Msg Component - 3Com 3C10402B Administrator's Manual

Syslog Message Components 401

MSG Component

The MSG component of the Syslog message usually contains some
additional information about the process that generated the message,
and then the text of the message itself.
There is no ending delimiter to the MSG component.
The MSG component must contain visible (printing) characters. The code
set traditionally and most often used has also been seven-bit ASCII in an
eight-bit field like that used in the PRI and HEADER parts. In this code set,
the only allowable characters are the ABNF VCHAR values (%d33-126)
and spaces (SP value %d32).
However, no indication of the code set used within the MSG is required,
nor is it expected. Other code sets may be used as long as the characters
used in the MSG are exclusively visible characters and spaces similar to
those described above.
Select a code set with the intended receiver in mind. A message
containing characters in a code set that cannot be viewed or understood
by a recipient yields no information of value to an operator or
administrator reviewing it.
MSG Component Fields
The MSG component has two fields:
TAG Field — The TAG is a string of ABNF alphanumeric characters that
must not exceed 32 characters. Any non-alphanumeric character
terminates the TAG field and is assumed to be the starting character of
the CONTENT field. The value in the TAG field is the name of the program
or process that generated the message.
CONTENT Field — The CONTENT contains the details of the message.
This has traditionally been a freeform message that gives some detailed
information of the event. Most commonly, the first character of the
CONTENT field that signifies the conclusion of the TAG field is the left
square bracket character ( [ ), a colon character ( : ), or a space character.
See "Originating Process Information in MSG" for more details.
Domain Name and Address in MSG
To identify the device that originated the message, you might wish to
include its Fully-Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) and its IP address within