Re: 'syslogd -u' and pidfile creation

[Jan Schaumann <jschauma%netmeister.org@localhost>]

Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost> wrote:
> > [I]f you use 'syslogd -u user', then syslogd can't create a pidfile
> > because that is done post-setuid.
> 
> What is the intended use case for -u?

To run syslogd as an unprivileged user rather than as
root.  It starts up as root to open the log sockets,
then changes euid to the target user.

With this option, right now syslogd starts up, changes
euid, daemonizes and then silently fails to create the
pidfile.  This means that then "/etc/rc.d/syslogd
stop" will be unable to kill syslogd, and
"/etc/rc.d/syslogd restart" will start a second
instance.

-Jan