rsyslog.conf file

$omfileForceChown

Type: global configuration directive

Parameter Values: boolean (on/off, yes/no)

Available since: 4.7.0+, 5.3.0+

Default: off

Description:

Forces rsyslogd to change the ownership for output files that already exist. Please note that this tries to fix a potential problem that exists outside the scope of rsyslog. Actually, it tries to fix invalid ownership/permission settings set by the original file creator.

Rsyslog changes the ownership during initial execution with root privileges. When a privelege drop is configured, privileges are dropped after the file owner ship is changed. Not that this currently is a limitation in rsyslog's privilege drop code, which is on the TODO list to be removed. See Caveats section below for the important implications.

Caveats:

This directive tries to fix a problem that actually is outside the scope of rsyslog. As such, there are a couple of restrictions and situations in which it will not work. Users are strongly encouraged to fix their system instead of turning this directive on - it should only be used as a last resort.

At least in the following scenario, this directive will fail expectedly:

It does not address the situation that someone changes the ownership *after* rsyslogd has started. Let's, for example, consider a log rotation script.

rsyslog is started
ownership is changed
privileges dropped
log rotation (lr) script starts
lr removes files
lr creates new files with root:adm (or whatever else)
lr HUPs rsyslogd
rsyslogd closes files
rsyslogd tries to open files
rsyslogd tries to change ownership --> fail as we are non-root now
file open fails

Please note that once the privilege drop code is refactored, this directive will no longer work, because then privileges will be dropped before any action is performed, and thus we will no longer be able to chown files that do not belong to the user rsyslogd is configured to run under.

So expect the directive to go away. It will not be removed in version 4, but may disappear at any time for any version greater than 4.

Sample:

$FileOwner loguser $omfileForceChown on

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