Bug 146580

Summary:	syslog should be not mandatory
Product:	[openSUSE] SUSE Linux 10.1	Reporter:	Bjoern Jacke <bjacke>
Component:	Basesystem	Assignee:	Dr. Werner Fink <werner>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID	QA Contact:	E-mail List <qa-bugs>
Severity:	Normal
Priority:	P5 - None
Version:	Beta 2
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	Other
OS:	Other
Whiteboard:
Found By:	Other	Services Priority:
Business Priority:		Blocker:	---
Marketing QA Status:	---	IT Deployment:	---

Description Bjoern Jacke 2006-01-30 11:53:58 UTC

There are systems where logging should be done as low as possible for privacy purposes. That meas especially that sysog should be turned off. Turning syslog off however is not possible because many other serviced depenbd on it. An easy way to allow syslog to be turned of is putting it into the X-UnitedLinux-Should-Start: header instead of the Required-Start: header for all services which want to have syslog started first.

Comment 1 Dr. Werner Fink 2006-01-30 12:47:32 UTC

A UNIX-like system has to have a syslog facility. It depends on
the system adminstrator to change the /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf
of /etc/syslog.conf to filter out the appropiate message levels
and change the permissions of the log files at /var/log/.
Compares this with  /etc/permissions and /etc/permissions.*
and the files within /etc/permissions.d/.

Comment 2 Bjoern Jacke 2006-01-30 13:14:12 UTC

well, but there is actually no prolblem if you shut down syslogd and it is very convenient way to achieve more privacy without having to fiddle around with the not so easy syslog.conf. Syslog still is installed and on with every installation but what speaks against a soft dependecy via X-UnitedLinux-Should-Start for people who want to turn it off on their own risk?

Comment 3 Dr. Werner Fink 2006-01-30 13:24:22 UTC

Shuting down syslogd is a bad idea.  There is no way to debug
problems or identify attacks anymore.  This is the reason
for syslog facility.  Beside this, the onyl user which can
read log files with personal data is root and root is able to
start syslogd.