BSD-syslog or legacy-syslog messages
This section describes the format of a syslog message, according to the legacy-syslog or BSD-syslog protocol. A syslog message consists of the following parts:
The total message cannot be longer than 1024 bytes.
The following is a sample syslog message:
<133>Feb 25 14:09:07 webserver syslogd: restart
The message corresponds to the following format:
<priority>timestamp hostname application: message
The different parts of the message are explained in the following sections.
|
|
NOTE:
The syslog-ng application supports longer messages as well. For details, see the log-msg-size() option in Global options. However, it is not recommended to enable messages larger than the packet size when using UDP destinations. |
The PRI message part
The PRI part of the syslog message (known as Priority value) represents the Facility and Severity of the message. Facility represents the part of the system sending the message, while severity marks its importance. The Priority value is calculated by first multiplying the Facility number by 8 and then adding the numerical value of the Severity. The possible facility and severity values are presented below.
|
|
NOTE:
Facility codes may slightly vary between different platforms. The syslog-ng application accepts facility codes as numerical values as well. |
The following table lists the severity values.
| Numerical Code | Severity |
|---|---|
| 0 | Emergency: system is unusable |
| 1 | Alert: action must be taken immediately |
| 2 | Critical: critical conditions |
| 3 | Error: error conditions |
| 4 | Warning: warning conditions |
| 5 | Notice: normal but significant condition |
| 6 | Informational: informational messages |
| 7 | Debug: debug-level messages |
The HEADER message part
The HEADER part contains a timestamp and the hostname (without the domain name) or the IP address of the device. The timestamp field is the local time in the Mmm dd hh:mm:ss format, where:
-
Mmm is the English abbreviation of the month: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec.
-
dd is the day of the month on two digits. If the day of the month is less than 10, the first digit is replaced with a space. (For example Aug 7.)
-
hh:mm:ss is the local time. The hour (hh) is represented in a 24-hour format. Valid entries are between 00 and 23, inclusive. The minute (mm) and second (ss) entries are between 00 and 59 inclusive.
|
|
NOTE:
The syslog-ng application supports other timestamp formats as well, like ISO, or the PIX extended format. For details, see the ts-format() option in Global options. |
The MSG message part
The MSG part contains the name of the program or process that generated the message, and the text of the message itself. The MSG part is usually in the following format: program[pid]: message text.