Hopefully this overview of the configuration file helps you to get a feel for the strength of the syslog system. You should read the syslog.conf(5) man page for more information prior to making changes. Additionally the syslogd(8) man page supplies lots more detailed information.

Note that you need to inform the syslog daemon of changes to the configuration file before they are put into effect. Sending it a SIGHUP is the right method, and you can use the killall command to do this easily:

# killall -HUP syslogd