logger(1p) — Linux manual page

PROLOG | NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | OPERANDS | STDIN | INPUT FILES | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS | STDOUT | STDERR | OUTPUT FILES | EXTENDED DESCRIPTION | EXIT STATUS | CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS | APPLICATION USAGE | EXAMPLES | RATIONALE | FUTURE DIRECTIONS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT

LOGGER(1P)              POSIX Programmer's Manual             LOGGER(1P)

PROLOG         top

       This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The
       Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
       corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
       or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME         top

       logger — log messages

SYNOPSIS         top

       logger string...

DESCRIPTION         top

       The logger utility saves a message, in an unspecified manner and
       format, containing the string operands provided by the user. The
       messages are expected to be evaluated later by personnel
       performing system administration tasks.

       It is implementation-defined whether messages written in locales
       other than the POSIX locale are effective.

OPTIONS         top

       None.

OPERANDS         top

       The following operand shall be supported:

       string    One of the string arguments whose contents are
                 concatenated together, in the order specified,
                 separated by single <space> characters.

STDIN         top

       Not used.

INPUT FILES         top

       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES         top

       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
       logger:

       LANG      Provide a default value for the internationalization
                 variables that are unset or null. (See the Base
                 Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2,
                 Internationalization Variables for the precedence of
                 internationalization variables used to determine the
                 values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL    If set to a non-empty string value, override the values
                 of all the other internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE  Determine the locale for the interpretation of
                 sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for
                 example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte
                 characters in arguments).

       LC_MESSAGES
                 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the
                 format and contents of diagnostic messages written to
                 standard error. (This means diagnostics from logger to
                 the user or application, not diagnostic messages that
                 the user is sending to the system administrator.)

       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the
                 processing of LC_MESSAGES.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS         top

       Default.

STDOUT         top

       Not used.

STDERR         top

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES         top

       Unspecified.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION         top

       None.

EXIT STATUS         top

       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0    Successful completion.

       >0    An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS         top

       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE         top

       This utility allows logging of information for later use by a
       system administrator or programmer in determining why non-
       interactive utilities have failed. The locations of the saved
       messages, their format, and retention period are all unspecified.
       There is no method for a conforming application to read messages,
       once written.

EXAMPLES         top

       A batch application, running non-interactively, tries to read a
       configuration file and fails; it may attempt to notify the system
       administrator with:

           logger myname: unable to read file foo. [timestamp]

RATIONALE         top

       The standard developers believed strongly that some method of
       alerting administrators to errors was necessary. The obvious
       example is a batch utility, running non-interactively, that is
       unable to read its configuration files or that is unable to
       create or write its results file. However, the standard
       developers did not wish to define the format or delivery
       mechanisms as they have historically been (and will probably
       continue to be) very system-specific, as well as involving
       functionality clearly outside the scope of this volume of
       POSIX.1‐2017.

       The text with LC_MESSAGES about diagnostic messages means
       diagnostics from logger to the user or application, not
       diagnostic messages that the user is sending to the system
       administrator.

       Multiple string arguments are allowed, similar to echo, for ease-
       of-use.

       Like the utilities mailx and lp, logger is admittedly difficult
       to test. This was not deemed sufficient justification to exclude
       these utilities from this volume of POSIX.1‐2017. It is also
       arguable that they are, in fact, testable, but that the tests
       themselves are not portable.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS         top

       None.

SEE ALSO         top

       lp(1p), mailx(1p), write(1p)

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8,
       Environment Variables

COPYRIGHT         top

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic
       form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information
       Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The
       Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright
       (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
       Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.  In the event of any
       discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The
       Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
       Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be
       obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page
       are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of
       the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

IEEE/The Open Group               2017                        LOGGER(1P)