# timegenerated

Records when rsyslog received the message with high resolution.

This property belongs to the Message Properties group.

Name:

  timegenerated

Category:

  Message Properties

Type:

  timestamp

## Description

Timestamp captured when the operating system hands the message to rsyslog’s reception buffer. The value reflects the precise moment rsyslog accepted the event, before any queueing or ruleset processing begins.

If several messages are delivered in the same receive buffer (for example when TCP transports multiple entries together), they all carry the same `timegenerated` stamp because rsyslog accepted them at the same instant.

The timestamp remains stable even if the message spends time in an in-memory or disk queue. As a result, `timegenerated` is usually newer than `timereported` (which comes from the sender) but still older than `$now`, which is evaluated later during processing.

## Usage

    template(name="example" type="list") {
        property(name="timegenerated")
    }

## See also

See rsyslog Properties for the category overview.

Support: rsyslog Assistant | GitHub Discussions | GitHub Issues: rsyslog source project

Contributing: Source & docs: rsyslog source project

© 2008–2025 Rainer Gerhards and others. Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.