.TH SYSLOG-NG 8
.SH NAME
syslog-ng \- logs system messages
.SH SYNOPSIS

.B syslog-ng
[
.B \-dFsvVy
] [
.B \-f
<\fIconfig-filename\fP>
] [
.B \-p
<\fIpid-filename\fP>
] [
.B \-C 
<\fIchroot-dir\fP>
] [
.B \-u 
<\fIuser\fP>
] [
.B \-g 
<\fIgroup\fP>
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
\fBsyslog-ng\fP reads and logs messages to the system console, log files,
other machines and/or users as specified by its configuration file.
.PP
The configuration file is read at startup and is reread after receipt
of a hangup (HUP) signal.  When reloading the configuration file, all
destination files are closed and reopened as appropriate. For more 
information about the configuration file, see syslog-ng.conf(5).
.PP
Typically messages are sent to \fBsyslog-ng\fP via a Unix domain socket
(\fB/dev/log\fP) or via UDP, to port 514 or to whatever \fBsyslog/udp\fP
is defined to be in \fI/etc/services\fP.  To receive messages from the
kernel, \fB/dev/klog\fP is opened for reading.
.PP
Messages sent to \fBsyslog-ng\fP should be an entire line, prefixed by a
priority code in between '<' and '>'.  Definititions of the recognised
values can be found in the include file \fI<sys/syslog.h>\fP.
.PP
\fBsyslog-ng\fP can be configured to pass messages on to other \fBsyslog-ng's\fP
and when doing so, it sends the message on with the priority as a prefix.
.PP
It is not necessary to terminate a message with a line feed or carriage return.

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-C \0<directory>, \-\-chroot=<directory>
Chroot to directory.
.TP
.B \-d, \-\-debug
Set "debug mode".  Prints out various messages to aid in debugging and stops
it from becoming a daemon.  
.TP
.B \-y, \-\-yydebug
Enable debugging messages in the yacc parser, this option is only present
if syslog-ng was compiled in debugging mode (--enable-debug configure option).
.TP
.B \-F, \-\-foreground
Don't fork into background.
.TP
.B \-f \0<filename>, \-\-cfgfile=<filename>
Instead of reading the normal \fB/etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf\fP file for
configuration information, use the filename given instead.
.TP
.B \-g \0<group>, \-\-group=<group>
Switch to group.
.TP
.B \-p \0<filename>, \-\-pidfile=<filename>
Write the current PID information to the specified file.
Defaults to \fB/var/run/syslog-ng.pid\fP.
.TP
.B \-s, \-\-syntax\-only
Only read and parse the configuration file.  See also the option \fB-f\fP.
.TP
.B \-u \0<user>, \-\-group=<user>
Switch to user.
.TP
.B \-v, \-\-verbose
Enable verbose mode. Prints out
fewer messages, compared to \fB-d\fP.
.TP
.B \-V, \-\-version
Print the version number.
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
It is expected that \fBsyslog-ng\fP will run as root, however, if not running
on a priviledged port of it it owned its own log directories, etc, it might
run as a non-root user.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR syslog-ng.conf (5),
.BR logger (1),
.BR syslog (2),
.BR syslog (3),
.BR services (5),
.BR syslog.conf (5),
.BR klogd (8),
.BR syslogd (8),
.BR sysklogd (8)
.SH FILES
.TP
.I /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf
Configuration file for
.BR syslog\-ng .
See
.BR syslog\-ng.conf (5)
for more information.
.TP
.I /var/run/syslog-ng.pid
The file containing the process id of
.BR syslog-ng .
.SH BUGS
.PP
If you find any, please send email to the syslog-ng mailing list at syslog-ng@lists.balabit.hu