* If you're running Tor in chroot mode, you may need to manually configure CHROOT_DIR/dev/log if you want to use syslog. For example, in /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf: source s_tor { unix-stream("/chroot/tor/dev/log" max-connections(10) group(tor)); }; destination d_tor { file("/var/log/tor.log"); }; log { source(s_tor); destination(d_tor); }; Restart system logger to generate CHROOT_DIR/dev/log. Example: /etc/init.d/syslog-ng restart Don't forget to configure /etc/tor/torrc to actually enable it in Tor. Example: Log notice syslog * If you need to configure User, DataDirectory, or PIDFile, please do so through /etc/conf.d/tor[-chroot] or /etc/systemd/system/tor.service, and not in /etc/tor/torrc.