On Wed, 2005-05-25 at 07:09 +0200, Jon Clausen wrote:
On Tue, 24 May, 2005 at 19:21:24 -0400, Ken Schneider wrote:
<snip>
<RANT> Another one of those "better" updates to a program (syslog) that used to be fairly easy to configure and now requires six programing classes to understand the conf syntax.
Granted, it's different, takes some getting used to, and maybe not worth it for single hosts.
The programmers should supply docs for the layman to understand and use.
This is sure to win over a hole slew of windows converts isn't it.
I fail to see what windows converts have to do with this. By the time they get around to being interested in alternative syslogging daemons... well...
It's called ease of use. If it isn't easy to use they won't use it (they won't leave the darkside). This applies to every package used with linux, not just syslog-ng. How many server packages are there that require editing the conf file by hand? A few are easier this way but not for the un-informed.
What the f**k does this provide that is any better than plain old syslog?
Free text matching/redirection?
Great, this is a good thing, just supply some docs for the non-programmer to understand so they can use it. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words, provide a working sample.
Lets you specify different destinations for (un)interesting stuff. Saves a lot of grepping.
syslog-ng is supposed to allow you to create/write your own filters (if you know "c" programming that is). But whether or not is does depends on whether or not you can define your own facility/level which I cannot see how.
No.
The point is that the whole facility/level concept is very limited.
Agreed.
Sure you can have syslog-ng match/filter using facility/level, but it's ability to match/filter on free text is so much more flexible.
That's how I get Shorewall messages from remote routers into
/remote-log/$host-ip.d/shorewall.log
And besides, not all devices that you might want to remote log are equipped with practical facilities/levels.
And if you can't why change something that just plain works?
If you like it, use it. If you don't, don't.
</RANT>
Yeah. I just felt like countering. :)
Cheers, Jon
Thanks. -- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998 "The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge