# The syslog-ng control tool manual page

syslog-ng-ctl 1 3.35
syslog-ng-ctl Display message statistics and enable verbose, debug and trace modes in
`syslog-ng-ctl` command options

### Description

NOTE: The syslog-ng-ctl application is distributed with the system logging application, and is usually part of the syslog-ng package. The latest version of the syslog-ng application is available at the official syslog-ng website.

This manual page is only an abstract, for the complete documentation of syslog-ng, see `The Administrator Guide`.

The `syslog-ng-ctl` application is a utility that can be used to:

- enable/disable various syslog-ng messages for troubleshooting

- display statistics about the processed messages

- reload the configuration of .

### Enabling troubleshooting messages

`command` options

Use the `syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=on` command to display verbose, trace, or debug messages. If you are trying to solve configuration problems, the verbose (and occasionally trace) messages are usually sufficient. Debug messages are needed mostly for finding software errors. After solving the problem, do not forget to turn these messages off using the `syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=off`. Note that enabling debug messages does not enable verbose and trace messages.

Use `syslog-ng-ctl <command>` without any parameters to display whether the particular type of messages are enabled or not.

If you need to use a non-standard control socket to access syslog-ng, use the `syslog-ng-ctl <command> --set=on --control=<socket>` command to specify the socket to use.

`verbose`

  Print verbose messages. If syslog-ng was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng will log such messages to its internal source.

`trace`

  Print trace messages of how messages are processed. If syslog-ng was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng will log such messages to its internal source.

`debug`

  Print debug messages. If syslog-ng was started with the --stderr or -e option, the messages will be sent to stderr. If not specified, syslog-ng will log such messages to its internal source.

Example:

    syslog-ng-ctl verbose --set=on

### The stats command

`stats` options

Use the `stats` command to display statistics about the processed messages. The `stats` command has the following options:

`--control=<socket>` or `-c`

  Specify the socket to use to access syslog-ng. Only needed when using a non-standard socket.

`--reset` or `-r`

  Reset all statistics to zero, except for the `stored` counters. (The `stored` counters show the number of messages stored in the message queue of the destination driver, waiting to be sent to the destination.)

Example:

    syslog-ng-ctl stats

An example output:

    src.internal;s_all#0;;a;processed;6445
    src.internal;s_all#0;;a;stamp;1268989330
    destination;df_auth;;a;processed;404
    destination;df_news_dot_notice;;a;processed;0
    destination;df_news_dot_err;;a;processed;0
    destination;d_ssb;;a;processed;7128
    destination;df_uucp;;a;processed;0
    source;s_all;;a;processed;7128
    destination;df_mail;;a;processed;0
    destination;df_user;;a;processed;1
    destination;df_daemon;;a;processed;1
    destination;df_debug;;a;processed;15
    destination;df_messages;;a;processed;54
    destination;dp_xconsole;;a;processed;671
    dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;dropped;5080
    dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;processed;7128
    dst.tcp;d_network#0;10.50.0.111:514;a;stored;2048
    destination;df_syslog;;a;processed;6724
    destination;df_facility_dot_warn;;a;processed;0
    destination;df_news_dot_crit;;a;processed;0
    destination;df_lpr;;a;processed;0
    destination;du_all;;a;processed;0
    destination;df_facility_dot_info;;a;processed;0
    center;;received;a;processed;0
    destination;df_kern;;a;processed;70
    center;;queued;a;processed;0
    destination;df_facility_dot_err;;a;processed;0

### Reloading the configuration

`command` options

Use the `syslog-ng-ctl reload` command to reload the configuration file of without having to restart the application. The `syslog-ng-ctl reload` works like a SIGHUP.

### Files

`/opt/syslog-ng/sbin/syslog-ng-ctl`

### See also

`The syslog-ng Administrator Guide`

`syslog-ng.conf`(5)

`syslog-ng`(8)

For the detailed documentation of see `The 3.35 Administrator Guide`

If you experience any problems or need help with syslog-ng, visit the `syslog-ng mailing list`.

For news and notifications about of syslog-ng, visit the `syslog-ng blogs`.

### Author

This manual page was written by the Balabit Documentation Team <documentation@balabit.com>.

### Copyright