Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 08:50:03 GMT From: David Malone <dwmalone@maths.tcd.ie> To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: conf/100616: [patch] syslog.conf: lines after exclamation point ignored Message-ID: <200810070850.m978o3JH078708@freefall.freebsd.org>
index | next in thread | raw e-mail
The following reply was made to PR conf/100616; it has been noted by GNATS.
From: David Malone <dwmalone@maths.tcd.ie>
To: Royce Williams <royce@alaska.net>
Cc: David Malone <dwmalone@maths.tcd.ie>, bug-followup@FreeBSD.org,
dwmalone@maths.tcd.ie
Subject: Re: conf/100616: [patch] syslog.conf: lines after exclamation point ignored
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:42:50 +0100
> The syslog.conf manpage says that respecting '#!' is to maintain
> compatibility with a previous version of syslog. Looking back at
> syslog.conf and syslogd.c, it looks like support for this was added
> in rev 1.3 back in December 1994, but I don't see anything that shows
> when the previous version of syslog was replaced.
I think the idea is that you could share a syslog.conf between
machines, some of which support the "#!" notation and some of which
don't. For example, we used to share a syslog.conf between FreeBSD
and SunOS machines.
> +# Commenting out program specifications will not work as expected.
> +# For backwards compatibility with the previous syslog, lines
> +# starting with '#!' have a purpose and are NOT commented out.
> +# See 'program specification' in the syslog.conf(5) manpage.
Something like this would be good...
> ... or something less chatty. Is sending this to you sufficient, or
> should I add it to the PR?
Personally, I think snappier would be better I think - how about:
# NB: To comment out lines starting with a "!" use "##" - see syslog.conf(5).
> Now about the possible bug. Even if commenting out the !startslip
> doesn't really comment it out, but instead triggers this legacy
> support, why would all subsequent unrelated configuration lines get
> ignored? From my testing, any lines added after the example '!' lines
> are ignored entirely. Surely that's not part of the functionality?
> Or am I missing something? Are you able to recreate the symptom that
> I'm seeing, as described in the PR?
The program specification (or a host specification) applies to all
subsequent lines, until it is reset. To reset it, you need to have
a line that says:
!*
or the equivelent "#!*". This is explained in the man page below
in the paragraph after host specifications, but we've had several
people confused about it, so I suspect the man page is not clear
enough. If you have an idea bout how to make it clearer, let me
know!
David.
home |
help
Want to link to this message? Use this
URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200810070850.m978o3JH078708>