/dev/chat

Jeff Schaller

12:31 AM

I answered a question, I answered with ed! -- but not on U&L! :)

@FaheemMitha yes, although as you see, modestly ported to Linux as well.

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller Modestly?

Do you think my pavucontrol question is suitable for the site?

Jeff Schaller

@FaheemMitha apparently only for one architecture in Debian; I'm only aware of one other instance, and that's in relation to a VSphere implementation.

@FaheemMitha I'm unaware of your pavucontrol question, and largely ignorant of audio stuff in general.

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller See above, like 3 messages back.

Jeff Schaller

"how to get the config given in pavucontrol as text, preferably via a command"?

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller Correct? And not as a stream of badly formatted gibberish, either.

Jeff Schaller

12:36 AM

pavucontrol is apparently a PulseAudio GUI?

Faheem Mitha

It's probably lurking in a PA config file. But those things are notoriously hard to parse.

@JeffSchaller Correct.

Jeff Schaller

Seems like a reasonable question, and I couldn't find a duplicate in some quick searching. Note that Stephen Kitt has acquired some of my Google-Fu, though.

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller "acquired some of my Google-Fu"?

Jeff Schaller

earlier chat message:

7 hours ago, by Stephen Kitt

@JeffSchaller that was what the matrix reset was about: some of your google-fu has been transferred to me!

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller Like Austin Power's mojo?

Jeff Schaller

12:39 AM

my only other suggestion, ones that I can't try - are on the Arch Wiki: wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio/Configuration

it lists some interesting warnings and also some config files

Faheem Mitha

Though I never quite understood what that was supposed to be about

Jeff Schaller

@FaheemMitha yeah, baby!

Faheem Mitha

LOL

Jeff Schaller

the debian wiki also mentions a location ` ~/.config/pulse`

as well as /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

and a client.conf, apparently

this default.pa shows up again -- probably relevant:

> The module will show up in the Recording tab of the pavucontrol program, where the source and volume can be configured. While latency should be low, it should be sufficient to get a feeling of the sound quality as you will hear yourself speak in the microphone. To make the change permanent, add the following line to your ~/.config/pulse/default.pa:

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller I don't see that here.

Jeff Schaller

12:42 AM

as well as an Advanced section; good luck! :)

@FaheemMitha under the heading #Missing playback devices or audio capture

Faheem Mitha

My mistake. I was checking as root.

I meant the file ` ~/.config/pulse`

Jeff Schaller

it looks at one point like they suggest copying the /etc/pulse/client.conf file to that location, perhaps for local overrides?

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller The information shown in that config tab is pretty basic. It should be easy to find.

In theory, anyway.

Jeff Schaller

@FaheemMitha my guess would be that it gathers the settings from those config files and presents them, but my confidence in that guess is pretty low. Certainly if you think it's a reasonable thing to ask for, ask it! Worst-case, no one has an answer; best-case, someone does -- or at least some workaround/variation.

Faheem Mitha

Of course the heritage of Unix says that one should clutter things up with confusing and unimportant details as much as possible.

@JeffSchaller Sure. Thanks for the feedback.

Jeff Schaller

12:48 AM

heading offline to finish the house chores; good night!

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller Attempting to go back to sleep shortly. Take care.

terdon

11:10 AM

Too slow @Kusalananda! :P And thanks for the edit.

Kusalananda

I was just testing it in another window, and you submitted while I was doing that...

@terdon Maybe comment on their sh script.sh?

Told you... :-)

terdon

@Kusalananda Yeah, but I'm 90% sure that's just because the OP is calling the script with sh. I find it hard to believe that's required. But I added a solution reading the vars from a temp file instead. And, of course, Stéphane added a better one.

Kusalananda

Your POSIX solution still has array syntax leftovers in the loop

@terdon But I think you're correct in that assumption.

terdon

11:27 AM

@Kusalananda Argh, thanks.

Darned copy/paste!

Kusalananda

@terdon Happens all the time.

terdon

I was testing with this :) :

Kusalananda

The other thing in that Q is to set up a .ssh/config file with the correct IdentityFile settings for each host and then don't care about the keys at all in the script.

