How to change log level in /var/log/messages?

I'm running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, SP2 (SLES10 SP2), and am seeing a large number of what support calls cosmetic errors being logged to /var/log/messages.

Does anyone know of a way to change the log level in the /var/log/messages file?

Solution 1:

Sure, edit /etc/syslog.conf (or /etc/rsyslog.conf depending on distro). There's a line

*.=info;*.=notice;*.=warning;\
    auth,authpriv.none;\
    cron,daemon.none;\
    mail,news.none      -/var/log/messages

remove *.=notice or *.=info or tweak it as you want.

$ man syslog.conf

will give you all the options you can use.

Don't forget to restart syslog daemon for changes to take effect.

Solution 2:

It depends on what syslog daemon you are using. From your comment about using syslog-ng I'd guess you should change this section in /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf:

filter f_messages {
        level(info,notice,warn)
            and not facility(auth,authpriv,cron,daemon,mail,news);
};

Per the other comment, you could try removing "info,notice" on the "level()" line.

(I’m guessing you are looking for something specific in /var/log/messages and having trouble finding it among all the other stuff? If that’s the case, what you really ought to be doing is creating your own log file with exactly the messages you want. This might be a little tricky and require some reading of the dreaded manuals, of course.)