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diff --git a/doc/rsyslog_conf_actions.html b/doc/rsyslog_conf_actions.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..fa240d97 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/rsyslog_conf_actions.html @@ -0,0 +1,414 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html><head><title>Actions - rsyslog.conf</title></head> +<body> +<p>This is a part of the rsyslog.conf documentation.</p> +<a href="rsyslog_conf.html">back</a> +<h2>Actions</h2> +Action object describe what is to be done with a message. They are +implemented via <a href="rsyslog_conf_modules.html#om">outpout modules</a>. +<p>The action object has different parameters: +<ul> +<li>those that apply to all actions and are action specific. These + are documented below. +<li>parameters for the action queue. While they also apply to + all parameters, they are queue-specific, not action-specific (they + are the same that are used in rulesets, for example). +<li>action-specific parameters. These are specific to a certain + type of actions. They are documented by the output module + in question. +</ul> +<h3>General Action Parameters</h3> +<ul> + <li><b>name</b> word + <br>used for statistics gathering and documentation + <li><b>type</b> string + <br>Mandatory parameter for every action. The name of the module that should be used. </li> + <li><b>action.writeAllMarkMessages</b> on/off + <br>Normally, mark messages are written to actions only if the action was not recently executed (by default, recently means within the past 20 minutes). If this setting is switched to "on", mark messages are always sent to actions, no matter how recently they have been executed. In this mode, mark messages can be used as a kind of heartbeat. Note that this option auto-resets to "off", so if you intend to use it with multiple actions, it must be specified in front off all selector lines that should provide this functionality. </li> + <li><b>action.execOnlyEveryNthTime</b> integer + <br>If configured, the next action will only be executed every n-th time. For example, if configured to 3, the first two messages that go into the action will be dropped, the 3rd will actually cause the action to execute, the 4th and 5th will be dropped, the 6th executed under the action, ... and so on. Note: this setting is automatically re-set when the actual action is defined.</li> + <li><b>action.execOnlyEveryNthTimeout</b> integer + <br>Has a meaning only if Action.ExecOnlyEveryNthTime is also configured for the same action. If so, the timeout setting specifies after which period the counting of "previous actions" expires and a new action count is begun. Specify 0 (the default) to disable timeouts. +Why is this option needed? Consider this case: a message comes in at, eg., 10am. That's count 1. Then, nothing happens for the next 10 hours. At 8pm, the next one occurs. That's count 2. Another 5 hours later, the next message occurs, bringing the total count to 3. Thus, this message now triggers the rule. +The question is if this is desired behavior? Or should the rule only be triggered if the messages occur within an e.g. 20 minute window? If the later is the case, you need a +<br>Action.ExecOnlyEveryNthTimeTimeout="1200" +<br>This directive will timeout previous messages seen if they are older than 20 minutes. In the example above, the count would now be always 1 and consequently no rule would ever be triggered. </li> + <li><b>action.execOnlyOnceEveryInterval</b> integer + <br>Execute action only if the last execute is at last <seconds> seconds in the past (more info in ommail, but may be used with any action)</li> + <li><b>action.execOnlyWhenpReviousIsSuspended</b> on/off + <br>This directive allows to specify if actions should always be executed ("off," the default) or only if the previous action is suspended ("on"). This directive works hand-in-hand with the multiple actions per selector feature. It can be used, for example, to create rules that automatically switch destination servers or databases to a (set of) backup(s), if the primary server fails. Note that this feature depends on proper implementation of the suspend feature in the output module. All built-in output modules properly support it (most importantly the database write and the syslog message forwarder).</li> + <li><b>action.repeatedmsgcontainsoriginalmsg</b> on/off + <br>"last message repeated n times" messages, if generated, have a different format that contains the message that is being repeated. Note that only the first "n" characters are included, with n to be at least 80 characters, most probably more (this may change from version to version, thus no specific limit is given). The bottom line is that n is large enough to get a good idea which message was repeated but it is not necessarily large enough for the whole message. (Introduced with 4.1.5). Once set, it affects all following actions.