LOGGER(1) User Commands LOGGER(1)
NAME
logger - a shell command interface to the syslog(3) system log module
SYNOPSIS
logger [options] [message]
DESCRIPTION
logger makes entries in the system log. It provides a shell command
interface to the syslog(3) system log module.
OPTIONS
-n, --server server
Write to the specified remote syslog server instead of to the
builtin syslog routines. Unless --udp or --tcp is specified the
logger will first try to use UDP, but if it fails a TCP connec-
tion is attempted.
-d, --udp
Use datagram (UDP) only. By default the connection is tried to
syslog port defined in /etc/services, which is often 514.
-T, --tcp
Use stream (TCP) only. By default the connection is tried to
syslog-conn port defined in /etc/services, which is often 601.
-P, --port port
Use the specified port. When this option is not specified, the
port defaults to syslog for udp and to syslog-conn for tcp con-
nections.
-i, --id
Log the process ID of the logger process with each line.
-f, --file file
Log the contents of the specified file. This option cannot be
combined with a command-line message.
-h, --help
Display a help text and exit.
-p, --priority priority
Enter the message into the log with the specified priority. The
priority may be specified numerically or as a facility.level
pair. For example, -p local3.info logs the message as informa-
tional in the local3 facility. The default is user.notice.
-S, --size size
Sets the maximum permitted message size. The default is 1KiB,
which is the limit traditionally used and specified in RFC 3164.
When selecting a maximum message size, it is important to ensure
that the receiver supports the max size as well, otherwise mes-
sages may become truncated.
-s, --stderr
Output the message to standard error as well as to the system
log.
-t, --tag tag
Mark every line to be logged with the specified tag. The
default tag is the name of the user logged in on the terminal
(or a user name based on effective user ID).
-u, --socket socket
Write to the specified socket instead of to the builtin syslog
routines.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
-- End the argument list. This is to allow the message to start
with a hyphen (-).
message
Write the message to log; if not specified, and the -f flag is
not provided, standard input is logged.
The logger utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
FACILITIES AND LEVELS
Valid facility names are:
auth
authpriv for security information of a sensitive nature
cron
daemon
ftp
kern cannot be generated from userspace process, automatically converted to user
lpr
mail
news
syslog
user
uucp
local0
to
local7
security deprecated synonym for auth
Valid level names are:
emerg
alert
crit
err
warning
notice
info
debug
panic deprecated synonym for emerg
error deprecated synonym for err
warn deprecated synonym for warning
For the priority order and intended purposes of these facilities and
levels, see syslog(3).
EXAMPLES
logger System rebooted
logger -p local0.notice -t HOSTIDM -f /dev/idmc
logger -n loghost.example.com System rebooted
SEE ALSO
syslog(3), syslogd(8)
STANDARDS
The logger command is expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 ("POSIX.2") com-
patible.
AVAILABILITY
The logger command is part of the util-linux package and is available
from Linux Kernel Archive <ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-
linux/>.
util-linux April 2013 LOGGER(1)