Description of problem: Currently, syslog follows the timezone setting of whatever program is doing the logging. Thus, programs which happen to run in UTC or some other timezone appear to log odd times (the actual zone used is never recorded in the log file). Perhaps worse, I can log with an almost arbitrary timestamp if I so choose: TZ="UTC+23:56" logger "Look! I'm logging from yesterday!" Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 1.4.1 How reproducible: Innate. Steps to Reproduce: 1. set TZ to anything you like 2. log a message 3. look in the appropriate log file Actual results: Time logged in the timezone you specified, but without saying so. Expected results: Time logged in the timezone under which syslogd is running. Additional info: There is a patch for this in the unreleased-for-years-and-years syslog 1.4.2. I think we should backport this into Fedora. See: http://cvs.infodrom.org/sysklogd/syslogd.c.diff?r1=1.43;r2=1.44;f=h
will this display timestamps in a sane datetime format like ISO 8601 ?
No, it doesn't change the file format at all. It just consistently makes syslog use the timezone it is running under rather than the timezone of the logging client. While it'd be nice if syslog would use a better date/format, changing the format of log files would be a fairly major undertaking and would need to be done with a lot of care.
Here's an example of the practical implication of this: bug #203671.
fixed in sysklogd-1.4.2-2.fc7
Looks like this was already done by the time I filed it, huh? Thanks for the psychic bug fix. :)