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>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
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.
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200810070850.m978o3JH078708>