Is there a way to remove "Last message repeated x times" from logs?

Question

I have a script that updates me on any changes to the kernel log on my (Debian) servers.

The problem is that occasionally the log contains lines like:

last message repeated 4 times

I realize that this is a feature to shorten the size of the logs - but would prefer in this case that every instance of the message be logged instead.

Is there a way to turn off this feature?

Solution 1

On BSD systems, syslogd has -c option, you could start syslogd -cc to disable this feature.

On linux (checked on Debian), man syslogd lists no such option.

It would seem that there is no way to turn it off under linux:

http://www.syslog.org/forum/syslog-and-syslogd/disable-'last-message-repeated'-compression-on-lin/

Solution 2

Control repeat message filtering using $RepeatedMsgReduction in /etc/rsyslog.conf (it's on by default on Ubuntu systems):

# Filter duplicated messages
$RepeatedMsgReduction on

More details: https://www.rsyslog.com/doc/master/configuration/action/rsconf1_repeatedmsgreduction.html

Solution 3

On RedHat-family distros, or distros using rsyslogd, you add -e to SYSLOGD_OPTIONS in /etc/sysconfig/rsyslog.

Then restart the rsyslog service.

Solution 4

On Ubuntu, you can add -e to RSYSLOGD_OPTIONS in /etc/default/rsyslog and "restart rsyslog". It's not documented in the man page, but it works.

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Comments

[Antoine Benkemoun]

You should really reconsider :) I have previously had log messages repeating several thousand times per second and you really don't want these writes happening.