Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 18:25:57 +0000 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>, arch@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: syslog.conf syntax change (multiple program/host specifications) Message-ID: <200302121825.57798.wes@softweyr.com> In-Reply-To: <3E4A869B.EABBC83D@mindspring.com> References: <20030210114930.GB90800@melusine.cuivre.fr.eu.org> <200302121521.33506.wes@softweyr.com> <3E4A869B.EABBC83D@mindspring.com>
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On Wednesday 12 February 2003 17:38, Terry Lambert wrote:
>
> In the fine tradition of Open Source, you build a machine-readable
> configuration file for the program, and then you leave the tool as
> something for someone else to write. And no one ever write it.
>
> But in *theory*, your replacement for the old code is just as good
> as the old code. Heck, it's even better!
Exactly. So the users get stuck editing XML files, which are even worse
than win ini files. Gack.
Of course this doesn't offend the "purists," they think everyone in the
world should know XML anyhow. Personally I'd rather have my doctor
studying how to effectively kill this recurring infection in my tear ducts
than learning XML.
> In terms of rolling newsyslog in: please don't. As someone else
> pointed out, there are programs that don't use syslog that do use
> newsyslog (e.g. Samba, #1 answer, on the board...).
I didn't propose to REPLACE newsyslog, just to add some simple file size
limits to syslogd. Go back and read the original message, which had to do
with syslog racing along filling up filesystems faster than newsyslog can
save the system. And we run newsyslog every 5 minutes, too. Log files are
important, but not at the expense of keeping the system running.
I imagine this *simple change* might be useful to others who run on flash or
ram disks, and offer it for their consideration.
> The other issue is that "revisionist history" should be a feature
> of a newsyslog program; that is, if you set size limits and an old
> version count limit, and you start the program up, it should "take
> care of" old files. Not something you'd want in syslog.
Nope, not at all.
> Finally, it's useful to replace syslog with a program that does
> the same thing *and* remember program state. Just because some
> people don't follow the machine readable logging draft RFC, doesn't
> mean that it can't be useful to other people (e.g. for external
> SNMP instrumentation).
So you're going to contribute a nice daemon any day now, right?
--
Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?
Wes Peters wes@softweyr.com
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