To create a custom logging message we edit /etc/syslog.conf and add 2 lines.

#vi /etc/syslog.conf

daemon.notice /var/log/information

local7.notice /var/log/information

Create the information log file.

#touch /var/log/information

Open up another terminal window and tail the /var/log/information file

#tail -f /var/log/information

Open another terminal window

To test the new message we issue a logger command to the syslog daemon.

#logger -p local7.notice -t SHUTDWN “OH NOES THE SERVER IS REBOOTING”

In the terminal window with the tail command the message should be displayed.

Oct 18 18:05:54 digi SHUTDWN: [ID 702911 local7.notice] OH NOES THE SERVER IS REBOOTING!