency, the program name, and/or Perl-compatible regular expressions. like, you can sort your logs by literally any criteria you can dream up. iconic behavior.

log files? they can be automatically rotated when they get too big or too old. no more manually babysitting them at 3am. 😭

and here's the fun part — external shell scripts (think: mail, or whatever chaos you script) can be launched when specific patterns are found. your logs can literally trigger other things. main character energy fr fr.

Logs are written according to RFC3164, RFC5423, or a minimal format with optional severity levels. pick your aesthetic, bestie. ✨

she can also send her logs to remote syslog servers via UDP 🌈. and she can gather info from the kernel or /dev/log, plus from several Unix Domain Sockets — which means chrooted and containerized apps can log to her too. inclusivity queen 💅.

tl;dr on why you should care: Metalog is easier to configure than syslogd and syslog-ng, accepts an unlimited number of rules, and has (switchable) memory bufferisation for maximal performance. she's low maintenance and high performance. the dream.

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

here come the flags, bestie. every single one. don't skip, i'll know. 👀

• -a, --async — glow up your performance by using buffers. ⚠️ bug: log files won't get updated in real time (yes that's how it's written in the manual, and yes, it means exactly what you think it means — buffering delay, bestie). can be overridden for individual logs.
• -B, --daemonize — have the server start in the background (daemonization). she's independent, she doesn't need you hovering. 💅
• -c, --consolelevel=0..7 — set the console log level. note: Linux only 🐧.
• -C, --configfile=file — use an alternate configuration file. go off, be different.
• -g, --group=group — change the GID of the metalog process. any files she creates will be owned by this group. 🫶
• -h, --help — output help information and exit. the classic "hey what do i do" move.
• -N, --no-kernel — do not attempt to log messages from the kernel. sometimes you just don't wanna hear from kernel, and that's valid.
• -p, --pidfile=file — use an alternate file to store the process number. 🎀
• -S, --socket=path — use an alternate socket path for the main syslog listener.
• -s, --sync, --synchronous — start in synchronous mode, with no bufferization. can be overridden for individual logs.
• -t, --test-config — exit after parsing the config file(s). returns 0 if config is ok. this is the vibe check for your config file, and she passes or she doesn't. ✨
• -v, --verbose — run in verbose mode (useful for debugging behavior).
• -V, --version — display metalog version information.

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✨ SIGNALS ✨

she listens to you, bestie. send these and watch her move:

• SIGUSR1 — enable synchronous mode. 🟢
• SIGUSR2 — disable synchronous mode. 🔴

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✨ FILES ✨

⚠️ heads up: the exact paths depend on the build settings. these are the standard paths.

• /etc/metalog.conf
• /var/run/metalog.pid
• /dev/log

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✨ AUTHORS ✨

the girlies (and guys) behind the girl 💖 — give them their flowers:

• Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org>
• Laurent Wandrebeck (low) <wandre.l@free.fr>
• Leo Lipelis <aeoo@gentoo.org>
• Hendrik Visage <hvisage@users.sourceforge.net>
• Frank DENIS (Jedi/Sector One) <j@pureftpd.org>

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

• metalog.conf(5) — go read her sister's page, they're a package deal 🌸

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🎀 this was metalog(8), the Syslog daemon page — written by Frank DENIS, page 4 of the manual, and honestly she's a legend. now go configure something and slay. periodt. 💅✨🦋