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SYSLOG-NG-CTL

Section: The syslo-ng control tool man (1)
Updated: 07/16/2025
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NAME

syslo-n-ctl - Display message statistics and enable verbose, debug and trace modes in  

SYNOPSIS

syslog-ng-ctl [command] [options]
 

DESCRIPTION

NOTE: The syslog-ng-ctl application is distributed with the system logging application, and is usually part of the syslog-ng package. The latest version of the syslog-ng application is available at m[blue]the official syslog-ng websitem[][1].

This manual page is only an abstract, for the complete documentation of syslog-ng, see m[blue]The Administrator Guidem[][2].

The syslog-ng-ctl application is a utility that can be used to:

* enable/disable various syslog-ng messages for troubleshooting

* display statistics about the processed messages

* reload the configuration of .
 

ENABLING TROUBLESHOOTING MESSAGES

command [options]

Use the syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=on command to display verbose, trace, or debug messages. If you are trying to solve configuration problems, the verbose (and occasionally trace) messages are usually sufficient. Debug messages are needed mostly for finding software errors. After solving the problem, do not forget to turn these messages off using the syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=off. Note that enabling debug messages does not enable verbose and trace messages.

Use syslog-ng-ctl <command> without any parameters to display whether the particular type of messages are enabled or not.

If you need to use a non-standard control socket to access syslog-ng, use the syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=on --control=<socket> command to specify the socket to use.

verbose

Print verbose messages. If syslog-ng was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng will log such messages to its internal source.

trace

Print trace messages of how messages are processed. If syslog-ng was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng will log such messages to its internal source.

debug

Print debug messages. If syslog-ng was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng will log such messages to its internal source.

Example: 

syslog-ng-ctl verbose --set=on
 

THE STATS COMMAND

stats [options]

Use the stats command to display statistics about the processed messages. The stats command has the following options:

--control=<socket> or -c

Specify the socket to use to access syslog-ng. Only needed when using a non-standard socket.

--reset or -r

Reset all statistics to zero, except for the stored counters. (The stored counters show the number of messages stored in the message queue of the destination driver, waiting to be sent to the destination.)

Example: 

syslog-ng-ctl stats

An example output: 

src.internal;s_all#0;;a;processed;6445
src.internal;s_all#0;;a;stamp;1268989330
destination;df_auth;;a;processed;404
destination;df_news_dot_notice;;a;processed;0
destination;df_news_dot_err;;a;processed;0
destination;d_ssb;;a;processed;7128
destination;df_uucp;;a;processed;0
source;s_all;;a;processed;7128
destination;df_mail;;a;processed;0
destination;df_user;;a;processed;1
destination;df_daemon;;a;processed;1
destination;df_debug;;a;processed;15
destination;df_messages;;a;processed;54
destination;dp_xconsole;;a;processed;671
dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;dropped;5080
dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;processed;7128
dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;stored;2048
destination;df_syslog;;a;processed;6724
destination;df_facility_dot_warn;;a;processed;0
destination;df_news_dot_crit;;a;processed;0
destination;df_lpr;;a;processed;0
destination;du_all;;a;processed;0
destination;df_facility_dot_info;;a;processed;0
center;;received;a;processed;0
destination;df_kern;;a;processed;70
center;;queued;a;processed;0
destination;df_facility_dot_err;;a;processed;0
 

RELOADING THE CONFIGURATION

command [options]

Use the syslog-ng-ctl reload command to reload the configuration file of without having to restart the application. The syslog-ng-ctl reload works like a SIGHUP.  

FILES

/usr/local/sbin/syslog-ng-ctl  

SEE ALSO

m[blue]The syslog-ng Administrator Guidem[][2]

syslog-ng.conf(5)

syslog-ng(8)


Note

For the detailed documentation of see m[blue]The 4.9 Administrator Guidem[][3]

If you experience any problems or need help with syslog-ng, visit the m[blue]syslog-ng mailing listm[][4].

For news and notifications about of syslog-ng, visit the m[blue]syslog-ng blogsm[][5].

 

AUTHOR

This manual page was written by the Balabit Documentation Team <documentation@balabit.com>.  

COPYRIGHT

 

NOTES

1.
the official syslo-ng website
https://syslo-ng.org
2.
The Administrator Guide
https://www.balabit.com/support/documentation/
3.
The 4.9 Administrator Guide
https://www.balabit.com/documents/syslo-n-os-lates-guides/en/syslo-n-os-guid-admin/html/index.html
4.
syslo-ng mailing list
https://lists.balabit.hu/mailman/listinfo/syslo-ng
5.
syslo-ng blogs
https://syslo-ng.org/blogs/

 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
ENABLING TROUBLESHOOTING MESSAGES
THE STATS COMMAND
RELOADING THE CONFIGURATION
FILES
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
NOTES