log rotation, one process doesn't know about it

[Bill Moran]

In response to Zbigniew Szalbot <zbyszek at szalbot.homedns.org>:

> Hello,
> 
> On Sat, 21 Oct 2006, Bill Moran wrote:
> 
> > Do one of the following:
> > 1) Configure both exim and dovecot to log through syslog with the same
> >   facility.  Then configure syslogd to put that facility in the file
> >   you want.
> 
> As FBSD is still new to me, I am trying to understand what it would 
> involve. Exim is configured to log to /var/log/exim/mainlog. In the 
> newsyslog.conf I have
> 
> /var/log/exim/mainlog mailnull:mail 640 60 * @T00 ZC
> 
> Does it mean exim uses syslogd? It is not obvious to me. If it does, how 
> can I do the same with dovecot? In dovecot.conf I have the path pointing 
> to /var/log/exim/mainlog. If I want to use syslogd, do I have to write to 
> /var/log/maillog?
> 
> I want to get it right using the first solution. Thank you very much 
> for your patience with me!

You're asking all the wrong questions.  Take a step back and do a little
reading, it's not really hard once you know what order to go in.

First, read the man pages for syslogd and syslog.conf.  The high-level
explanation is that syslogd accepts messages from many places and handles
them according to its configuration.  syslogd and newsyslog are two
different programs, despite the similarities in their names, they are
independent.

Next, research the program logger, which is a simple tool to send messages
to syslogd.  Experiment a bit to get a feel for how messages are being
handled, and gain an understanding of facilities and levels.

>From there, both Dovecot and Exim will both have configuration parameters
to tell them _how_ to log.  Looking at my Dovecot config, I didn't have
to change anything to have it log to syslogd with facility mail.  I don't
use Exim, so I can't speak to the details of its config.

If you have specific questions, post to the list.

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.