POSTLOG(1)

POSTLOG(1) | General Commands Manual | POSTLOG(1)

# NAME

postlog - Postfix-compatible logging utility

# SYNOPSIS

postlog [-iv] [-c config_dir] [-p priority] [-t tag] [text...]

# DESCRIPTION

The postlog(1) command implements a Postfix-compatible logging interface for use in, for example, shell scripts.

By default, postlog(1) logs the text given on the command line as one record. If no text is specified on the command line, postlog(1) reads from standard input and logs each input line as one record.

Logging is sent to syslogd(8) or postlogd(8), and to the standard error stream (with Postfix < 3.8, postlog(1) writes to the standard error stream only if that stream is connected to a terminal).

The following options are implemented:

-c config_dir
  The main.cf configuration file is in the named directory instead of the default configuration directory. See also the MAIL_CONFIG environment setting below.
-i (obsolete)
  Include the process ID in the logging tag. This flag is ignored as of Postfix 3.4, where the PID is always included.
-p priority (default: info)
  Specifies the logging severity: info, warn, error, fatal, or panic. With Postfix 3.1 and later, the program will pause for 1 second after reporting a fatal or panic condition, just like other Postfix programs.
-t tag
  Specifies the logging tag, that is, the identifying name that appears at the beginning of each logging record. A default tag is used when none is specified.
-v
  Enable verbose logging for debugging purposes. Multiple -v options make the software increasingly verbose.

# SECURITY

The postlog(1) command is designed to run with set-groupid privileges, so that it can connect to the postlogd(8) daemon process (Postfix 3.7 and later; earlier implementations of this command must not have set-groupid or set-userid permissions).

# ENVIRONMENT

MAIL_CONFIG
  Directory with the main.cf file. In order to avoid exploitation of set-group ID privileges, a non-default directory is allowed only if:

- The name is listed in the default main.cf file with the alternate_config_directories or multi_instance_directories configuration parameter.
- The command is invoked by the super-user.

# CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS

The following main.cf parameters are especially relevant to this program.

The text below provides only a parameter summary. See postconf(5) for more details including examples.

config_directory (see 'postconf -d' output)
  The default location of the Postfix main.cf and master.cf configuration files.
import_environment (see 'postconf -d' output)
  The list of environment variables that a privileged Postfix process will import from a non-Postfix parent process, or name=value environment overrides.
syslog_facility (mail)
  The syslog facility of Postfix logging.
syslog_name (see 'postconf -d' output)
  A prefix that is prepended to the process name in syslog records, so that, for example, "smtpd" becomes "prefix/smtpd".

Available in Postfix 3.4 and later:

maillog_file (empty)
  The name of an optional logfile that is written by the Postfix postlogd(8) service.
postlog_service_name (postlog)
  The name of the postlogd(8) service entry in master.cf.

Available in Postfix 3.9 and later:

maillog_file_permissions (0600)
  The file access permissions that will be set when the file $maillog_file is created for the first time, or when the file is created after an existing file is rotated.

# SEE ALSO

    postconf(5), configuration parameters
    postlogd(8), Postfix logging
    syslogd(8), system logging

# LICENSE

The Secure Mailer license must be distributed with this software.

# HISTORY

The postlog(1) command was introduced with Postfix version 3.4.

# AUTHOR(S)

    Wietse Venema
    IBM T.J. Watson Research
    P.O. Box 704
    Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA
    Wietse Venema
    Google, Inc.
    111 8th Avenue
    New York, NY 10011, USA