The syslog-debun manual page

Name

syslog-debunsyslog-ng DEBUg buNdle generator

Synopsis

syslog-debun [options]

Description

The syslog-debun tool collects and saves information about your AxoSyslog installation, making troubleshooting easier, especially if you ask help about your AxoSyslog related problem.

General Options

  • -r

    Run syslog-ng-debun. Using this option is required to actually execute the data collection with syslog-ng-debun. It is needed to prevent accidentally running syslog-ng-debun.

  • -h

    Display the help page.

  • -l

    Do not collect privacy-sensitive data, for example, process tree, fstab, and so on. If you use with -d, then the following parameters will be used for debug mode:-Fev

  • -R <directory>

    The directory where AxoSyslog is installed instead of /opt/syslog-ng.

  • -W <directory>

    Set the working directory, where the debug bundle will be saved. Default value: /tmp. The name of the created file is syslog.debun.${host}.${date}.${3-random-characters-or-pid}.tgz

Debug mode options

  • -d

    Start AxoSyslog in debug mode, using the -Fedv --enable-core options.

  • -D <options>

    Start AxoSyslog in debug mode, using the specified command-line options. To exit debug mode, press Enter.

    • -t <seconds>

      Run AxoSyslog in non-interactive debug mode for <seconds>, and automatically exit debug mode after the specified number of seconds.

  • -w <seconds>

    Wait <seconds> seconds before starting debug mode.

System call tracing

  • -s

    Enable syscall tracing (strace -f or truss -f). Note that using -s itself does not enable debug mode, only traces the system calls of an already running AxoSyslog process. To trace system calls in debug mode, use both the -s and -d options.

Packet capture options

Capturing packets requires a packet capture tool on the host. The syslog-debun tool attempts to use tcpdump on most platforms, except for Solaris, where it uses snoop.

  • -i <interface>

    Capture packets only on the specified interface, for example, eth0.

  • -p

    Capture incoming packets using the following filter: port 514 or port 601 or port 53

  • -P <options>

    Capture incoming packets using the specified filter.

  • -t <seconds>

    Run AxoSyslog in non-interactive debug mode for <seconds>, and automatically exit debug mode after the specified number of seconds.

Examples

syslog-ng-debun -r

Create a simple debug bundle, collecting information about your environment, for example, list packages containing the word: syslog, ldd of your syslog-binary, and so on.

syslog-ng-debun -r -l

Similar to syslog-ng-debun -r, but without privacy-sensitive information. For example, the following is NOT collected: fstab, df output, mount info, ip / network interface configuration, DNS resolve info, and process tree.

syslog-ng-debun -r -d

Similar to syslog-ng-debun -r, but it also stops AxoSyslog, then restarts it in debug mode (-Fedv --enable-core). To stop debug mode, press Enter. The output of the debug mode collected into a separate file, and also added to the debug bundle.

syslog-ng-debun -r -s

Trace the system calls (using strace or truss) of an already running AxoSyslog process.

syslog-ng-debun -r -d -s

Restart AxoSyslog in debug mode, and also trace the system calls (using strace or truss) of the AxoSyslog process.

syslog-ng-debun -r -p

Run packet capture (pcap) with the filter: port 514 or port 601 or port 53 Also waits for pressing Enter, like debug mode.

syslog-ng-debun -r -p -t 10

Noninteractive debug mode: Similar to syslog-ng-debun -r -p, but automatically exit after 10 seconds.

syslog-ng-debun -r -P "host 1.2.3.4"  -D "-Fev --enable-core"

Change the packet-capturing filter from the default to host 1.2.3.4. Also change debugging parameters from the default to -Fev --enable-core. Since a timeout (-t) is not given, waits for pressing Enter.

syslog-ng-debun -r -p -d -w 5 -t 10

Collect pcap and debug mode output following this scenario:

  • Start packet capture with default parameters (-p)
  • Wait 5 seconds (-w 5)
  • Stop AxoSyslog
  • Start AxoSyslog in debug mode with default parameters (-d)
  • Wait 10 seconds (-t 10)
  • Stop AxoSyslog debugging
  • Start AxoSyslog
  • Stop packet capturing

Files

/opt/syslog-ng/bin/loggen

See also

syslog-ng.conf.5

Getting help

  • The up-to-date documentation of AxoSyslog is available on the AxoSyslog documentation site.
  • For news and notifications about AxoSyslog, visit the Axoflow blog.
  • If you want to contact the developers directly to help with problems or report issues, contact us on Discord or GitHub.

This manual page is maintained by Axoflow

Last modified December 13, 2023: Formatting fixes (580eb08)