[comp.sys.sun] syslog on sun{3,386i,4}

adam@ucscc.ucsc.edu (Adam Margulies) (06/29/89)

syslog seems to like to take over a system from time to time and eat 80%
of the cpu time. It writes nothing to /usr/adm/messages so I can't tell if
it is doing it for good REASON or anything.  syslog just hates me.

how can i free myself from it, other than turning it off all together?

-- 
adam margulies          metaware inc.         "compilers, from a higher source"

UUCP: [...]!ucbvax!sco.com!metaware!adam               ATT: (408)429-META x3016

"if C gives you enough rope to hang yourself, then metaware C gives you enough
rope to bind and gag your neighborhood, rig the sails on a small ship, and
still have enough rope to hang yourself from the yardarm." -review of highc

chuq@apple.com (Chuq Von Rospach) (07/11/89)

metaware!riscy!adam@ucscc.ucsc.edu (Adam Margulies) writes:

>syslog seems to like to take over a system from time to time and eat 80%
>of the cpu time. It writes nothing to /usr/adm/messages so I can't tell if
>it is doing it for good REASON or anything.  syslog just hates me.

Sun shipped a syslog.conf that was buggy for systems that act as their own
loghosts. Check the Read This First for the fix. The symptom is that after
a while syslog goes into an infinite loop and eats your CPU for lunch.
What's happening is that syslog is trying to connect to the loghost, which
is really itself, and can't handle the condition where it connect to
itself.  End result: it goes catatonic.

The fix is trivial, but for some reason I no longer have my notes on Sun's
handy.

Chuq Von Rospach      =|=     Editor,OtherRealms     =|=     Member SFWA/ASFA
         chuq@apple.com   =|=  CI$: 73317,635  =|=  AppleLink: CHUQ
      [This is myself speaking. No company can control my thoughts.]

You are false data. Therefore I shall ignore you.

scl@virginia.edu (Steve Losen) (07/12/89)

In article <4244@kalliope.rice.edu> metaware!riscy!adam@ucscc.ucsc.edu (Adam Margulies) writes:
>syslog seems to like to take over a system from time to time and eat 80%
>of the cpu time. It writes nothing to /usr/adm/messages so I can't tell if
>it is doing it for good REASON or anything.  syslog just hates me.
>
>how can i free myself from it, other than turning it off all together?
>
>-- 
>adam margulies          metaware inc.         "compilers, from a higher source"
>
>UUCP: [...]!ucbvax!sco.com!metaware!adam               ATT: (408)429-META x3016

I noticed this too.  The problem can be fixed in the /etc/syslog.conf
file.  I commented out the following line and this stopped the problem.

mail.debug                     ifdef(`LOGHOST', /var/log/syslog, @loghost)

Note that LOGHOST was not defined and that in /etc/hosts there was a
loghost alias for the local host.

In case anyone cares, I discovered that sendmail was triggering syslogd to
loop.  Upon further investigation I found that the following command
sequence also caused syslogd to loop.

logger -p mail.err
logger -p mail.info

As a matter of fact, any two logger commands with any two different mail.*
priorities triggered the looping.  Non-mail priorities had no effect.
Repeating the same "logger -p mail.*" command had no effect.

By the way, this happened with release 4.0.1 on both a sun3/60 and a
sun4/260.

Steve Losen     scl@virginia.edu
University of Virginia Academic Computing Center

hamet@chrpserv.gsfc.nasa.gov (Lisa Hamet) (07/13/89)

In article <4244@kalliope.rice.edu> metaware!riscy!adam@ucscc.ucsc.edu (Adam Margulies) writes:
>X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 61, message 16 of 18
>
>syslog seems to like to take over a system from time to time and eat 80%
>of the cpu time. It writes nothing to /usr/adm/messages so I can't tell if
>it is doing it for good REASON or anything.  syslog just hates me.
>
>how can i free myself from it, other than turning it off all together?
>
>-- 
>adam margulies          metaware inc.         "compilers, from a higher source"

***

Adam, 

I had the same problem, and it drove me crazy, because every time I
thought I had fixed it, it would pop up again a few hours/days later.  I
finally called Sun, and the problem is caused by sendmail trying to log
activity.  To fix the problem, add the following line to syslog.conf.  It
must be the FIRST line in the file. Pay careful attention to spaces.  It
has to be typed EXACTLY this way.  (I put in extra spaces the first time,
and it didn't solve the problem.)

define(LOGHOST, 1)

It is amazing that Sun doesn't put this in the default syslog.conf, or at
least mention it in the documentation.

Lisa Hamet

ephraim%TECHUNIX.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Ephraim Silverberg) (07/16/89)

In Volume 8, Issue 61, message 16 of 18, Adam Margulies writes:
>
> syslog seems to like to take over a system from time to time and eat 80%
> of the cpu time. It writes nothing to /usr/adm/messages so I can't tell if
> it is doing it for good REASON or anything.  syslog just hates me.
>
> how can i free myself from it, other than turning it off all together?

If you are running SunOS 4.0.1, you must put the line

define(LOGHOST,1)

in your server's /etc/syslog.conf file.  Remember to remove this line when
you upgrade to SunOS 4.0.3.

Ephraim Silverberg
Internet: ephraim%techunix.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Uucp: uunet!mimsy!rutgers!psuvax1!techunix.bitnet!ephraim