Logging basics: What is the syslog protocol

The syslog protocol is the standard for logging events on Unix-like (Linux, BSD, etc) operating systems. It provides a way for programs to send messages to a system administrator or other logged-in users, and to save those messages in a log file or database.

When a program wants to log an event, it sends a message using the syslog protocol (often UDP port 514) to a syslog server. The syslog server then processes the message and writes it to a log file on the server.

The syslog protocol uses a simple and flexible message format that includes a few basic pieces of information:

1. The severity level of the message, which indicates how important the message is.
2. The time and date of the message.
3. The hostname or IP address of the computer that sent the message.
4. The name of the program or process that generated the message.
5. The actual log message itself.

The syslog protocol also defines a set of standard severity levels, ranging from "debug" to "emergency," that can be used to classify messages according to their importance. This allows syslog messages to be filtered and processed in various ways, depending on their severity level.

Overall, the syslog protocol provides a simple and effective way for computer programs to log events and communicate with system administrators. It is widely used on Unix-like operating systems, and has been adopted by many other systems as well.

If you are using Trunc, we allow you to send directly syslog messages to our logging storage, in addition to other encrypted methods of logging.