# The syslog-ng control tool manual page

syslog-ng-ctl

1 3.3 syslog-ng Open Source Edition

syslog-ng-ctl

Display message statistics and enable verbose, debug and trace modes in syslog-ng Open Source Edition

            syslog-ng-ctl
            command
            options

### Description

NOTE: The syslog-ng-ctl application is distributed with the syslog-ng Open Source Edition system logging application, and is usually part of the syslog-ng package. The latest version of the syslog-ng application is available at the official syslog-ng website.

This manual page is only an abstract; for the complete documentation of syslog-ng, see `The syslog-ng Open Source Edition Administrator Guide` .

The `syslog-ng-ctl` application is a utility that can be used to:

- enable/disable various syslog-ng messages for troubleshooting;

- display statistics about the processed messages.

### Enabling troubleshooting messages

            command
            options

Use the `syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=on` command to display verbose, trace, or debug messages. If you are trying to solve configuration problems, the debug (and occassionally trace) messages are usually sufficient; debug messages are needed mostly for finding software errors. After solving the problem, do not forget to turn these messages off using the `syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=off`. Note that enabling debug messages does not enable verbose and trace messages.

Use `syslog-ng-ctl <command>` without any parameters to display whether the particular type of messages are enabled or not.

If you need to use a non-standard control socket to access syslog-ng, use the `syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=on --control=<socket>` command to specify the socket to use.

`verbose`

- Print verbose messages. If syslog-ng was started with the `--stderr` or `-e` option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng will log such messages to its internal source.

`trace`

- Print trace messages of how messages are processed. If syslog-ng was started with the `--stderr` or `-e` option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng will log such messages to its internal source.

`debug`

- Print debug messages. If syslog-ng was started with the `--stderr` or `-e` option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng will log such messages to its internal source.

Example:

    syslog-ng-ctl verbose --set=on

### The stats command

            stats
            options

Use the `stats` command to display statistics about the processed messages. The `stats` command has the following options:

`--control=<socket>` or `-c`

- Specify the socket to use to access syslog-ng. Only needed when using a non-standard socket.

Example:

    syslog-ng-ctl stats

An example output:

    src.internal;s_all#0;;a;processed;6445
    src.internal;s_all#0;;a;stamp;1268989330
    destination;df_auth;;a;processed;404
    destination;df_news_dot_notice;;a;processed;0
    destination;df_news_dot_err;;a;processed;0
    destination;d_ssb;;a;processed;7128
    destination;df_uucp;;a;processed;0
    source;s_all;;a;processed;7128
    destination;df_mail;;a;processed;0
    destination;df_user;;a;processed;1
    destination;df_daemon;;a;processed;1
    destination;df_debug;;a;processed;15
    destination;df_messages;;a;processed;54
    destination;dp_xconsole;;a;processed;671
    dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;dropped;5080
    dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;processed;7128
    dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;stored;2048
    destination;df_syslog;;a;processed;6724
    destination;df_facility_dot_warn;;a;processed;0
    destination;df_news_dot_crit;;a;processed;0
    destination;df_lpr;;a;processed;0
    destination;du_all;;a;processed;0
    destination;df_facility_dot_info;;a;processed;0
    center;;received;a;processed;0
    destination;df_kern;;a;processed;70
    center;;queued;a;processed;0
    destination;df_facility_dot_err;;a;processed;0

### Files

`/opt/syslog-ng/sbin/syslog-ng-ctl`

### See also

`The syslog-ng Administrator Guide`

`syslog-ng.conf`(5)

`syslog-ng`(8)

`The syslog-ng OSE 3.3 Administrator Guide`

If you experience any problems or need help with syslog-ng, visit visit the syslog-ng wiki or the `syslog-ng mailing list`.

For news and notifications about of syslog-ng, visit the `syslog-ng Insider Blog`.

### Author

This manual page was written by the BalaBit Documentation Team <documentation@balabit.com>.

### Copyright

The authors grant permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this manual page under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 2 or newer (GPL v2+).