Won't be useful for a one-off job though.

jww

1:01 PM

Hi Everyone. I just loaded Fedora 29 Server on an old HP DL360. At setup I added "Web Server" group as additional software. After reboot I don't have a web server. Clients cannot connect. Does anyone know if "Web Server" actually includes a web server? Or am I doing something wrong?

Jeff Schaller

or if something failed along the way? rpm -q httpd would be one quick test; ps -ef |grep httpd another

do the clients get a timeout, or hard refusal? firewall rules could be missing

Jeff Schaller

1:34 PM

I suppose I should have @ replied to jww?

jww

Thanks @jeff. dnf list installed | egrep -i '(apache|light|nginx)' returns one hit - nginx-filesystem.noarch.

I also checked "Text Editors" but Emacs was not installed.

Stephen Kitt

@jww you also need to look for httpd since that’s what the package is called on Fedora.

jww

OK, thanks.

Jeff Schaller

@jww that's starting to sound to me like there was a failure during the installation -- repo not available, or ran out of disk space, or ???

jww

Nah, I think its more engineer bullshit. Only an engineer would claim someone wants to install software but not actually use software. What they are saying is the majority of people install software not to use it, which makes no sense. Engineers should not be allowed to drive requirements. They are idiots when it comes to common sense.

Jeff Schaller

1:43 PM

I was going to say, not having used Fedora lately, I wondered if the packages were installed but not configured to start (if there was more than one web server, it'd be impossible to start them all on the same port, so is one enabled, or none)

did you find httpd to be installed?

Stephen Kitt

@JeffSchaller yes, that is the case.

The “Web Server” group installs httpd, Perl and PHP support, Squid, and a few other support packages.

See dnf group info "Web Server" for details.

And somehow the “Editors” group doesn’t install anything, it only defines optional packages.

Jeff Schaller

I see that Google-Fu is serving you well :)

Stephen Kitt

@JeffSchaller ha ha ;-). In this case it’s my dnf-fu...

(I’m using a Fedora 29 system right now.)

Jeff Schaller

I get a dose of cognitive dissonance whenever I see dnf, because one of my hobbies is Geocaching, where DNF means "Did Not Find" (the geocache).

Faheem Mitha

dnf being the successor to yum? And what happened to yum?

Stephen Kitt

1:57 PM

Apr 7 '18 at 15:09, by Faheem Mitha

@StephenKitt Was DNF an improvement over Yum?

Faheem Mitha

And I see the election is over in 6 hours.

@StephenKitt Well, ok. Still wondering what happened to yum.

I seem to remember the creator of yum died. And he was at Duke, but I never met him.

Stephen Kitt

@FaheemMitha I thought you knew (last year), given how you’d written the question ;-).

Faheem Mitha

I guess my information was faulty. I'm pretty sure I had Seth Vidal in mind, but he's not listed among the creators on the Wikipedia page.

Unless that page is incorrect.

Stephen Kitt

Basically yum is being replaced by dnf. RHEL 8 will have dnf (at last).

Faheem Mitha

@StephenKitt I forget what I know/knew. But I guess yum has just quietly been dropped, huh?

Stephen Kitt

2:02 PM

@FaheemMitha not quietly, it’s been announced and discussed at length.

developers.redhat.com/blog/2016/08/30/…

Faheem Mitha

@StephenKitt I don't follow Red Hat stuff, seeing as I don't use it.

@StephenKitt Thank you for the link.

Stephen Kitt

@FaheemMitha and that’s fine, it just means you’re liable to guess wrong ;-).

Faheem Mitha

So how does dnf compare to apt? I think apt's solver has been around for a while.

Stephen Kitt

@FaheemMitha I don’t know in practice, I haven’t had to deal with complex package installation (or removal, or upgrade) scenarios with dnf.

Faheem Mitha

@StephenKitt Ok.

Is changelogs.debian.net broken? changelogs.debian.net/apt doesn't return anything.

