DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

CLOG(8)                DragonFly System Manager's Manual               CLOG(8)

NAME
     clog - display or initialize a circular system log

SYNOPSIS
     clog [-f] [-i -s size] logfile

DESCRIPTION
     clog displays or initializes a circular log file.

     The options are as follows:

     -f      Display the contents of the circular logfile logfile, then go
             into a loop waiting for new material to arrive.  This is
             essentially the same as using the -f option of the tail(1)
             command on a standard syslog file.

     -i      Initialize logfile rather than reading it.  This option requires
             the -s option.  If logfile already exists, it will be truncated
             and recreated by this command.

     -s      This option specifies the size in bytes of the circular logfile
             that should be created.  This option requires the -i option.

ABOUT CIRCULAR LOGFILES
     The clog command supports circular logfiles for syslogd(8).  A circular
     logfile differs from a standard syslog file in that it has a fixed size.
     It does not grow, and does not need to be rotated.  When syslogd(8)
     reaches the end of a circular logfile, it simply begins again at the
     beginning, overwriting the oldest data.  The circular logfile also
     contains information allowing clog to establish what parts of the file
     are valid, and in what order they should be displayed.

     Circular logfiles are primarily useful for their ability to control the
     amount of storage devoted to logfiles.  This may be valuable when storage
     space is at a premium or when the consequences of running out of storage
     space are unacceptable.  Circular logfiles can safely be used on a memory
     disk (see md(4)).

     Circular logfiles are also useful to catch messages that are generated
     rapidly but soon lose relevance, such as messages logged at debug
     priority.

SEE ALSO
     syslog.conf(5), syslogd(8)

HISTORY
     The clog command was written for FreeBSD 4.3 and was imported into
     DragonFly 1.1.

DragonFly 6.1-DEVELOPMENT         May 6, 2006        DragonFly 6.1-DEVELOPMENT