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

Question

SLES10 sp2

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

I have so many (what support calls cosmetic errors) logging to this file it is driving me crazy.

Answer 1

Sure, edit /etc/syslog.conf. 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.

Answer 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.)