Configuring syslog for Drupal 7 on OS X

I'm running OS X 10.7 Lion. Today I'm working on some database-heavy code that also creates lots of watchdog entries. So I decided to turn off Drupal's database logging and turn on syslog.

I created a file for the log entries to go into:

sudo touch /var/log/drupal.log


I added one line to /etc/syslog.conf to tell OS X to put messages coming to the local3 logging facility into the new file.

local3.* /var/log/drupal.log


I rebooted. If I had a neckbeard I would have used launchctl instead.

Then I enabled syslog module on Drupal's module administration screen, went to Administration / Configuration / Development / Logging and errors and set the Syslog facility to LOG_LOCAL3.

And I turned off the database logging module.

Now I can happily watch incoming watchdog entries in a terminal with

tail -f /var/log/drupal.log


UPDATE: OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is slightly different:

1. Just like above, create the log file with

sudo touch /var/log/drupal.log


2. Instead of adding a line to /etc/syslog.conf, add the following line to /etc/asl.conf:

# Drupal logging
? [= Facility local3 ] file /var/log/drupal.log


3. Restart logging with

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.syslogd.plist
sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.syslogd.plist