Prabhjot Singh

2:39 PM

@terdon Hello

Are you around?

terdon

Yep. What's up @PrabhjotSingh?

Prabhjot Singh

@terdon Yesterday I edited two Qs. I got 6 points instead of 4. My rep should be 41 but now I have 43.

Jeff Schaller

did you possibly reverse a downvote on an Answer?

Prabhjot Singh

No, no. Below 200 you can't downvote anything.

200 rep I am not sure.

Jeff Schaller

maybe this bug?

maybe not; hm. If you visit unix.stackexchange.com/reputation it might help demonstrate when & where the rep came

the most recent is at the bottom; you should see some "16" entries for the edits

219

A: How do I audit my reputation?

Make sure you are logged in, and visit: http://sitename.com/reputation For example: https://stackoverflow.com/reputation https://cooking.stackexchange.com/reputation https://serverfault.com/reputation https://gaming.stackexchange.com/reputation https://superuser.com/reputation https://meta....

Prabhjot Singh

2:56 PM

Yes. chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/49654828#49654828 This too shows 41. So 43 is not my right rep.

terdon

@PrabhjotSingh You edited 3 questions yesterday, but one was deleted.

Jeff Schaller

super mod powers to the rescue!

terdon

Jeff Schaller

according to this blog post (linked to from Meta SE), apparently you get to keep that reputation

ohh, maybe I'm wrong. according to meta.stackexchange.com/questions/78147/… once your reputation is recalculated, you may lose that +2 and go back to 41

Faheem Mitha

I see the Brexit thing is looking increasingly hairy. Anyone else following it?

Archemar

3:14 PM

@FaheemMitha see : cartooningforpeace.blog.lemonde.fr/2019/03/14/…

jww

Did this make anyone's radar: arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/03/…

Faheem Mitha

I tried reading the Guardian about it - but started getting a migraine.

Archemar

that's quiet simple: UK don't want to stay in EU, UK don't want to leave EU.

Faheem Mitha

> Welcome to the Guardian’s weekly Brexit briefing, keeping you up to date with whatever the hell just happened in Brexit.

@Archemar Clear as mud.

@Archemar They could just move to another planet. Or maybe leave the Solar System entirely.

Archemar

we should snap the rope keeping UK near Continent and let them drift afar ...

Stephen Kitt

3:18 PM

@FaheemMitha heh, a variant of

Cities in Flight

Cities in Flight is a four-volume series of science fiction stories by American writer James Blish, originally published between 1950 and 1962, which were first known collectively as the "Okie" novels. The series features entire cities that are able to fly through space using an anti-gravity device, the spindizzy. The stories cover roughly two thousand years, from the very near future to the end of the universe. One story, "Earthman, Come Home" won a Retro Hugo Award in 2004 for Best Novelette. Since 1970, the primary edition has been the omnibus volume first published in paperback by Avon Books...

Faheem Mitha

@Archemar That's another option.

@StephenKitt Well, except the whole of the UK, rather than, say, Manhattan.

Did you actually read those books?

I quite like some Blish. I think that series is one of his stronger works. But he's a very inconsistent writer.

Archemar

@StephenKitt interesting, if it exists in ebook I might buy them.

Faheem Mitha

It's kind of rare for me to feel sympathy for politicians, but I kind of feel sorry for May.

Stephen Kitt

@FaheemMitha yes, I have the “SF Masterworks” edition, I quite enjoyed it.

Faheem Mitha

She's clearly having a very stressful time.

@StephenKitt Oh, ok. Not that many Blish readers out there.

Stephen Kitt

3:20 PM

@FaheemMitha but doesn’t deserve any pity because it’s entirely her doing.

Prabhjot Singh

@FaheemMitha About brexit read Vidya Ram The Hindu's correspondent.

Pandya

Are Bon Programming Language and B Programming Lanauge different things?

Faheem Mitha

I've read and reread it over a 30 year period. So I'm fairly familiar with it.

@PrabhjotSingh Link?

@StephenKitt What is? Brexit?

Stephen Kitt

@FaheemMitha the current mess.

