NAME

logger - log messages

 SYNOPSIS

logger string ...

 DESCRIPTION

The logger utility saves a message, in an unspecified manner and format, containing the string operands provided by the user. The messages are expected to be evaluated later by personnel performing system administration tasks.

It is implementation-dependent whether messages written in locales other than the POSIX locale are effective.

 OPTIONS

None.

 OPERANDS

The following operand is supported:

string

One of the string arguments whose contents are concatenated together, in the order specified, separated by single space characters.

 STDIN

Not used.

 INPUT FILES

None.

 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The following environment variables affect the execution of logger:

LANG

Provide a default value for the internationalisation variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from the implementation-dependent default locale will be used. If any of the internationalisation variables contains an invalid setting, the utility will behave as if none of the variables had been defined.

LC_ALL

If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalisation variables.

LC_CTYPE

Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single- as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).

LC_MESSAGES

Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. (This means diagnostics from logger to the user or application, not diagnostic messages that the user is sending to the system administrator.)

NLSPATH

Determine the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .

 ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

Default.

 STDOUT

Not used.

 STDERR

Used only for diagnostic messages.

 OUTPUT FILES

Unspecified.

 EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

None.

 EXIT STATUS

The following exit values are returned:

0

Successful completion.

>0

An error occurred.

 CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

Default.

 APPLICATION USAGE

This utility allows logging of information for later use by a system administrator or programmer in determining why non-interactive utilities have failed. The locations of the saved messages, their format and retention period are all unspecified. There is no method for a portable application to read messages, once written.

 EXAMPLES

A batch application, running non-interactively, tries to read a configuration file and fails; it may attempt to notify the system administrator with:

logger myname: unable to read file foo. [timestamp]

 FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.

 SEE ALSO

mailx, write.