Beginner's Guide to Syslogs in Linux

For decades, Linux logging has been managed by the syslogd daemon. Syslogd would collect the log messages that system processes and applications sent to the /dev/log pseudo device. Then it would direct the messages to appropriate plain text log files in the /var/log/ directory. Syslogd would know where to send the messages because each one includes headers containing metadata fields (including a time-stamp, and the message origin and priority). In the wake of systemd’s relentless, world-conquering juggernaut…