How to use logger on Linux

The Linux logger command provides an easy way to add log files to /var/log/syslog — from the command line, from scripts, or from other files. In today’s post, we’ll take a look at how it works.

How easy is easy?

This easy. Just type logger on the command line and your message will be added to the end of the /var/log/syslog file.

$ logger comment to be added to log
$ tail -1 /vvar/log/syslog
May 21 18:02:16 butterfly shs: comment to be added to log

Command output

You can also add the output from commands by enclosing the commands in backticks.

$ logger `who`
$ tail -1 /var/log/syslog
May 21 18:02:43 butterfly shs: shs pts/0 2018-05-21 15:57 (192.168.0.15)

Content from a file

The contents of text files can be added by using the -f option. Put the name of the file to be added to the log following the -f option as shown below.

$ cat msg
Backups to off-site facility will run this coming weekend.
System availability will not be affected.
$ logger -f msg
$ tail -2 /var/log/syslog
May 21 18:06:01 butterfly shs: Backups to off-site facility will run this coming weekend.
May 21 18:06:01 butterfly shs: System availability will not be affected.

Using logger in scripts

You can add logger commands to scripts to make it easier to track the completion of important tasks.

$ grep logger /bin/runme
logger "$0 completed at `date`"
$ sudo runme
$ tail -1 /var/log/syslog
May 21 17:57:36 butterfly shs: ./runme completed at Mon May 21 17:57:36 EDT 2018

Limiting the size of logger entries

If you’re concerned about how much data will be added to your log file, especially if you’re dumping content from a file, you can use the –size option to limit it. In this example, the size is artificially small to make a point.

$ logger --size 10 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890
$ tail -1 /var/log/syslog
May 21 18:18:02 butterfly shs: 1234567890

This option works differently than you might expect in that, given input that includes blanks, it will constrain the content on a per-line basis rather than an overall length basis.

$ logger --size 5 `date`
$ tail -5 /var/log/syslog
May 22 08:35:51 butterfly shs: May
May 22 08:35:51 butterfly shs: 22
May 22 08:35:51 butterfly shs: 08:35
May 22 08:35:51 butterfly shs: EDT
May 22 08:35:51 butterfly shs: 2018

Don’t be misled by these simple examples. The –size option is generally used to limit large amounts of text. The default maximum is 1KiB (1024 bytes).

Ignoring blank lines

The -e option allows you to avoid dumping empty lines into your log file. They will simply be ignored. Note, however, that a line that contains blanks will not be considered blank.

$ cat appts
Appts
                                              <=== file includes blank line
8 AM -- get to office
8:30 AM -- meet with boss
11:00 AM -- staff meeting
$ logger -e -f appts
May 22 08:17:31 butterfly shs: Appts          <=== log does not
May 22 08:17:31 butterfly shs: 8 AM -- get to office
May 22 08:17:31 butterfly shs: 8:30 AM -- meet with boss
May 22 08:17:31 butterfly shs: 11:00 AM -- staff meeting
May 22 08:17:33 butterfly kernel: [58833.758599] [UFW BLOCK] IN=enp0s25 OUT= MAC=01:00:5e:00:00:fb:ac:63:be:ca:10:cf:08:00 SRC=192.168.0.9 DST=224.0.0.251 LEN=32 TOS=0x00 PREC=0xC0 TTL=1 ID=0 DF PROTO=2

Other options

The logger tool offers others as well — such as writing to a log on another server using -n or –no-act for testing. Check your man page for more details.