Log File Query

Matt Zimmerman mdz@debian.org
Sat, 28 Jun 2003 12:10:38 -0400


On Sat, Jun 28, 2003 at 12:24:11AM -0700, Nick Moffitt wrote:

> begin  Grant Bowman  quotation:
> > > correct.  dmesg will log kernel messages from startup but if one
> > > of the daemons failed for some reason there may be no evidence.
> > 
> > That always bugged me (pun intended).  Can't a simple enscript or
> > tee be used to capture this stuff?  I am sure it's more complicated
> > than that, but why?
> 
> 	Because the only software running when these messages are
> written is, by necessity, the kernel.  No shells, no init, no daemons,
> no user-space ANYTHING.  It's the initial boot sequence, and it's all
> the stuff that's required to even FIND the "tee" or "enscript"
> executable.

The kernel messages are saved in the ring buffer and dumped by klogd when it
starts.  Messages are only lost if the buffer fills.

The question was about the messages printed as userland starts up (starting
of daemons and such).  I believe some other distributions capture this and
dump it to syslog.

-- 
 - mdz