{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "auditd", "section": "8", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/auditd/8/json", "generated": "2026-09-13T17:42:40Z", "synopsis": "auditd [-f] [-l] [-n] [-s disable|enable|nochange] [-c ]", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "auditd - The Linux Audit daemon\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "auditd [-f] [-l] [-n] [-s disable|enable|nochange] [-c ]\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "auditd is the userspace component to the Linux Auditing System. It's responsible for writing\naudit records to the disk. Viewing the logs is done with the ausearch or aureport utilities.\nConfiguring the audit system or loading rules is done with the auditctl utility. During\nstartup, the rules in /etc/audit/audit.rules are read by auditctl and loaded into the kernel.\nAlternately, there is also an augenrules program that reads rules located in /etc/au‐\ndit/rules.d/ and compiles them into an audit.rules file. The audit daemon itself has some\nconfiguration options that the admin may wish to customize. They are found in the auditd.conf\nfile.\n", "subsections": [] }, "OPTIONS": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "-f", "content": "rather than the audit log.\n", "flag": "-f" }, { "name": "-l", "content": "", "flag": "-l" }, { "name": "-n", "content": "", "flag": "-n" }, { "name": "-s=_", "content": "specify when starting if auditd should change the current value for the kernel enabled\nflag. Valid values for ENABLESTATE are \"disable\", \"enable\" or \"nochange\". The default\nis to enable (and disable when auditd terminates). The value of the enabled flag may\nbe changed during the lifetime of auditd using 'auditctl -e'.\n" }, { "name": "-c", "content": "to the dispatcher. (default: /etc/audit/)\n", "flag": "-c" } ] }, "SIGNALS": { "content": "SIGHUP causes auditd to reconfigure. This means that auditd re-reads the configuration file.\nIf there are no syntax errors, it will proceed to implement the requested changes. If\nthe reconfigure is successful, a DAEMONCONFIG event is recorded in the logs. If not\nsuccessful, error handling is controlled by spaceleftaction, adminspaceleftac‐\ntion, diskfullaction, and diskerroraction parameters in auditd.conf.\n\n\nSIGTERM\ncaused auditd to discontinue processing audit events, write a shutdown audit event,\nand exit.\n\n\nSIGUSR1\ncauses auditd to immediately rotate the logs. It will consult the maxlogfileaction\nto see if it should keep the logs or not.\n\n\nSIGUSR2\ncauses auditd to attempt to resume logging and passing events to plugins. This is usu‐\nally needed after logging has been suspended or the internal queue is overflowed. Ei‐\nther of these conditions depends on the applicable configuration settings.\n\nSIGCONT\ncauses auditd to dump a report of internal state to /var/run/auditd.state.\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "EXIT CODES": { "content": "1 Cannot adjust priority, daemonize, open audit netlink, write the pid file, start up\nplugins, resolve the machine name, set audit pid, or other initialization tasks.\n\n\n2 Invalid or excessive command line arguments\n\n\n4 The audit daemon doesn't have sufficient privilege\n\n\n6 There is an error in the configuration file\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "FILES": { "content": "/etc/audit/auditd.conf - configuration file for audit daemon\n\n/etc/audit/audit.rules - audit rules to be loaded at startup\n\n/etc/audit/rules.d/ - directory holding individual sets of rules to be compiled into one file\nby augenrules.\n\n/etc/audit/plugins.d/ - directory holding individual plugin configuration files.\n\n/etc/audit/audit-stop - These rules are loaded when the audit daemon stops.\n\n/var/run/auditd.state - report about internal state.\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "NOTES": { "content": "A boot param of audit=1 should be added to ensure that all processes that run before the au‐\ndit daemon starts is marked as auditable by the kernel. Not doing that will make a few\nprocesses impossible to properly audit.\n\nThe audit daemon can receive audit events from other audit daemons via the audisp-remote plu‐\ngin. The audit daemon may be linked with tcpwrappers to control which machines can connect.\nIf this is the case, you can add an entry to hosts.allow and deny.\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "auditd.conf(5), auditd-plugins(5), ausearch(8), aureport(8), auditctl(8), augenrules(8), au‐\ndit.rules(7).\n\n", "subsections": [] }, "AUTHOR": { "content": "Steve Grubb\n\nRed Hat Sept 2021 AUDITD(8)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "auditd - The Linux Audit daemon", "flags": [ { "flag": "-f", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "rather than the audit log." }, { "flag": "-l", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "-n", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" }, { "flag": "", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "specify when starting if auditd should change the current value for the kernel enabled flag. Valid values for ENABLESTATE are \"disable\", \"enable\" or \"nochange\". The default is to enable (and disable when auditd terminates). The value of the enabled flag may be changed during the lifetime of auditd using 'auditctl -e'." }, { "flag": "-c", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "to the dispatcher. (default: /etc/audit/)" } ], "examples": [], "see_also": [ { "name": "auditd.conf", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/auditd.conf/5/json" }, { "name": "auditd-plugins", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/auditd-plugins/5/json" }, { "name": "ausearch", "section": "8", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ausearch/8/json" }, { "name": "aureport", "section": "8", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/aureport/8/json" }, { "name": "auditctl", "section": "8", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/auditctl/8/json" }, { "name": "augenrules", "section": "8", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/augenrules/8/json" }, { "name": "dit.rules", "section": "7", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dit.rules/7/json" } ] }