unknown priority name – /etc/syslog.conf and syslogd

unknown priority name – /etc/syslog.conf and syslogd

When I was making logging changes to IP Filter, I found a curious characeteristics of  /etc/syslog.conf.  This file needs tabs, not spaces.  If you use spaces, you will encounter an error message similar to the following :

unknown priority name "info	/var/log/firewall.log"

If you replace the spaces with tabs, the error message will go away.  When it comes to tabs, I’ve found that various editor produce different results.  For example, ee produces spaces, not tabs.  But vi gives you tabs.

virus (also known as Cloud and apache), a helper on the #FreeBSD IRC channel on Undernet, gave the following tip:

printf "%s\t\t\t\t%s\n" 'ftp.*' /var/log/ftpd.log >> /etc/syslog.conf

This will append a line to the end of /etc/syslog.conf.  This tip is useful for adding new entries if you can’t find an editor that will do it for you.   Then you can amend the details with your favourite editor and presumably the tabs will remain intact.