"-- MARK --" messages in syslog.log file

[Jeganathan Venkitasamy]

Hi,

I have a K box running on HP-UX 11.0.
I am getting following one liner in syslog.log file every now and then.

"Oct 16 11:42:30 nbcgen06 -- MARK --"

Why should i get it ? Is there any way to block this message to appear in syslog file, if it is non critical ?

Thanks in advance

Regards,
Jegi,
NBC

[Andreas Voss]

Hi,

this looks like your application (nbcgen06) uses the syslog(3C) or logger(1) functionality to write messages into syslog.log.
I haven't seen such message before.

Regards

[Ken Scharpell]

It doesnt look like anything to worry about, just some 3rd party application writing an info message to syslog just so you know its alive.

[Sean Bastille · Accepted solution]

This is being generated by syslog. In your syslog.conf file you should have mark.something directed to that file. This causes a mark message to be written every 20 minutes by default (can be changed with the -m flag).

[Jeganathan Venkitasamy]

Hi ,

As Sean mentioned, I found a "mark.debug" entry in my syslog.conf file. I think i have to get rid of this. I assume I need to restart syslog daemon if I make any changes.
Is that right pals?

Thanks,
Jegi

[Sean Bastille]

That is correct. A kill -HUP will suffice.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

To kill syslogd, do:

# kill `cat /var/run/syslog.pid`

To force syslogd to reread its configuration:

# kill -HUP `cat /var/run/syslog.pid`

...JRF...