</li> + <li><b>action.resumeRetryCount</b> integer + <br>[default 0, -1 means eternal]</li> + <li><b>action.resumeInterval</b> integer + <br>Sets the ActionResumeInterval for the action. The interval provided is always in seconds. Thus, multiply by 60 if you need minutes and 3,600 if you need hours (not recommended). +When an action is suspended (e.g. destination can not be connected), the action is resumed for the configured interval. Thereafter, it is retried. If multiple retires fail, the interval is automatically extended. This is to prevent excessive ressource use for retires. After each 10 retries, the interval is extended by itself. To be precise, the actual interval is (numRetries / 10 + 1) * Action.ResumeInterval. so after the 10th try, it by default is 60 and after the 100th try it is 330.</li> +</ul> + + +<h2>Legacy Format</h2> +<p><b>Be warned that legacy action format is hard to get right. It is +recommended to use RainerScript-Style action format whenever possible!</b> +A key problem with legacy format is that a single action is defined via +multiple configurations lines, which may be spread all across rsyslog.conf. +Even the definition of multiple actions may be intermixed (often not +intentional!). If legacy actions format needs to be used (e.g. some modules +may not yet implement the RainerScript format), it is strongly recommended +to place all configuration statements pertaining to a single action +closely together. +<p>Please also note that legacy action parameters <b>do not</b> affect +RainerScript action objects. So if you define for example: + +<code><pre> +$actionResumeRetryCount 10 +action(type="omfwd" target="server1.example.net") +@@server2.example.net +</pre></code> + +server1's "action.resumeRetryCount" parameter is <b>not</b> set, instead +server2's is! +<p>A goal of the new RainerScript action format was to avoid confusion +which parameters are actually used. As such, it would be counter-productive +to honor legacy action parameters inside a RainerScript definition. As +result, both types of action definitions are strictly (and nicely) +separated from each other. The bottom line is that if RainerScript actions +are used, one does not need to care about which legacy action parameters may +(still...) be in effect. +<p> +<p>Note that not all modules necessarily support legacy action format. +Especially newer modules are recommended to NOT support it. +<h3>Legacy Description</h3> +<p>Templates can be used with many actions. If used, the specified template +is used to generate the message content (instead of the default +template). To specify a template, write a semicolon after the action +value immediately followed by the template name.<br> +<br> +Beware: templates MUST be defined BEFORE they are used. It is OK to +define some templates, then use them in selector lines, define more +templates and use use them in the following selector lines. But it is +NOT permitted to use a template in a selector line that is above its +definition. If you do this, the action will be ignored.</p> +<p><b>You can have multiple actions for a single selector </b> (or +more precisely a single filter of such a selector line). Each action +must be on its own line and the line must start with an ampersand +('&') character and have no filters. An example would be</p> +<p><code><b>*.=crit :omusrmsg:rger<br> +& root<br> +& /var/log/critmsgs</b></code></p> +<p>These three lines send critical messages to the user rger and +root and also store them in /var/log/critmsgs. <b>Using multiple +actions per selector is</b> convenient and also <b>offers +a performance benefit</b>. As the filter needs to be evaluated +only once, there is less computation required to process the directive +compared to the otherwise-equal config directives below:</p> +<p><code><b>*.=crit :omusrmsg:rger<br> +*.=crit root<br> +*.=crit /var/log/critmsgs</b></code></p> +<p> </p> +<h3>Regular File</h3> +<p>Typically messages are logged to real files. The file usually is +specified by full pathname, beginning with a slash "/". +Starting with version 4.6.2 and 5.4.1 (previous v5 version do NOT support this) +relative file names can also be specified. To do so, these must begin with a +dot. For example, use "./file-in-current-dir.log" to specify a file in the +current directory. Please note that rsyslogd usually changes its working +directory to the root, so relative file names must be tested with care (they +were introduced primarily as a debugging vehicle, but may have useful other applications +as well).<br> +<br> +<br> +You may prefix each entry with the minus "-'' sign to omit syncing the +file after every logging. Note that you might lose information if the +system crashes right behind a write attempt. Nevertheless this might +give you back some performance, especially if you run programs that use +logging in a very verbose manner.