manuals: System message vs kernel message

Wordsmith mentions throughout the manual of syslog and dmesg, to clearly
differentiate them in an externally consisteny way, increasing operator
onboarding speed and elegance.

The daemon that handles general system messages, syslog, describes them
as "system messages", and "messages" is the standard filename. Rewrite
syslog related manual titles to align search results with this, and hier
entries to align the index. Use care to maintain keywords and not add
extra lines. Newsyslog trades "maintain" with "rotate" for visibility.

MFC after:	3 days
Reviewed by:	markj
Closes:		https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/pull/2067

6 files changed, 14 insertions, 18 deletions

diff --git a/lib/libc/gen/syslog.3 b/lib/libc/gen/syslog.3
index 62140554f4f5..1e316c20d8d8 100644
--- a/lib/libc/gen/syslog.3
+++ b/lib/libc/gen/syslog.3
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
 .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
 .\"
-.Dd July 3, 2023
+.Dd March 8, 2026
 .Dt SYSLOG 3
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 .Nm openlog ,
 .Nm closelog ,
 .Nm setlogmask
-.Nd control system log
+.Nd control system message log
 .Sh LIBRARY
 .Lb libc
 .Sh SYNOPSIS
diff --git a/sbin/dmesg/dmesg.8 b/sbin/dmesg/dmesg.8
index f9b9fce82ffc..d84587b61475 100644
--- a/sbin/dmesg/dmesg.8
+++ b/sbin/dmesg/dmesg.8
@@ -25,12 +25,12 @@
 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
 .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
 .\"
-.Dd May 7, 2022
+.Dd March 7, 2026
 .Dt DMESG 8
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
 .Nm dmesg
-.Nd "display the system message buffer"
+.Nd display the kernel message buffer
 .Sh SYNOPSIS
 .Nm
 .Op Fl ac
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 The
 .Nm
-utility displays the contents of the system message buffer.
+utility displays the contents of the kernel message buffer.
 If the
 .Fl M
 option is not specified, the buffer is read from the currently running kernel
diff --git a/share/man/man7/hier.7 b/share/man/man7/hier.7
index 6abce682b627..5482e5ea5c96 100644
--- a/share/man/man7/hier.7
+++ b/share/man/man7/hier.7
@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@ Explicitly distrusted certificates; see
 kernel state defaults; see
 .Xr sysctl.conf 5
 .It Pa syslog.conf
-system log configuration
+system message log configuration
 .It Pa ttys
 tty creation configuration; see
 .Xr getty 8
@@ -851,7 +851,7 @@ default log for system daemons
 .It Pa devd.log
 default log for device state change daemon
 .It Pa dmesg.today
-system message buffer log, rotates to
+kernel message buffer log, rotates to
 .Pa dmesg.yesterday
 .It Pa debug.log
 undiscarded debug syslog messages
@@ -862,7 +862,7 @@ logs for the line printer spooler daemon; see
 .Xr sendmail 8
 log, rotates and compresses to maillog.0.bz2
 .It Pa messages
-general system log; see
+general system message log; see
 .Xr syslogd 8
 .It Pa mount.today
 currently loaded
diff --git a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8 b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8
index aa89ef4b779a..eb927f7e0a68 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8
+++ b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.8
@@ -14,12 +14,12 @@
 .\" the suitability of this software for any purpose.  It is
 .\" provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
 .\"
-.Dd September 22, 2025
+.Dd March 8, 2026
 .Dt NEWSYSLOG 8
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
 .Nm newsyslog
-.Nd maintain system log files to manageable sizes
+.Nd rotate system message log files to maintain manageable sizes
 .Sh SYNOPSIS
 .Nm
 .Op Fl CFNPnrsv
diff --git a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.conf.5 b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.conf.5
index b0c1e78eb085..1683a1018f9e 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.conf.5
+++ b/usr.sbin/newsyslog/newsyslog.conf.5
@@ -18,14 +18,12 @@
 .\" the suitability of this software for any purpose.  It is
 .\" provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
 .\"
-.Dd February 4, 2026
+.Dd March 8, 2026
 .Dt NEWSYSLOG.CONF 5
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
 .Nm newsyslog.conf
-.Nd
-.Xr newsyslog 8
-configuration file
+.Nd system message log rotator configuration file
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 The
 .Nm
diff --git a/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslog.conf.5 b/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslog.conf.5
index 691f2cdd7062..f641aedee3e5 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslog.conf.5
+++ b/usr.sbin/syslogd/syslog.conf.5
@@ -25,14 +25,12 @@
 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
 .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
 .\"
-.Dd December 10, 2020
+.Dd March 8, 2026
 .Dt SYSLOG.CONF 5
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
 .Nm syslog.conf
-.Nd
-.Xr syslogd 8
-configuration file
+.Nd syslogd system message log configuration file
 .Sh DESCRIPTION
 The
 .Nm