Are gnu syslog(), openlog() and closelog() thread-safe?

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20667953

  •  19-09-2022
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Question

I have been searching for some time and haven't found a definitive answer yet. The only link I found till now which sheds some light on this is here.

Was it helpful?

Solution

According to the POSIX Specification syslog(), openlog() and closelog() are thread safe.

There's another thread that answers this question as well and it is dated as far back as 2009. Here's the link syslog_r for Linux?.

OTHER TIPS

(While I was working on this experiment, @user3088572 answered the question. Since I had this half-way complete, I'll post it anyway.)

The answer is "Yes", but this was determined purely by experimentation.

Source

Main process spawns three threads and waits while threads all print different strings at same time. Then after 1 second, it tells them all to stop and exits.

#include <pthread.h>
#include <syslog.h>

static int go = 1;

void * routine(void * str)
{
    int c = 0;
    while(go)
        syslog(7, "%d: %s", c++, (char *)str);
}

int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
    pthread_t t1, t2, t3;
    char str1[100] = "111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111\n";
    char str2[100] = "222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222\n";
    char str3[100] = "333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333\n";

    openlog("syslog-test", LOG_PID, LOG_USER);

    pthread_create(&t1, NULL, &routine, str1);
    pthread_create(&t2, NULL, &routine, str2);
    pthread_create(&t3, NULL, &routine, str3);

    sleep(1);
    go = 0; // threads should stop now

    // wait for threads to exit
    pthread_join(t1, NULL);
    pthread_join(t2, NULL);
    pthread_join(t3, NULL);    

    closelog(); 

    return (0);
}

Results

First of all, there were no core dumps or segmentation faults. So that's good.

Also, when observing the system logs (see below), we can see that none of the messages have intermixed characters. Each line is either all 1's, 2's, or 3's.

$ tail /var/log/syslog
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 68: 222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 69: 222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 70: 222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 51: 333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 49: 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 71: 222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 52: 333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 53: 333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 50: 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 72: 222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 54: 333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 51: 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 73: 222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 52: 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 53: 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 74: 222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 55: 333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333
Dec 18 16:44:18 mach99 syslog-test[23347]: 54: 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

The GNU Libc documentation for syslog describes the methods as currently "MT-safe" which is POSIX-speak for "thread-safe".

The methods are described as "AS-Unsafe" (that is, unsafe for use from an asynchronous signal handler).

The doc also notes (as of April 2015) that these specifications are "preliminary" and not guaranteed to be true in all future versions. (I think this disclaimer applies to the broad idea of categorizing glibc API functions "safety" properties, and this is still a bit of work in progress. I doubt any of the syslog-specific methods would get any looser though.)

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