Most of the configuration is set via environment variables. For permanent changes, try
export VARIABLE=value
For one time settings, just put the variables on the command line just before calling the program. For example:
tail -f --lines=0 /var/log/messages | ECHOCOMMAND=ipchains mason
If you set a variable both on the command line and in /etc/masonrc, be warned that /etc/masonrc wins.
Which kind of command should Mason display? This does _not_ have to match the firewalling in the current kernel; this lets you create an ipfwadm firewall ruleset on an ipchains kernel and vice-versa. (Remember that iptables can't take part in this cross-creation.)
The following two commands will spit out an ipfwadm firewall and an ipchains firewall, respectively, from the same input: cat /var/log/messages | grep ' L=' | ECHOCOMMAND=ipfwadm mason >ipfwadm-wall cat /var/log/messages | grep ' L=' | ECHOCOMMAND=ipchains mason >ipchains-wall
Both kinds of firewall log entries have L= in them; this is a reasonably good filter to keep Mason from having to process _all_ the junk entries.
Which kind of command should Mason run to prevent that type of traffic from being logged in the future? Set to none if you're processing the log entries later, or on another machine.
Unless you're forcing it to "none", probably best to let Mason autodetect.
The main documentation for all the configurable fields is conveniently in /etc/masonrc .