SENDSYSLOG(2) | System Calls Manual | SENDSYSLOG(2)

# NAME

`sendsyslog` — send a message to syslogd

# SYNOPSIS

`#include <sys/syslog.h>`
`#include <sys/types.h>`

int
`sendsyslog`(const char *msg, size_t len, int flags);

# DESCRIPTION

The `sendsyslog`() function is used to transmit a syslog(3) formatted message direct to syslogd(8) without requiring the allocation of a socket. The msg is not NUL terminated and its len is limited to 8192 bytes. If `LOG_CONS` is specified in the flags argument, and syslogd(8) is not accepting messages, the message will be sent to the console. This is used internally by syslog_r(3), so that messages can be sent during difficult situations. If sending to syslogd(8) fails, up to 100 messages are stashed in the kernel. After that, dropped messages are counted. When syslogd(8) works again, before the next message, stashed messages and possibly a warning with the drop counter, error number, and pid is logged.

To receive messages from the kernel, syslogd(8) has to create a datagram socket pair and register one end. This registration is done by opening the /dev/klog device and passing one file descriptor of the socket pair as argument to ioctl(2) `LIOCSFD` invoked on the klog file descriptor. After that the messages can be read from the other end of the socket pair. By utilizing /dev/klog the access to log messages is limited to processes that may open this device.

# RETURN VALUES

Upon successful completion, the value 0 is returned; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

# ERRORS

`sendsyslog`() can fail if:

[`EFAULT`]
  An invalid user space address was specified for a parameter.
[`EMSGSIZE`]
  The socket requires that message be sent atomically, and the size of the message to be sent made this impossible.
[`ENOBUFS`]
  The system was unable to allocate an internal buffer. The operation may succeed when buffers become available.
[`ENOTCONN`]
  The message cannot be sent, likely because syslogd(8) is not running.

# SEE ALSO

syslog_r(3), syslogd(8)

# HISTORY

The `sendsyslog`() function call appeared in OpenBSD 5.6. The flags argument was added in OpenBSD 6.0.

March 9, 2021 | Debian