MARK in /var/log/messages

Top Page
Attachments:
Message as email
+ (text/plain)
Delete this message
Reply to this message
Author: Jeremy C. Reed
Date:  
Subject: MARK in /var/log/messages
On Fri, 9 Jan 2004, Craig White wrote:

> On Fri, 2004-01-09 at 14:04, Jim wrote:
> > I am getting a lot of "MARK" messages on several of my Debian boxes. I
> > have read that they are heartbeat type messages for syslog saying
> > everything is running well, but I have never noticed them until
> > recently, is this really normal or is there a problem with my system?
> >


Yes. MARK is normal.

See below.

> > Jan 9 10:51:16 sid -- MARK --
> > Jan 9 11:11:16 sid -- MARK --
> > Jan 9 11:31:16 sid -- MARK --
> > Jan 9 11:51:16 sid -- MARK --
> > Jan 9 12:11:16 sid -- MARK --
> > Jan 9 12:31:16 sid -- MARK --
> > Jan 9 12:51:16 sid -- MARK --
> > Jan 9 13:11:16 sid -- MARK --
> > Jan 9 13:31:16 sid -- MARK --
> > Jan 9 13:51:16 sid -- MARK --


Do you have anything else that should have been logged?

> I didn't think that there was a daemon capable of hitting the time
> exactly 20 minutes on the spot.


20 minutes is normal.

Look at the syslogd manpage and read about the -m interval option. (The
default interval for the mark timestamp is 20 minutes.)

Jeremy C. Reed
http://bsd.reedmedia.net/