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Logger - Sending Messages to a System Log File

The logger command enables you to send messages to the syslogd daemon. The syntax  is:

logger [ -i ] [ -f file ] [ -p priority ] [ -t tag ] [ message ]

where:

• -i Logs the process ID of the logger command with each line
• -f file Uses the contents of file as the message to log ( file must exist)
• -p priority Enters the message with the specified priority
• -t tag Marks each line added to the log file with the specified tag message Concatenates the string arguments of the message in the order specified, separated by single-space characters

You can specify the message priority as a facility.level pair. For example, -p local3.info assigns the message priority of the info level in the local3 facility.

The default priority is user.notice.

Therefore, the following example logs the message System rebooted to the syslogd daemon, using the default priority level notice and the facility user:

# logger System rebooted

If the user.notice selector field is configured in the /etc/syslog.conf file, the message is logged to the file designated for the user.notice selector field.

If the user.notice selector field is not configured in the /etc/syslog.conf file, you can either add the user.notice selector field to the /etc/syslog.conf file, or you can prioritize the output as follows:

# logger -p user.err System rebooted

Changing the priority of the message to user.err routes the message to the /var/adm/messages file as indicated in the /etc/syslog.conf file. A message priority can also be specified numerically.

For example, logger -i -p2 "crit" creates an entry in the message log that identifies the user.crit-facility.level pair as follows:

Nov 3 09:49:34 hostname root[2838]: [ID 702911 user.crit] crit

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Last modified: June 05, 2008