grcond error logging

[doelz at urz.unibas.ch]

In article <9010031947.AA10488 at chem.chem.ucsd.edu>, sdempsey at UCSD.EDU (Steve Dempsey) writes:
> IRIS models:	4D/25TG and 4D/340VGX
> OS version:	3.3.1
> 
> Grcond (the mysterious, undocumented graphics console daemon) displays some
> very annoying behavior with regards to its use of SYSLOG.
> 
> Every time the news_server is killed by a logout and grcond restarts,
> it dumps many lines of copyright legalese into /usr/adm/SYSLOG.
> If any system errors then occur, such as recoverable tape errors, the
> legalese dissppears and is replaced by all of the errors that have occured
> since the last reboot.
> 
> The result is the /usr/adm/SYSLOG becomes bloated with repeated listings of
> old errors, making it difficult to notice any new ones.  How do I prevent this?
> Does grcond use a specific syslogd message type that I can redirect to
> /dev/null in /etc/syslog.conf?

Look in the release notes of the maintenance tape, chapter 6.1. In 
some other context, it says: 

:       Here's a workaround using the filter mechanism in syslogd.
:       grcond messages are in the ``daemon'' facility. Any selector
:       lines in /etc/syslog.conf that output daemon messages to the
:       console must be filtered to remove grcond messages.  A
:       typical example of such an entry is:  *.debug;kern.none
:       /dev/console The steps are:
:
:         1.  Create the shell script called /usr/adm/grcond.filt
:             containing:  #!/bin/sh # this syslogd filter rejects
:             grcond messages read line set $line case "$1" {
:                 grcond\[*)
:                     exit 0
:                     ;; } echo "$line\c" exit 0
:
:         2.  Make the shell script executable:  chmod +x
:             /usr/adm/grcond.filt
:
:         3.  Change syslog.conf entries that print daemon messages
:             to /dev/console to use the filter.  Using the example
:             above:  *.debug;kern.none   |/usr/adm/grcond.filt
:             /dev/console
:
:             Note:  Use tab characters to separate the fields in
:                    the syslog.conf entries.
:
:         4.  Tell syslogd to re-read /etc/syslog.conf:  killall 1
:             syslogd
:   

This will help your problem getting solved. 

*My* question, in turn, is, that I use this mechanism to filter the 
password ascii text from the ftpd logging. Is there any other, 
more intelligent way to convince the ftp daemon to stop dumping 
the password to the log file ? 

Regards
Reinhard