Jan Gerhards

My Personal Web Site

Improving rsyslog debug output

    Currently, our debug output is focused on one group and one group only: developers. For them, debug output right now is a nice but sometimes hard to analyze tool. However, the debug output has a way bigger potential in a plethora of uses.

    We are currently working on refactoring the debug output. This has been prompted by two main factors.

    For one, advanced debug options make it easier for developers to implement new functions and maintain current ones. Being able to configure debug output makes it easier to find suspected sources of errors as well as speeding testing up. Another reason for the refactoring is that rsyslog end users utilize the debug log, for example to find configuration errors. Some more examples of similar uses have also already been discussed in the mailing list.

    Because of these advantages we have decided to work on the current debug options. These will mainly focus on fine tuning of already existing debug output and adding new functionalities.

    One of the big planned features is the ability to have different levels of verbosity of debug output, out of which you can choose to display different levels depending on your needs. These could be used to enhance finding of configuration errors, especially when using rsyslog in combination with other programs, thereby enhancing interoperability.

    We already started the refactoring by implementing options to only show debug output of specific files (will be live as of v. 8.29). But we also need your feedback and ideas, so we would appreciate as much feedback on these topics as possible.

Improving rsyslog debug output
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