Converting syslog-ng 3.0? format to 3.2 format

Question

Just rebooted my system to this warning

:: Starting Syslog-NG                                                                       [BUSY]
WARNING: Configuration file format is too old, please update it to use the 3.2 format as some constructs might operate inefficiently;
WARNING: the expected message format is being changed for unix-domain transports to improve syslogd compatibity with syslog-ng 3.2. If you are using custom applications which bypass the syslog() API, you might need the 'expect-hostname' flag to get the old behaviour back;

Anyone know of any good resources on converting formats? my syslog-ng.conf is primarily from the Gentoo Security Handbook and thus simply using the the .pacnew file won't work

here's my current conf file

@version: 3.0
#
# /etc/syslog-ng.conf
#

options {
  stats_freq (0);
  flush_lines (0);
  time_reopen (10);
  log_fifo_size (1000);
  long_hostnames(off); 
  use_dns (no);
  use_fqdn (no);
  create_dirs (no);
  keep_hostname (yes);
  perm(0640);
  group("log");
};

source src {
  unix-stream("/dev/log");
  internal();
  file("/proc/kmsg");
};

destination d_authlog { file("/var/log/auth.log"); };
destination d_syslog { file("/var/log/syslog.log"); };
destination d_cron { file("/var/log/crond.log"); };
destination d_daemon { file("/var/log/daemon.log"); };
destination d_kernel { file("/var/log/kernel.log"); };
destination d_lpr { file("/var/log/lpr.log"); };
destination d_user { file("/var/log/user.log"); };
destination d_uucp { file("/var/log/uucp.log"); };
destination d_mail { file("/var/log/mail.log"); };
destination d_news { file("/var/log/news.log"); };
destination d_ppp { file("/var/log/ppp.log"); };
destination d_debug { file("/var/log/debug.log"); };
destination d_messages { file("/var/log/messages.log"); };
destination d_errors { file("/var/log/errors.log"); };
destination d_everything { file("/var/log/everything.log"); };
destination d_iptables { file("/var/log/iptables.log"); };
destination d_acpid { file("/var/log/acpid.log"); };
destination d_console { usertty("root"); };

# Log everything to tty12
destination console_all { file("/dev/tty12"); };
#destination knotifier { program('/usr/local/bin/knotifier'); };

filter f_auth { facility(auth); };
filter f_authpriv { facility(auth, authpriv); };
filter f_syslog { program(syslog-ng); };
filter f_cron { facility(cron); };
filter f_daemon { facility(daemon); };
filter f_kernel { facility(kern) and not filter(f_iptables); };
filter f_lpr { facility(lpr); };
filter f_mail { facility(mail); };
filter f_news { facility(news); };
filter f_user { facility(user); };
filter f_uucp { facility(cron); };
filter f_news { facility(news); };
filter f_ppp { facility(local2); };
filter f_debug { not facility(auth, authpriv, news, mail); };
filter f_messages { level(info..warn) and not facility(auth, authpriv, mail, news, cron) and not program(syslog-ng) and not filter(f_iptables); };
filter f_everything { level(debug..emerg) and not facility(auth, authpriv); };
filter f_emergency { level(emerg); };
filter f_info { level(info); };
filter f_notice { level(notice); };
filter f_warn { level(warn); };
filter f_crit { level(crit); };
filter f_err { level(err); };
filter f_iptables { match("IN=" value("MESSAGE")) and match("OUT=" value("MESSAGE")); };
filter f_acpid { program("acpid"); };

log { source(src); filter(f_acpid); destination(d_acpid); };
log { source(src); filter(f_authpriv); destination(d_authlog); };
log { source(src); filter(f_syslog); destination(d_syslog); };
log { source(src); filter(f_cron); destination(d_cron); };
log { source(src); filter(f_daemon); destination(d_daemon); };
log { source(src); filter(f_kernel); destination(d_kernel); };
log { source(src); filter(f_lpr); destination(d_lpr); };
log { source(src); filter(f_mail); destination(d_mail); };
log { source(src); filter(f_news); destination(d_news); };
log { source(src); filter(f_ppp); destination(d_ppp); };
log { source(src); filter(f_user); destination(d_user); };
log { source(src); filter(f_uucp); destination(d_uucp); };
#log { source(src); filter(f_debug); destination(d_debug); };
log { source(src); filter(f_messages); destination(d_messages); };
log { source(src); filter(f_err); destination(d_errors); };
log { source(src); filter(f_emergency); destination(d_console); };
log { source(src); filter(f_everything); destination(d_everything); };
log { source(src); filter(f_iptables); destination(d_iptables); };

#log { source(src); filter(f_messages); destination(knotifier); };
# Log everything to tty12
log { source(src); destination(console_all); };

score 4 · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-11T19:15:05.690

Its probably related to this change in 3.2:

syslog-ng traditionally expected an optional hostname field even when a syslog message is received on a local transport (e.g. /dev/log). However no UNIX version is known to include this field. This caused problems when the application creating the log message has a space in its program name field. This behaviour has been changed for the unix-stream/unix-dgram/pipe drivers if the config version is 3.2 and can be restored by using an explicit 'expect-hostname' flag for the specific source.

You receive the warning because you use the unix-stream("/dev/log"); in your source. If you don't experience any problems with your local logs, there is nothing else to do except changing the first line to @version: 3.2

If your distro adds the hostname to log messages coming from /dev/log (which they rarely do), then include flags(expect-hostname) in the source.

Regards,

Robert Fekete syslog-ng documentation maintainer

Converting syslog-ng 3.0? format to 3.2 format

1 Answers1