Every few minutes rsyslog outputs - rsyslogd: action 'action 3' resumed (module 'builtin:omfile') [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]

Question

Since my update to 18.04.1 last week from 16.04.5 I've been seeing this in my syslog every few minutes:

Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' resumed (module 'builtin:omfile') [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' suspended (module 'builtin:omfile'), retry 0. There should be messages before this one giving the reason for suspension. [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' resumed (module 'builtin:omfile') [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' suspended (module 'builtin:omfile'), retry 0. There should be messages before this one giving the reason for suspension. [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' resumed (module 'builtin:omfile') [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' suspended (module 'builtin:omfile'), retry 0. There should be messages before this one giving the reason for suspension. [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' resumed (module 'builtin:omfile') [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' suspended (module 'builtin:omfile'), retry 0. There should be messages before this one giving the reason for suspension. [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' resumed (module 'builtin:omfile') [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' suspended (module 'builtin:omfile'), retry 0. There should be messages before this one giving the reason for suspension. [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' resumed (module 'builtin:omfile') [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' suspended (module 'builtin:omfile'), retry 0. There should be messages before this one giving the reason for suspension. [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' resumed (module 'builtin:omfile') [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' suspended (module 'builtin:omfile'), retry 0. There should be messages before this one giving the reason for suspension. [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' resumed (module 'builtin:omfile') [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' suspended (module 'builtin:omfile'), retry 0. There should be messages before this one giving the reason for suspension. [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' resumed (module 'builtin:omfile') [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' suspended (module 'builtin:omfile'), retry 0. There should be messages before this one giving the reason for suspension. [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' resumed (module 'builtin:omfile') [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2359 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' suspended (module 'builtin:omfile'), retry 0. There should be messages before this one giving the reason for suspension. [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]
Aug 19 19:22:02 localhost rsyslogd: action 'action 3' suspended (module 'builtin:omfile'), next retry is Sun Aug 19 19:22:32 2018, retry nbr 0. There should be messages before this one giving the reason for suspension. [v8.32.0 try http://www.rsyslog.com/e/2007 ]

Looking at the link provided for the first error it says:

Search Results for: error 2359
rsyslog error 2359
Posted on June 13, 2018 by pwithopf 

Status: action was resumed (used for reporting)

The link on the 2nd error, 2007, shows:

rsyslog error 2007
Posted on June 11, 2018 by rgerhards    
What does it mean?

This is a generic error message that unfortunately can happen in a number of cases.
How to solve it?

A frequent case for this error message on Debian-based distributions (like   raspbian) is that rsyslog.conf contains the instruction to write to the xconsole pipe, but this pipe is never read. If so, you can simply delete these lines to remove the error message. These lines are usually found at the end of rsyslog.conf.

For other error message, it probably is a good idea to check rsyslog’s issue tracker at github and file a new issue if you can’t find a related case.

I can't see in my /etc/rsyslog.conf file what they mean by "instruction to write to the xconsole pipe"

chris@localhost:/etc$ cat rsyslog.conf
#  /etc/rsyslog.conf    Configuration file for rsyslog.
#
#           For more information see
#           /usr/share/doc/rsyslog-doc/html/rsyslog_conf.html
#
#  Default logging rules can be found in /etc/rsyslog.d/50-default.conf

#################
#### MODULES ####
#################

module(load="imuxsock") # provides support for local system logging
#module(load="immark")  # provides --MARK-- message capability

# provides UDP syslog reception
#module(load="imudp")
#input(type="imudp" port="514")

# provides TCP syslog reception
#module(load="imtcp")
#input(type="imtcp" port="514")

# provides kernel logging support and enable non-kernel klog messages
module(load="imklog" permitnonkernelfacility="on")

###########################
#### GLOBAL DIRECTIVES ####
###########################

#
# Use traditional timestamp format.
# To enable high precision timestamps, comment out the following line.
#
$ActionFileDefaultTemplate RSYSLOG_TraditionalFileFormat

# Filter duplicated messages
$RepeatedMsgReduction on

#
# Set the default permissions for all log files.
#
$FileOwner syslog
$FileGroup adm
$FileCreateMode 0640
$Umask 0022
$PrivDropToUser syslog
$PrivDropToGroup syslog

#
# Where to place spool and state files
#
$WorkDirectory /var/spool/rsyslog

#
# Include all config files in /etc/rsyslog.d/
#
$IncludeConfig /etc/rsyslog.d/*.conf

Version information:

apt-cache policy rsyslog
rsyslog:
  Installed: 8.32.0-1ubuntu4
  Candidate: 8.32.0-1ubuntu4

Answer 1

There is a new version of rsyslog -> swVersion="8.38.0"

As you can see on rsylog homepage https://www.rsyslog.com/doc/v8-stable/configuration/modules/omfile.html some parameters are obsolete.

Unfortunately they have not been removed from the config file.

Open /etc/rsyslog.conf and comment or remove the following lines.

#
# Set the default permissions for all log files.
#
#$FileOwner syslog
#$FileGroup adm
#$FileCreateMode 0640
#$DirCreateMode 0755
#$Umask 0022
#$PrivDropToUser syslog
#$PrivDropToGroup syslog

Answer 2

This error seems to be produced when rsyslog can't write to a configured log file. In my case, the underlying issue was that /var/log/cron.log was owned by root:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root   root         0 Nov 11  2019 /var/log/cron.log

The messages all were logged every minute, at one second past the minute. That should have given away immediately that it was cron.log all the time, but I overlooked that detail for a long time. Syslog runs as the syslog user when the line $PrivDropToUser syslog is present, which is why removing that line also makes it work (but makes your system less secure, if there are any bugs in rsyslog).

A simple sudo chown syslog /var/log/cron.log fixed it for me.