Faheem Mitha

@StephenKitt Really? Singlehandedly?

I didn't think the PM had that kind of power.

Prabhjot Singh

3:23 PM

@FaheemMitha thehindu.com/profile/author/Vidya-Ram-662

Stephen Kitt

@FaheemMitha pretty much. There have been many hands stirring the pot, but May’s obstinacy is what got her into the corner she’s in now.

Archemar

I would blame also Cameron and David Jonson.

Faheem Mitha

@StephenKitt Ok. I haven't really been following it. Is that the consensus?

Stephen Kitt

@FaheemMitha it’s my opinion :-D

Faheem Mitha

@PrabhjotSingh Which article?

@StephenKitt Fair enough.

terdon

3:31 PM

@StephenKitt not quite. David Cameron, Boris, Farage, and Corbyn all deserve a fair share.

Stephen Kitt

@terdon they deserve a lot of “credit” for the Brexit mess, but the “stressful time” Theresa May is having (which is what Faheem was referring to) is entirely her fault IMO.

Ultimately there’s a fair cross-section of the current political class in the UK which deserves a share of the blame.

terdon

@StephenKitt I refuse to absolve Corbyn, he deserves at least a 20% of the blame since he's been as intransigent as she has, almost.

Prabhjot Singh

UKIP too, is responsible for brexit.

Stephen Kitt

@terdon but May didn’t need him to do anything to help herself.

The context here is pitying May, that’s all.

terdon

@PrabhjotSingh Yeah, but Stephen's right, they just do what they do. They're the only ones who probably don't deserve any blame for how it's been handled.

@StephenKitt I pity her only to the extent that she doesn't actually even want brexit and she's just too small a quantity to deal with what's been handed to her. That said, she's made a royal mess of it, absolutely.

Faheem Mitha

3:35 PM

What does UKIP have to do with it?

Stephen Kitt

The absence of credible opposition in the UK is a serious problem of course (as it is in other countries such as France).

terdon

aye

Prabhjot Singh

And Corbyn who didn't participate in vote actively. His ideas about brexit were wishy washy.

Stephen Kitt

@terdon one wonders if she remembers that she didn’t want Brexit :-/

Faheem Mitha

Personally, I think everyone there should try to figure out how to stay in the Union.

That's clearly the best option.

terdon

3:36 PM

@PrabhjotSingh he's always been anti EU, no news there.

Faheem Mitha

@terdon Corbyn? Really?

terdon

@StephenKitt did you hear she offered her resignation as a bargaining chip?

@FaheemMitha Oh yes, very much so.

Prabhjot Singh

And I read that Boris Johnson is very popular there now. That is not good. Personal opinion

Faheem Mitha

Huh.

terdon

@PrabhjotSingh No, it isn't.

Bumbling bufoon of a man.

Stephen Kitt

3:37 PM

@FaheemMitha like India ;-P (sorry, that’s really unfair)

@terdon the story I heard is that her whips demanded her resignation as a potential bargaining chip

terdon

@FaheemMitha markpack.org.uk/153744/jeremy-corbyn-brexit

@StephenKitt theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/26/…

Stephen Kitt

@terdon yup, but that didn’t come from May

Faheem Mitha

@StephenKitt Huh?

I thought Corbyn was supposed to be one of the good guys.

Stephen Kitt

@FaheemMitha well India left (but that’s a totally different context)

Faheem Mitha

@StephenKitt Left what? You lost me.

Stephen Kitt

3:41 PM

@FaheemMitha he’s about as much use as a blob of jelly, except that you can eat jelly and it might even be tasty

@FaheemMitha the Empire

terdon

@StephenKitt weeeel, I'm guessing it probably did.

> A source said that in those private conversations several aides to the prime minister present asked whether it would help them vote for the controversial Brexit deal if May were to quit. “It didn’t look like a coincidence; aides like this are not meant to think for themselves,” they added.

(emphasis mine)

Faheem Mitha

@StephenKitt The Empire wasn't an association. It was the same as being chained up in an underground dungeon, if you want to go into analogies.

