What is Logwatch?

Logwatch is a customizable, pluggable log-monitoring system.  It will go
through your logs for a given period of time and make a report in the areas
that you wish with the detail that you wish.

Perl 5.8 or newer is recommended to run Logwatch. [But it will work with 5.6.1+]

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How do I install it?

An rpm file is available.  The following describes how to install if you
prefer to install from the source tar file:

The simplest setup is to follow the default configurations.
Simply make a directory (/usr/share/logwatch) and copy the
scripts, conf, and lib directories into that directory.
You will also need to make the /etc/logwatch dir if you want to make
configuration changes without having to modify the default config files.

The steps to follow to get the default setup going are something like this.
[However we recommend using the install_logwatch.sh script when possible.]

Untar logwatch.
cd logwatch-x.x
mkdir /etc/logwatch
mkdir /etc/logwatch/scripts
mkdir /etc/logwatch/conf
mkdir /etc/logwatch/conf/logfiles
mkdir /etc/logwatch/conf/services
touch /etc/logwatch/conf/logwatch.conf
touch /etc/logwatch/conf/ignore.conf
touch /etc/logwatch/conf/override.conf

mkdir /usr/share/logwatch
mkdir /usr/share/logwatch/dist.conf
mkdir /usr/share/logwatch/dist.conf/logfiles
mkdir /usr/share/logwatch/dist.conf/services

mv conf/ /usr/share/logwatch/default.conf
mv scripts/ /usr/share/logwatch/scripts
mv lib /usr/share/logwatch/lib

mkdir /var/cache/logwatch
ln -s /usr/share/logwatch/scripts/logwatch.pl /etc/cron.daily/0logwatch
ln -s /usr/share/logwatch/scripts/logwatch.pl /usr/sbin/logwatch

Instead of cron you may also use systemd timer unit for scheduled runs:
mv logwatch.service /etc/systemd/system
mv logwatch.timer /etc/systemd/system
systemd enable logwatch.timer

This is only a suggestion and if you look at the logwatch.pl script and the
logwatch.conf file you will see that you can configure the system layout in many
different ways.

See also the file HOWTO-Customize-LogWatch for more information.

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How do I use it?

Well, it should pretty much work on its own, sending you an
email every night.  For more configuration options, run
'logwatch --help' or edit  /usr/share/logwatch/default.conf/logwatch.conf 
or /etc/logwatch/logwatch.conf.

See the file HOWTO-Customize-LogWatch for more information.

You can also use it from the command line (as documented in the
man page).

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If you want me to add support for a new set of log entries, please
email me all the log entries you can from that service from as many
machines as possible!  Or, better yet, read the HOWTO-Customize-LogWatch
and write your own!

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Mailing lists available!

Logwatch Development List:
   For discussion about Logwatch development.
   To Subscribe:  visit https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/logwatch-devel
   Send Mail To:  logwatch-devel@lists.sourceforge.net

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Please send suggestions, bug reports, and patches to:
logwatch-devel@lists.sourceforge.net

Please ask questions at:
logwatch@kaybee.org

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AUTHOR CONTACT INFORMATION:
   Kirk Bauer <kirk@kaybee.org>
   http://www.kaybee.org/kirk/

Newest releases can be found at:
   https://sourceforge.net/projects/logwatch/files/