</p> +<p>If your system is connected to a reliable UPS and you receive +lots of log data (e.g. firewall logs), it might be a very good idea to +turn of +syncing by specifying the "-" in front of the file name. </p> +<p><b>The filename can be either static </b>(always +the same) or <b>dynamic</b> (different based on message +received). The later is useful if you would automatically split +messages into different files based on some message criteria. For +example, dynamic file name selectors allow you to split messages into +different files based on the host that sent them. With dynamic file +names, everything is automatic and you do not need any filters. </p> +<p>It works via the template system. First, you define a template +for the file name. An example can be seen above in the description of +template. We will use the "DynFile" template defined there. Dynamic +filenames are indicated by specifying a questions mark "?" instead of a +slash, followed by the template name. Thus, the selector line for our +dynamic file name would look as follows:</p> +<blockquote> +<code>*.* ?DynFile</code> +</blockquote> +<p>That's all you need to do. Rsyslog will now automatically +generate file names for you and store the right messages into the right +files. Please note that the minus sign also works with dynamic file +name selectors. Thus, to avoid syncing, you may use</p> +<blockquote> +<code>*.* -?DynFile</code></blockquote> +<p>And of course you can use templates to specify the output +format:</p> +<blockquote> +<code>*.* ?DynFile;MyTemplate</code></blockquote> +<p><b>A word of caution:</b> rsyslog creates files as +needed. So if a new host is using your syslog server, rsyslog will +automatically create a new file for it.</p> +<p><b>Creating directories is also supported</b>. For +example you can use the hostname as directory and the program name as +file name:</p> +<blockquote> +<code>$template DynFile,"/var/log/%HOSTNAME%/%programname%.log"</code></blockquote> +<h3>Named Pipes</h3> +<p>This version of rsyslogd(8) has support for logging output to +named pipes (fifos). A fifo or named pipe can be used as a destination +for log messages by prepending a pipe symbol ("|'') to the name of the +file. This is handy for debugging. Note that the fifo must be created +with the mkfifo(1) command before rsyslogd(8) is started.</p> +<h3>Terminal and Console</h3> +<p>If the file you specified is a tty, special tty-handling is +done, same with /dev/console.</p> +<h3>Remote Machine</h3> +<p>Rsyslogd provides full remote logging, i.e. is able to send +messages to a remote host running rsyslogd(8) and to receive messages +from remote hosts. Using this feature you're able to control all syslog +messages on one host, if all other machines will log remotely to that. +This tears down administration needs.</p> +<p>To forward messages to another host, prepend the hostname with +the at sign ("@"). A single at sign means that messages will +be forwarded via UDP protocol (the standard for syslog). If you prepend +two at signs ("@@"), the messages will be transmitted via TCP. Please +note that plain TCP based syslog is not officially standardized, but +most major syslogds support it (e.g. syslog-ng or +<a href="http://www.winsyslog.com/">WinSyslog</a>). The +forwarding action indicator (at-sign) can be followed by one or more +options. If they are given, they must be immediately (without a space) +following the final at sign and be enclosed in parenthesis. The +individual options must be separated by commas. The following options +are right now defined:</p> +<table id="table2" border="1" width="100%"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td> +<p align="center"><b>z<number></b></p> +</td> +<td>Enable zlib-compression for the message. The +<number> is the compression level. It can be 1 (lowest +gain, lowest CPU overhead) to 9 (maximum compression, highest CPU +overhead). The level can also be 0, which means "no compression". If +given, the "z" option is ignored. So this does not make an awful lot of +sense. There is hardly a difference between level 1 and 9 for typical +syslog messages. You can expect a compression gain between 0% and 30% +for typical messages. Very chatty messages may compress up to 50%, but +this is seldom seen with typically traffic. Please note that rsyslogd +checks the compression gain. Messages with 60 bytes or less will never +be compressed. This is because compression gain is pretty unlikely and +we prefer to save CPU cycles. Messages over that size are always +compressed. However, it is checked if there is a gain in compression +and only if there is, the compressed message is transmitted. Otherwise, +the uncompressed messages is transmitted. This saves the receiver CPU +cycles for decompression. It also prevents small message to actually +become larger in compressed form. +<p><b>Please note that when a TCP transport is used, +compression will also turn on syslog-transport-tls framing. See the "o" +option for important information on the implications.</b></p> +<p>Compressed messages are automatically detected and +decompressed by the receiver. There is nothing that needs to be +configured on the receiver side.</p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> +<p align="center"><b>o</b></p> +</td> +<td><b>This option is experimental. Use at your own +risk and only if you know why you need it! If in doubt, do NOT turn it +on.