Stephen Kitt

@terdon I’m trying to find the article I read about the chief whip’s suggestion that she do exactly this, a couple of weeks ago.

Faheem Mitha

Actually, being chained up in a underground dungeon would probably have been more fun.

terdon

@StephenKitt You have dual citizenship, right? This won't make it harder for you to be in France?

Faheem Mitha

3:45 PM

@StephenKitt That seems a bit harsh. Isn't he at least a progressive?

Favors free and universal education, doesn't he?

Prabhjot Singh

in Room for Fabby and Faheem and Rui, Feb 21 at 18:55, by Prabhjot Singh

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent_Group

Stephen Kitt

@terdon no, I’m only British, so yes, things are liable to become a bit complicated for me in some respects.

@FaheemMitha sort of, but he’s also seemingly rather spineless...

Faheem Mitha

@StephenKitt How so?

Stephen Kitt

@terdon buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/… (not where I read it, but pretty much the same story, minus some chronology)

@FaheemMitha yes, which is why I said my comment wasn’t fair. But the Union isn’t an association either, Wales, NI and Scotland were all conquered in one way or another.

Faheem Mitha

@StephenKitt Yes, I'm aware. And Scotland in particular seems quite keen on getting out.

Though there might be sound pragmatic reasons to stay, akin to the reasons for the UK to stay in the EU.

Jeff Schaller

4:12 PM

it's a feeding frenzy at 508777!

terdon

@StephenKitt Oh, crap.

Kiwy

@JeffSchaller I though Mods where up to anything... It's such a disappointment that you cannot control time.

I should probably ask Gilles, we all know is no human he might be able to

Jeff Schaller

@Kiwy I have no idea what powers mods have, but in my defense, it's not part of my nomination platform :)

now go to sleep! :)

terdon

@StephenKitt Ah, yes, I've heard versions of that. But today it was actually offered by no10 for the first time. Albeit unofficially.

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller ?

Jeff Schaller

4:16 PM

@FaheemMitha a continuation of a comment string at unix.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5273/…

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller 508777?

Jeff Schaller

3

Q: Using parameter substitution on a Bash array

I have file.txt that I need to read into a Bash array. Then I need to remove spaces, double quotes and all but the first comma in every entry. Here's how far I've gotten: $ cat file.txt 10,this 2 0 , i s 30,"all" 40,I 50,n,e,e,d,2 60",s e,e" $ cat script.sh #!/bin/bash readarray -t ARRAY<$1 A...

short-hand for Question #508777

that space in the 20 still bothers me; every answerer fixed it, but not the asker! :)

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller Ok, but what's the connection with the Meta question?

Jeff Schaller

oh! he removes all spaces; nevermind

terdon

By the way, @FaheemMitha, here's an example of a US site blocking me because they haven't implemented GDPR compliance:

Jeff Schaller

4:21 PM

@FaheemMitha zero connection

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller Oh.

Jeff Schaller

Kiwy came here to continue the Meta comment-string, and I separately noticed all the power users answering the same question

Kiwy

@terdon I prefer that than an untrusted treatment such as the one google or facebook probably still do

Faheem Mitha

@JeffSchaller It seems the voters would prefer Dr. Who as mod.

Unfortunately he's unavailable.

terdon

@Kiwy I am not complaining. Faheem had been surprised to learn that the GDPR needs to be applied by any company serving users in Europe, not only by European companies.

That said, I'm pretty sure Google does comply. Facebook, I have no idea about but I don't use it or visit it, so I don't really care that much.

Correction: I'm pretty sure Google at least pretends to comply.

Kiwy

4:33 PM

Oh, that's a good example indeed.

Google ~~don't~~ be evil

@terdon I have to agree on the Google case. The issue is they probably comply with the absolut exact definition of "personal data" as expressed by the GDPR, but they certainly do not respect any rules regarding the guess and calculated data regarding yourself

terdon

Of course not.

Kiwy

Does aren't personal they belong to them

terdon

Does? I assume you don't mean female deer. Data perhaps? Données?

