init-script

#! /bin/sh

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          varnishncsa
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs $network
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs $network
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start HTTP accelerator log daemon
# Description:       This script provides logging for varnish
### END INIT INFO

# Source function library
. /lib/lsb/init-functions

NAME=varnishncsa
DESC="HTTP accelerator log deamon"
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DAEMON=/usr/bin/$NAME
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME/$NAME.pid
LOGFILE=/var/log/varnish/varnishncsa.log
USER=varnishlog

# Include defaults if available
if [ -f /etc/default/$NAME ] ; then
        . /etc/default/$NAME
fi

DAEMON_OPTS="-a -w ${LOGFILE} -D -P ${PIDFILE} ${OPTS}"

# If unset, or set to "0" or "no", exit
if [ -z "${VARNISHNCSA_ENABLED}" ] || \
   [ "${VARNISHNCSA_ENABLED}" = "0" ] || \
   [ "${VARNISHNCSA_ENABLED}" = "no" ]; then
  exit 0;
fi

test -x $DAEMON || exit 0

start_varnishncsa() {
    output=$(/bin/tempfile -s.varnish)
    log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
    create_pid_directory
    if start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile ${PIDFILE} \
        --chuid $USER --exec ${DAEMON} -- ${DAEMON_OPTS} \
        > ${output} 2>&1; then
	log_end_msg 0
    else
	log_end_msg 1
	cat $output
	exit 1
    fi
    rm $output
}

stop_varnishncsa(){
    log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
    if start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE \
        --retry 10 --exec $DAEMON; then
	log_end_msg 0
    else
	log_end_msg 1
    fi
}

reload_varnishncsa(){
    log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
    if kill -HUP $(cat $PIDFILE) >/dev/null 2>&1; then
	log_end_msg 0
    else
	log_end_msg 1
	exit 1
    fi
}

status_varnishncsa(){
    status_of_proc -p "${PIDFILE}" "${DAEMON}" "${NAME}"
}

create_pid_directory() {
    install -o $USER -g $USER -d $(dirname $PIDFILE)
}

case "$1" in
    start)
        start_varnishncsa
	;;
    stop)
        stop_varnishncsa
        ;;
    reload)
        reload_varnishncsa
        ;;
    status)
        status_varnishncsa
	;;
    restart|force-reload)
	$0 stop
	$0 start
        ;;
    *)
        log_success_msg "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|force-reload|reload}"
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

exit 0

init-script-log

...
+ create_pid_directory
++ dirname /var/run/varnishncsa/varnishncsa.pid
+ install -o varnishlog -g varnishlog -d /var/run/varnishncsa
+ start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile /var/run/varnishncsa/varnishncsa.pid --chuid varnishlog --exec /usr/bin/varnishncsa -- -a -w /var/log/varnish/varnishncsa.log -D -P /var/run/varnishncsa/varnishncsa.pid -F ''\''%{X-Forwarded-For}i' %l %u %t '"%r"' %s %b '"%{Referer}i"' '"%{User-agent}i"'\'''
+ log_end_msg 1
+ '[' -z 1 ']'
+ '[' 171 ']'
...

varnishncsa

root@varnish:/etc/default# cat varnishncsa
VARNISHNCSA_ENABLED=1
LOG_FORMAT="%{X-Forwarded-For}i %l %u %t \"%r\" %s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-agent}i\""

# Extra Options for the Init-Script
OPTS="-F '${LOG_FORMAT}'"

varnishncsa.patch

--- varnishncsa.orig 2015-02-18 16:32:35.000000000 +0100
+++ varnishncsa	2015-06-24 08:42:25.219814047 +0200
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 LOGFILE=/var/log/varnish/varnishncsa.log
 USER=varnishlog
 DAEMON_OPTS="-a -w ${LOGFILE} -D -P ${PIDFILE}"
+LOG_FORMAT=""

 # Include defaults if available
 if [ -f /etc/default/$NAME ] ; then
@@ -40,14 +41,26 @@
     output=$(/bin/tempfile -s.varnish)
     log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
     create_pid_directory
-    if start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile ${PIDFILE} \
-        --chuid $USER --exec ${DAEMON} -- ${DAEMON_OPTS} \
-        > ${output} 2>&1; then
-	log_end_msg 0
+    if [ -z "$LOG_FORMAT" ]; then
+      if start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile ${PIDFILE} \
+          --chuid $USER --exec ${DAEMON} -- ${DAEMON_OPTS} \
+          > ${output} 2>&1; then
+	  log_end_msg 0
+      else
+  	  log_end_msg 1
+	  cat $output
+	  exit 1
+      fi
     else
-	log_end_msg 1
-	cat $output
-	exit 1
+      if start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile ${PIDFILE} \
+          --chuid $USER --exec ${DAEMON} -- ${DAEMON_OPTS} -F "${LOG_FORMAT}" \
+          > ${output} 2>&1; then
+          log_end_msg 0
+      else
+          log_end_msg 1
+          cat $output
+          exit 1
+      fi
     fi
     rm $output
 }

The Problem is the string interpolation:
-F ''''%{X-Forwarded-For}i' %l %u %t '"%r"' %s %b '"%{Referer}i"' '"%{User-agent}i"''''
instead of
-F '%{X-Forwarded-For}i %l %u %t "%r" %s %b "%{Referer}i" "%{User-agent}i"'

So there are 2 problems. Single quotes arent supported in init.d. You cannot use double quotes since you use them within your parameter.

To fix, change line 45 in the init.d script to:

--chuid $USER --exec ${DAEMON} -- ${DAEMON_OPTS} -F "${FORMAT}" \

Then define FORMAT:

FORMAT="%{X-Forwarded-For}i %l %u %t \"%r\" %s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-agent}i\""

Hey,

thanks again for you comment :)

That makes the /etc/default/varnish kind of useless :-/ and I've to roll my own init-script through all the Varnish Updates, force upgrades and double check if something changed in the meantime.

For my use case its sad that the -f switch was removed in Varnish 4.0 which switched %h to %{X-Forwarded-For}i inside of varnishncsa. But nevetheless I'll stick to your recommendations and double check on new Varnish version ;)

Cheers,
Jan M.