What's Syslog?

Syslog is a service for logging data. In UNIX, regular programs do not log any information; they send all data to a syslog server that saves data in a log file. One example is a web server that sends data over the computers that connects to the server and sends error messages for web pages that it could not locate. Messages to a syslog server can also be sent over the network. Syslog uses the UDP protocol. A syslog server listens to port 514 for syslog messages.