Kiwy

@terdon s/Does/They/

terdon

Ah

Kiwy

4:41 PM

they = datas though I'm pretty sure data cannot be written datas

Stephen Kitt

@Kiwy data is the plural form, the singular is datum but people think one is pedantic if one writes that

Kiwy

@StephenKitt is that true ?

I'm going to use that all the time I love to sound pedantic

Stephen Kitt

Re data, GDPR has a wide definition of personal data; anything attached to an individual is personal, so anything Google calculates which is related to you it personal (according to the GDPR). We’d need a court case to verify that though.

datum

Noun: datum (plural data or datums)

(plural: data) A measurement of something on a scale understood by both the recorder (a person or device) and the reader (another person or device). The scale is arbitrarily defined, such as from 1 to 10 by ones, 1 to 100 by 0.1, or simply true or false, on or off, yes, no, or maybe, etc.
(plural: data) (philosophy) A fact known from direct observation.
(plural: data) (philosophy) A premise from which conclusions are drawn.
(plural: datums) (cartography, engineering) A fixed reference point, or a coordinate system.
2007, Roger F Tomlinson, Thinking about GIS: geographic information system planning for managers
Datums are another important map aspect related to projection. A datum provides a base reference for measuring locations on Earth's surface.

Verb: datum (third-person singular simple present datums, present participle datuming, simple past and past participle datumed)

To provide missing data points by using a mathematical model to extrapolate values that are outside the range...

Kiwy

I'm amazed ! data is a plural and I can use datum for the singular...
I love learning stuff

Stephen Kitt

Really nowadays in English “data” is a collective noun, like “news”, so singular for plural meanings, and you write “piece of data” for singular meanings.

Kiwy

4:44 PM

I will try to put that in my next presentation :
"If one would like to input a datum[...]"
I'm pretty sure this will get people's attention

terdon

@Kiwy If you do, you must be very careful when using data. You should also say things like the data show, not shows or the data are, not is. Pedantry is hard!

@StephenKitt Yes. I actually use both, but tend to use data as a plural only in the context of science these days.

Kiwy

@terdon I would never expect pedantry advice here, but they are well taken. I mean I'm nothing like pedantic and I have poor self esteem but I love to show the total opposite.
And I also try to respect as much as possible the language

terdon

Next step @Kiwy, is to stop referring to installation media unless you mean multiple CDs, USBs or whatever. Otherwise, it's an installation medium!

Kiwy

" Mal nommer un objet, c'est ajouter au malheur de ce monde."

terdon

Well, I'm afraid I'm very much a language pedant, so I will not complain :)

I still get pissed off every time I read "remove the installation media". There's only one, dammit!

But that is almost certainly a lost battle.

Kiwy

4:51 PM

I shall try to remember next time @terdon ;-)
Media/medium and now I'm out need to take some frehs air

Faheem Mitha

@terdon Never give up; never surrender.

terdon

:)

Prabhjot Singh

I will remember this . Always use two USBs for installation so that Machine can be always right .

Stephen Kitt

@terdon “remove the piece of installation media”

Faheem Mitha

5:18 PM

I'm a bit puzzled by this question:

0

Q: Automount LVM logical volume with a udev rule and udisks2

I want to automatically mount an LVM logical volume on an external drive as soon as it is connected to the computer. The simplest udev rule that does not work To my mind udev rules seems to be appropriate to assert drive presence and set UDISKS_AUTO so I created the following rule in its own fi...

lvm udev automounting external-hdd udisks

Why would a LV require special handling? Having said that, I don't know if I've ever used LVM on an external drive.

terdon

@StephenKitt That's what'll be left after I'm done with it...

Faheem Mitha

5:41 PM

Does anyone know what the difference between these two is, at least on Debian? /var/log/{syslog|messages}? It's never been clear to me.

I see this was asked and answered on AU:

63

Q: Difference between /var/log/messages, /var/log/syslog, and /var/log/kern.log?

