Comment 1 for bug 1040900

Reproduction instructions, using the binary itself.
# Extract syslogd from the Precise netboot:
wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/precise/main/installer-amd64/current/images/netboot/netboot.tar.gz
tar xzf /home/mwharris/Downloads/netboot.tar.gz ./ubuntu-installer/amd64/initrd.gz
mkdir sbin
gzip -dc ubuntu-installer/amd64/initrd.gz | cpio -i sbin/syslogd

# Run the new syslogd.
sudo stop rsyslog # to free the port
sudo ./sbin/syslogd -n

# Now the busybox syslogd is running.
# Send a long line to syslogd
logger "watch runs command repeatedly, displaying its output and errors (the first screenfull). This allows you to watch the program output change over time. By default, the program is run every 2 seconds; use -n or --interval to specify a different interval. Normally, this interval is interpreted as the amout of time between the completion of one run of command and the beginning of the next run. However, with the -p or --precise option, you can make watch attempt to run command every interval seconds. Try it with ntptime and notice how the fractional seconds stays (nearly) the same, as opposed to normal mode where they continuously increase."

Check /var/log/messages for truncated output.

Another option to reproduce would be to look for a long line generated during install time, but I don't know of one off-hand. We're running puppet during install and it generates some long lines when it errors.