</b> +<p>This option is only valid for plain TCP based +transports. It selects a different framing based on IETF internet draft +syslog-transport-tls-06. This framing offers some benefits over +traditional LF-based framing. However, the standardization effort is +not yet complete. There may be changes in upcoming versions of this +standard. Rsyslog will be kept in line with the standard. There is some +chance that upcoming changes will be incompatible to the current +specification. In this case, all systems using -transport-tls framing +must be upgraded. There will be no effort made to retain compatibility +between different versions of rsyslog. The primary reason for that is +that it seems technically impossible to provide compatibility between +some of those changes. So you should take this note very serious. It is +not something we do not *like* to do (and may change our mind if enough +people beg...), it is something we most probably *can not* do for +technical reasons (aka: you can beg as much as you like, it won't +change anything...).</p> +<p>The most important implication is that compressed syslog +messages via TCP must be considered with care. Unfortunately, it is +technically impossible to transfer compressed records over traditional +syslog plain tcp transports, so you are left with two evil choices...</p> +</td> +</tr> +</tbody> +</table> +<p><br> +The hostname may be followed by a colon and the destination port.</p> +<p>The following is an example selector line with forwarding:</p> +<p>*.* @@(o,z9)192.168.0.1:1470</p> +<p>In this example, messages are forwarded via plain TCP with +experimental framing and maximum compression to the host 192.168.0.1 at +port 1470.</p> +<p>*.* @192.168.0.1</p> +<p>In the example above, messages are forwarded via UDP to the +machine 192.168.0.1, the destination port defaults to 514. Messages +will not be compressed.</p> +<p>Note that IPv6 addresses contain colons. So if an IPv6 address is specified +in the hostname part, rsyslogd could not detect where the IP address ends +and where the port starts. There is a syntax extension to support this: +put squary brackets around the address (e.g. "[2001::1]"). Square +brackets also work with real host names and IPv4 addresses, too. +<p>A valid sample to send messages to the IPv6 host 2001::1 at port 515 +is as follows: +<p>*.* @[2001::1]:515 +<p>This works with TCP, too. +<p><b>Note to sysklogd users:</b> sysklogd does <b>not</b> +support RFC 3164 format, which is the default forwarding template in +rsyslog. As such, you will experience duplicate hostnames if rsyslog is +the sender and sysklogd is the receiver. The fix is simple: you need to +use a different template. Use that one:</p> +<p class="MsoPlainText">$template +sysklogd,"<%PRI%>%TIMESTAMP% %syslogtag%%msg%\""<br> +*.* @192.168.0.1;sysklogd</p> +<h3>List of Users</h3> +<p>Usually critical messages are also directed to "root'' on +that machine. You can specify a list of users that shall get the +message by simply writing ":omusrmsg: followed by the login name. For example, +the send messages to root, use ":omusrmsg:root". +You may specify more than one user +by separating them with commas (",''). Do not repeat the ":omusrmsg:" prefix in +this case. For example, to send data to users root and rger, use +":omusrmsg:root,rger" (do not use ":omusrmsg:root,:omusrmsg:rger", this is invalid). +If they're logged in they get +the message.</p> +<h3>Everyone logged on</h3> +<p>Emergency messages often go to all users currently online to +notify them that something strange is happening with the system. To +specify this wall(1)-feature use an asterisk as the user message +destination(":omusrmsg:*'').</p> +<h3>Call Plugin</h3> +<p>This is a generic way to call an output plugin. The plugin +must support this functionality. Actual parameters depend on the +module, so see the module's doc on what to supply. The general syntax +is as follows:</p> +<p>:modname:params;template</p> +<p>Currently, the ommysql database output module supports this +syntax (in addtion to the ">" syntax it traditionally +supported). For ommysql, the module name is "ommysql" and the params +are the traditional ones. The ;template part is not module specific, it +is generic rsyslog functionality available to all modules.</p> +<p>As an example, the ommysql module may be called as follows:</p> +<p>:ommysql:dbhost,dbname,dbuser,dbpassword;dbtemplate</p> +<p>For details, please see the "Database Table" section of this +documentation.</p> +<p>Note: as of this writing, the ":modname:" part is hardcoded +into the module. So the name to use is not necessarily the name the +module's plugin file is called.</p> +<h3>Database Table</h3> +<p>This allows logging of the message to a database table. +Currently, only MySQL databases are supported. However, other database +drivers will most probably be developed as plugins. By default, a <a href="http://www.monitorware.com/">MonitorWare</a>-compatible +schema is required for this to work. You can create that schema with +the createDB.SQL file that came with the rsyslog package. You can also<br> +use any other schema of your liking - you just need to define a proper +template and assign this template to the action.