systemd journal should be persistent by default: /var/log/journal should be created
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
systemd (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Wishlist
|
Dimitri John Ledkov | ||
Xenial |
Won't Fix
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Zesty |
Won't Fix
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Artful |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Bionic |
Fix Released
|
Wishlist
|
Dimitri John Ledkov |
Bug Description
[Impact]
* System logs are lost across reboots because they are not stored persistently.
[Test Case]
* Fresh installations, or upgrades to this version of systemd, should create /var/log/journal and trigger automatic persistent logs.
* Users may choose to remove said directory, or disable persistent logging in /etc/systemd/
[Regression Potential]
* Persistent logging by default will cause logs to be flushed from /run to /var/log, meaning there will be less RAM used (/run is tmpfs backed), but increased disk usage (in /var/log). The journald daemon has limits set for logs, meaning they will be rotated and discarded and should not cause out of disk-space errors.
[Other Info]
* Original bug report
After upgrading 14.04 -> 16.04, key services are now running on systemd and using the systemd journal for logging. In 14.04, key system logs like /var/log/messages and /var/log/syslog were persistent, but after the upgrade to 16.04 there has a been a regression of sorts: Logs sent to systemd's journald are now being thrown away during reboots.
This behavior is controlled by the `Storage=` option in `/etc/systemd/
This issue could be solved by either creating /var/log/journal or changing the default Storage behavior to `Storage=
## Related reference
* `systemd` currently compounds the issue by having ["journal --disk-usage" report memory usage as disk usage](https:/
* [User wonders where to find logs from previous boots, unaware that the logs were thrown away](http://
## Recommended fix
Restoring persistent logging as the default is recommended.
CVE References
summary: |
systemd journal should be persistent by default: /var/log/journal should - be created; remove rsyslog from default installs + be created |
no longer affects: | ubuntu-meta (Ubuntu) |
Changed in systemd (Ubuntu Zesty): | |
status: | Confirmed → Won't Fix |
Changed in systemd (Ubuntu Xenial): | |
status: | Confirmed → In Progress |
Changed in systemd (Ubuntu Artful): | |
status: | Confirmed → In Progress |
description: | updated |
This needs a public policy discussion first: We will not enable persistent journal without also removing rsyslog by default, as we really don't want to log everything twice.