Is there a way to remove “Last message repeated x times” from logs?

Question

I have a script that updates me on any changes to the kernel log on my (Debian) servers.

The problem is that occasionally the log contains lines like:

last message repeated 4 times

I realize that this is a feature to shorten the size of the logs - but would prefer in this case that every instance of the message be logged instead.

Is there a way to turn off this feature?

Answer 1

On BSD systems, syslogd has -c option, you could start syslogd -cc to disable this feature.

On linux (checked on Debian), man syslogd lists no such option.

It would seem that there is no way to turn it off under linux:

http://www.syslog.org/forum/syslog-and-syslogd/disable-'last-message-repeated'-compression-on-lin/

Answer 2

On RedHat-family distros, or distros using rsyslogd, you add -e to SYSLOGD_OPTIONS in /etc/sysconfig/rsyslog.

Then restart the rsyslog service.

Answer 3

On Ubuntu, you can add -e to RSYSLOGD_OPTIONS in /etc/default/rsyslog and "restart rsyslog". It's not documented in the man page, but it works.