For the purposes of kernel logging, why do I have three different, non-inclusive levels of logging amongst /var/log/messages, /var/log/syslog, and /var/log/kern.log?

logging syslog

Kusalananda

@FaheemMitha It should be clear after reading the syslog configuration, hopefully. On OpenBSD, messages are put into different logfiles (or are discarded or passed to a log host, or shown directly in the console) depending on the message facility and level (e.g. "mail.info" or "kern.debug"). I believe this is how most syslog implementations work.

Faheem Mitha

@Kusalananda What should be clear?

Kusalananda

The difference between what gets logged in those two files. The thing you asked.

Faheem Mitha

@Kusalananda Ah, ok.

I found the following, which I think explains it:

web.archive.org/web/20101007163324/http://namakajiri.net/…

A rare blog entry which is short, clear, accurate, complete and useful.

Seems to be some sort of historical convention.

Kusalananda

@FaheemMitha Yeah, pretty much.

@FaheemMitha Yes.

Faheem Mitha

5:52 PM

Well, except that my machine does not have /etc/syslog.conf.

Kusalananda

It will have some form of logging configuration. Possibly built into systemd somehow.

Faheem Mitha

There is a rsyslog.conf.

@Kusalananda Oh, no. Please don't say that.

rsyslog describes itself as:

> It is the default syslogd on Debian systems.

Kusalananda

@FaheemMitha Oh, good. Then read that manual to figure out where the configuration is stored.

@FaheemMitha Ah, you found it.

Faheem Mitha

I'm confused by the syntax. What are those backslashes for? E.g.

# Some "catch-all" log files.
#
*.=debug;\
auth,authpriv.none;\
news.none;mail.none -/var/log/debug
*.=info;*.=notice;*.=warn;\
auth,authpriv.none;\
cron,daemon.none;\
mail,news.none -/var/log/messages

Kusalananda

Those are line continuations.

The lines would otherwise get very long.

Faheem Mitha

6:00 PM

@Kusalananda Ok. I thought maybe so.

Since messages is a proper subset of syslog, apparently, I'm not sure what the former even exists. But history, I suppose.

derobert

9:32 PM

@Kusalananda systemd's only logger is the journal, which is configured in /etc/systemd/journald.conf — but it doesn't go to separate files (at least not by daemon, can be per-user, so users can read their own logs). Other than that, its just a pile of blobs...

You use journalctl to filter it on display.

(Not that it matters, considering it was rsyslog and I don't expect you'll run into systemd on *BSD anytime soon)

Faheem Mitha

@derobert Is the stuff in syslog written by systemd?

derobert

No

Well, it probably passed through systemd, but systemd just forwarded it to rsyslog

(which can be configured by the ForwardToSyslog option in journald.conf)

Faheem Mitha

I seem to recall that I read systemd has some kind of binary logging deal, but I guess that doesn't apply here.

derobert

10:09 PM

journald is that binary logging thing

You could have both enabled

/var/log/journal/ is where it lives, if you have it enabled

Faheem Mitha

@derobert I take it journald is not enabled by default, then.

derobert

I'm not sure if it is on new installs. Pretty sure it (or at least the persistent, on-disk storage) isn't on upgrades. At least on Debian.

Faheem Mitha

@derobert I assume it's enabled - there's like 800MB in that directory.

I don't think I turned anything like that on, though.

derobert

yeah, that'd be enabled, then

journalctl -b -1 should show all the logs from the previous boot, for example.

journalctl --list-boots will give an idea of how long you have journal for

Faheem Mitha

@derobert Yes, that shows a bunch of stuff.

root@orwell:/var/log/journal# journalctl --list-boots
-1 bc01e3d51c5d48d281426bff3ed191b6 Tue 2017-06-27 17:43:11 IST—Tue 2017-06-27 17:43:24 IST
 0 39890b8a22774f88891de55267616cf3 Sun 2019-03-17 00:08:26 IST—Wed 2019-03-27 03:54:31 IST

derobert

10:25 PM

hah, either 2 years between reboots or there are some stranded long-ago logs.

Kusalananda

10:45 PM

@derobert But thanks for the info, none the less.