Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 19:10:04 GMT From: Royce Williams <royce@alaska.net> To: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: conf/100616: [patch] syslog.conf: lines after exclamation point ignored Message-ID: <200810071910.m97JA4qN026693@freefall.freebsd.org>
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The following reply was made to PR conf/100616; it has been noted by GNATS. From: Royce Williams <royce@alaska.net> To: David Malone <dwmalone@maths.tcd.ie> Cc: bug-followup@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: conf/100616: [patch] syslog.conf: lines after exclamation point ignored Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:08:29 -0800 David Malone wrote, on 10/7/2008 12:42 AM: > Personally, I think snappier would be better I think - how about: > > # NB: To comment out lines starting with a "!" use "##" - see syslog.conf(5). Agreed - short, to the point. >> 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! Ah. That's what I get for only reading that paragraph! Since the existing stock syslog.conf doesn't have these resets, then as written, they're incomplete and should probably be fixed as follows: +++ syslog.conf.new 2008-10-07 11:03:08.000000000 -0800 @@ -26,7 +26,10 @@ # news.crit /var/log/news/news.crit # news.err /var/log/news/news.err # news.notice /var/log/news/news.notice +# NB: To comment out lines starting with a "!" use "##" - see syslog.conf(5). !startslip *.* /var/log/slip.log +!* !ppp *.* /var/log/ppp.log +!* ... or something similar? In this way, POLA is restored -- unsuspecting users can add new lines without being caught in the same way that I was. Royce -- Royce D. Williams - http://royce.ws/ Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.~RAH
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