logging logger command-line-logger program-execution-logger snoopy-logger snoopy linux bsd

Snoopy Command Logger

What is Snoopy?

Snoopy is a small library that logs all program executions on your Linux/BSD system.

Developer documentation outlines how it actually does that (a fairly technical read). And don't miss the security disclaimer about it.

News

Date	What?	Details
2022-09-28	Snoopy 2.5.1 released.	Bugfix release - fixed 32-bit builds.
2022-08-19	Snoopy 2.5.0 released.	Thread safety by default & binary distribution packages are finally here! :)
2021-10-17	Snoopy 2.4.15 released.	Bugfix release (work around the unexpected NULL argv, #201).

Consult ChangeLog for more information.

Latest version

Latest release	Version	Status	Download location
Stable	2.5.1		All release packages can be found over there 👉 in the Releases section.
Development	`master`	SonarCloud:	`git clone git@github.com:a2o/snoopy`

Installation

Starting with version 2.5.0, repositories with binary packages are provided for major Linux distributions. Here is a guide to installing Snoopy from package repositories.

WARNING: If you've installed Snoopy from source (i.e. using the install-snoopy.sh script method below) before, it's best to remove it before installing it from a package repository. This guide contains steps to remove "manually" installed Snoopy from your system.

Alternatively, the original method of installing Snoopy from source is still available:

wget -O install-snoopy.sh https://github.com/a2o/snoopy/raw/install/install/install-snoopy.sh &&
chmod 755 install-snoopy.sh &&
sudo ./install-snoopy.sh stable

More information is available in the doc/INSTALL.md document.

Output

This is what typical Snoopy output looks like:

2015-02-11T19:05:10+00:00 labrat-1 snoopy[896]: [uid:0 sid:11679 tty:/dev/pts/2 cwd:/root filename:/usr/bin/cat]: cat /etc/fstab.BAK
2015-02-11T19:05:15+00:00 labrat-1 snoopy[896]: [uid:0 sid:11679 tty:/dev/pts/2 cwd:/root filename:/usr/bin/rm]: rm -f /etc/fstab.BAK
2015-02-11T19:05:19+00:00 labrat-1 snoopy[896]: [uid:0 sid:11679 tty:/dev/pts/2 cwd:/root filename:/usr/bin/tail]: tail -f /var/log/messages

These are default output locations on various Linux distributions:

Distribution	Snoopy output location	Notes
CentOS	`/var/log/secure`
Debian	`/var/log/auth.log`
Ubuntu	`/var/log/auth.log`
(others)	`/var/log/messages`	(potentially, could be elsewhere)

For actual output format and destination, check your Snoopy and syslog configuration.

Configuration

If the configuration file support is available in your Snoopy build (it probably is), Snoopy can be reconfigured on-the-fly.

The configuration file is (most likely, but depending on the build) located at /etc/snoopy.ini.

Supported configuration directives are explained in the default configuration file.

FAQ - Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions and answers are collected in the doc/FAQ.md file in this repository.

Security disclaimer

WARNING: Snoopy is not a reliable auditing solution.

Rogue users can easily manipulate environment to avoid their actions being logged by Snoopy. Consult this FAQ entry for more information.

Contributing to Snoopy development

Consult the following documents for information related to Snoopy development:

CONTRIBUTING.md
HACKING-OVERVIEW.md
HACKING-INTERNALS.md
HACKING-QA.md (Autoscan, Travis-CI and Valgrind-related sections)

Getting support

Information is available in a dedicated document about getting support.

License

Snoopy is released under GNU General Public License version 2.

Online resources

Snoopy development is located at the following URI:

https://github.com/a2o/snoopy/

Additional git repository mirrors (read-only) are available here:

Credits

Snoopy Command Logger was originally created and maintained by:

Marius Aamodt Eriksen marius@umich.edu
Mike Baker mbm@linux.com

Contribution acknowledgements are available at the following locations:

Snoopy is currently maintained by Bostjan Skufca Jese.

About

Snoopy Command Logger is a small library that logs all program executions on your Linux/BSD system.