How can I write an entry into /var/log/syslog from the command line?
3 Answers
Use the logger command.
logger Some message to write There are several options available, including:
-i Log the process ID in each line -f Log the contents of a specified file -n Write to the specified remote syslog server -p Specify a priority -t Tag the line with a specified tag See man 1 logger for more information on the tool.
Alternatively, you can write to syslog from python:
python -c 'import syslog; syslog.syslog("Hello World")' As a dev, I rarely have time to closely study man pages, so TLDR:
logger -p local0.notice -t ${0##*/}[$$] Hello world The gibberish in the middle will translate to the calling program. So if you check the bottom of syslog you'll see something like:
May 07 08:27:14 ip-10-1-11-166 -bash[42108]: Hello world 