<br> +<br> +The database writer is called by specifying a greater-then sign +(">") in front of the database connect information. Immediately +after that<br> +sign the database host name must be given, a comma, the database name, +another comma, the database user, a comma and then the user's password. +If a specific template is to be used, a semicolon followed by the +template name can follow the connect information. This is as follows:<br> +<br> +>dbhost,dbname,dbuser,dbpassword;dbtemplate</p> +<p><b>Important: to use the database functionality, the +MySQL output module must be loaded in the config file</b> BEFORE +the first database table action is used. This is done by placing the</p> +<p><code><b>$ModLoad ommysql</b></code></p> +<p>directive some place above the first use of the database write +(we recommend doing at the the beginning of the config file).</p> +<h3>Discard</h3> +<p>If the discard action is carried out, the received message is +immediately discarded. No further processing of it occurs. Discard has +primarily been added to filter out messages before carrying on any +further processing. For obvious reasons, the results of "discard" are +depending on where in the configuration file it is being used. Please +note that once a message has been discarded there is no way to retrieve +it in later configuration file lines.</p> +<p>Discard can be highly effective if you want to filter out some +annoying messages that otherwise would fill your log files. To do that, +place the discard actions early in your log files. This often plays +well with property-based filters, giving you great freedom in +specifying what you do not want.</p> +<p>Discard is just the single tilde character with no further +parameters:</p> +<p>~</p> +<p>For example,</p> +<p>*.* ~</p> +<p>discards everything (ok, you can achive the same by not +running rsyslogd at all...).</p> +<h3>Output Channel</h3> +<p>Binds an output channel definition (see there for details) to +this action. Output channel actions must start with a $-sign, e.g. if +you would like to bind your output channel definition "mychannel" to +the action, use "$mychannel". Output channels support template +definitions like all all other actions.</p> +<h3>Shell Execute</h3> +<p>This executes a program in a subshell. The program is passed +the template-generated message as the only command line parameter. +Rsyslog waits until the program terminates and only then continues to +run.</p> +<p>^program-to-execute;template</p> +<p>The program-to-execute can be any valid executable. It +receives the template string as a single parameter (argv[1]).</p> +<p><b>WARNING:</b> The Shell Execute action was added +to serve an urgent need. While it is considered reasonable save when +used with some thinking, its implications must be considered. The +current implementation uses a system() call to execute the command. +This is not the best way to do it (and will hopefully changed in +further releases). Also, proper escaping of special characters is done +to prevent command injection. However, attackers always find smart ways +to circumvent escaping, so we can not say if the escaping applied will +really safe you from all hassles. Lastly, rsyslog will wait until the +shell command terminates. Thus, a program error in it (e.g. an infinite +loop) can actually disable rsyslog. Even without that, during the +programs run-time no messages are processed by rsyslog. As the IP +stacks buffers are quickly overflowed, this bears an increased risk of +message loss. You must be aware of these implications. Even though they +are severe, there are several cases where the "shell execute" action is +very useful. This is the reason why we have included it in its current +form. To mitigate its risks, always a) test your program thoroughly, b) +make sure its runtime is as short as possible (if it requires a longer +run-time, you might want to spawn your own sub-shell asynchronously), +c) apply proper firewalling so that only known senders can send syslog +messages to rsyslog. Point c) is especially important: if rsyslog is +accepting message from any hosts, chances are much higher that an +attacker might try to exploit the "shell execute" action.</p> +<h3>Template Name</h3> +<p>Every ACTION can be followed by a template name. If so, that +template is used for message formatting. If no name is given, a +hard-coded default template is used for the action. There can only be +one template name for each given action. The default template is +specific to each action. For a description of what a template is and +what you can do with it, see "TEMPLATES" at the top of this document.</p> + +<p>[<a href="manual.html">manual index</a>] +[<a href="rsyslog_conf.html">rsyslog.conf</a>] +[<a href="http://www.rsyslog.com/">rsyslog site</a>]</p> +<p><font size="2">This documentation is part of the +<a href="http://www.rsyslog.com/">rsyslog</a> project.<br> +Copyright © 2008-2013 by <a href="http://www.gerhards.net/rainer">Rainer Gerhards</a> and +<a href="http://www.adiscon.com/">Adiscon</a>. Released under the GNU GPL +version 2 or higher.</font></p> +</body> +</html> + |