How to redirect service log output with SMF (Doc ID 1012941.1)

Last updated on JUNE 13, 2023

Applies to:

Goal

This document describes how to redirect service log output with SMF:

By default, the Solaris service management by the way of svc.startd(1M) launches the services and legacy startup scripts with stdout & stderr redirected to /var/svc/log/service:instance.log or /etc/svc/volatile/service:instance.log (when the service starts before /var is mounted read-write).

It is sometimes necessary to redirect the messages to another location for different reasons:
- to the console for debugging purposes
- to a different location for security purposes
- to a different location to avoid /var FS full
- etc...

This document explains how to redirect the messages to a different location.

Solution