diff --git a/Doc/library/syslog.rst b/Doc/library/syslog.rst
index 89dd38f..c25ed41 100644
--- a/Doc/library/syslog.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/syslog.rst
@@ -10,42 +10,66 @@
 Refer to the Unix manual pages for a detailed description of the ``syslog``
 facility.
 
+This module wraps the system ``syslog`` module.  A pure Python
+library that can speak to a syslog server is available in
+the :mod:`logging.handlers` module as :class:`SysLogHandler`.
+
 The module defines the following functions:
 
 
 .. function:: syslog([priority,] message)
 
-   Send the string *message* to the system logger.  A trailing newline is added if
-   necessary.  Each message is tagged with a priority composed of a *facility* and
-   a *level*.  The optional *priority* argument, which defaults to
-   :const:`LOG_INFO`, determines the message priority.  If the facility is not
-   encoded in *priority* using logical-or (``LOG_INFO | LOG_USER``), the value
-   given in the :func:`openlog` call is used.
+   Send the string *message* to the system logger.  A trailing newline is
+   added if necessary.  Each message is tagged with a priority composed
+   of a *facility* and a *level*.  The optional *priority* argument, which
+   defaults to :const:`LOG_INFO`, determines the message priority.  If the
+   facility is not encoded in *priority* using logical-or (``LOG_INFO |
+   LOG_USER``), the value given in the :func:`openlog` call is used.
+
+   If :func:`openlog` has not been called prior to the call to
+   :func:'syslog', ``openlog()`` will be called with no arguments.
 
 
-.. function:: openlog(ident[, logopt[, facility]])
+.. function:: openlog([ident[, logopt[, facility]]])
 
-   Logging options other than the defaults can be set by explicitly opening the log
-   file with :func:`openlog` prior to calling :func:`syslog`.  The defaults are
-   (usually) *ident* = ``'syslog'``, *logopt* = ``0``, *facility* =
-   :const:`LOG_USER`.  The *ident* argument is a string which is prepended to every
-   message.  The optional *logopt* argument is a bit field - see below for possible
-   values to combine.  The optional *facility* argument sets the default facility
-   for messages which do not have a facility explicitly encoded.
+   Logging options of subsequent :func:`syslog` calls can be set by
+   calling :func:`openlog`.  :func:`syslog` will call :func:`openlog`
+   with no arguments if the log is not currently open.
+
+   The optional *ident* keyword argument is a string which is prepended
+   to every message, and defaults to ''sys.argv[0]'' with leading
+   path components stripped.  The optional *logopt* keyword argument
+   (default=0) is a bit field - see below for possible values to combine.
+   The optional *facility* keyword argument (default=:const:`LOG_USER`)
+   sets the default facility for messages which do not have a facility
+   explicitly encoded.
+
+   .. versionchanged::3.2
+      In previous versions, keyword arguments were not allowed, and *ident*
+      was required.  The default for *ident* was dependent on the system
+      libraries, and often was ''python'' instead of the name of the
+      python program file.
 
 
 .. function:: closelog()
 
-   Close the log file.
+   Reset the syslog module values and call the system library
+   ''closelog()''.
+
+   This causes the module to behave as it does when initially imported.
+   For example, :func:'openlog' will be called on the first :func:'syslog'
+   call (if :func:'openlog' hasn't already been called), and *ident*
+   and other :func:'openlog' parameters are reset to defaults.
 
 
 .. function:: setlogmask(maskpri)
 
-   Set the priority mask to *maskpri* and return the previous mask value.  Calls to
-   :func:`syslog` with a priority level not set in *maskpri* are ignored.  The
-   default is to log all priorities.  The function ``LOG_MASK(pri)`` calculates the
-   mask for the individual priority *pri*.  The function ``LOG_UPTO(pri)``
-   calculates the mask for all priorities up to and including *pri*.
+   Set the priority mask to *maskpri* and return the previous mask value.
+   Calls to :func:`syslog` with a priority level not set in *maskpri*
+   are ignored.  The default is to log all priorities.  The function
+   ``LOG_MASK(pri)`` calculates the mask for the individual priority
+   *pri*.  The function ``LOG_UPTO(pri)`` calculates the mask for all
+   priorities up to and including *pri*.
 
 The module defines the following constants:
 
@@ -63,3 +87,24 @@
    :const:`LOG_PID`, :const:`LOG_CONS`, :const:`LOG_NDELAY`, :const:`LOG_NOWAIT`
    and :const:`LOG_PERROR` if defined in ``<syslog.h>``.
 
+
+Examples
+--------
+
+Simple example
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+A simple set of examples::
+
+   import syslog
+
+   syslog.syslog('Processing started')
+   if error:
+      syslog.syslog(syslog.LOG_ERR, 'Processing started')
+
+An example of setting some log options, these would include the process ID
+in logged messages, and write the messages to the destination facility
+used for mail logging::
+
+   syslog.openlog(logopt=syslog.LOG_PID, facility=syslog.LOG_MAIL)
+   syslog.syslog('E-mail processing initiated...')