sysklogd, syslog-ng or metalog, which one do you use and why

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stosss · Post by **stosss** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:23 am

I have searched the forum and found a few very old posts. None exactly like this one. I am building a fresh Gentoo install and decided to find out what logger is being used most and why. My plan is to go with the one that gets the most votes. So, will you help out and share your info about your logger?

matze_na · Post by **matze_na** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 11:35 am

I'm using syslog-ng for the simple reason that it was the only one mentioned in the gentoo installation guide I followed a few years ago.
So I'm afraid I can't provide any insight on this topic, except that it "just works" and I couldn't think of a reason to switch to another logger.

r3tep · Post by **r3tep** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 12:01 pm

What do you want to do on your new gentoo box?

Do you know, how to analyze logs and did you ever analyzed logs or do you want to analyze logs?

And: how do you want to collect and analyze logs?

Raistlin Majere · Post by **Raistlin Majere** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 1:04 pm

From the handbook i used

Gentoo offers several system loggers to choose from. There are sysklogd, which is the traditional set of system logging daemons, syslog-ng, an advanced system logger, and metalog which is a highly-configurable system logger.

I picked syslog-ng because it sounded like it was better than sysklogd, i didn't try metalog because it says it's highly-configurable and at the time i didn't want to have to mess with configuring as i have plenty of other stuff to learn.

Bill Cosby · Post by **Bill Cosby** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 2:27 pm

I use sysklogd, because it is the smallest, and is absolutely sufficient for my uses.

AllenJB · Post by **AllenJB** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 2:33 pm

metalog. It serves my needs and I don't have to deal with weird, complex configuration syntax that nothing else uses.

Shining Arcanine · Post by **Shining Arcanine** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:29 pm

stosss wrote:I have searched the forum and found a few very old posts. None exactly like this one. I am building a fresh Gentoo install and decided to find out what logger is being used most and why. My plan is to go with the one that gets the most votes. So, will you help out and share your info about your logger?

I am using sysklogd because it was the one that required the least work when I installed Gentoo.

WastingBody · Post by **WastingBody** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 3:54 pm

AllenJB wrote:metalog. It serves my needs and I don't have to deal with weird, complex configuration syntax that nothing else uses.

++

d2_racing · Post by **d2_racing** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:43 pm

I use syslog-ng because it's inside the Gentoo handbook since 2005.

Muso · Post by **Muso** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 4:54 pm

I've used metalog since I started using Gentoo.

Etal · Post by **Etal** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 5:00 pm

Bill Cosby wrote:I use sysklogd, because it is the smallest, and is absolutely sufficient for my uses.

cryptosteve · Post by **cryptosteve** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 5:20 pm

I use sysklogd cause it fits my needs.

Ant P. · Post by **Ant P.** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 5:56 pm

I'm using metalog because I can't be bothered installing logrotate.

rtomek · Post by **rtomek** » Sat Mar 06, 2010 6:43 pm

syslog-ng with logrotate

syslog-ng was in the handbook. I've never touched the config or anything. logrotate keeps the files small if I need to look for an error. all I did was emerge the two and haven't touched them since.

dwbowyer · Post by **dwbowyer** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:29 am

Metalog because it automatically rotates most system logs without any additional configuration. I was still learning so much about linux at that time that I didn't want to dig into ALL system services (logging particularly at the time), and already knew from past experiences that rampant logs could crash a system by filling a root partition. The Gentoo Handbook specifically said metalog did this... the other loggers needed another package, logrotate.

Muso · Post by **Muso** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 3:29 am

Metalog. It's been my default in Gentoo since '02.

dmpogo · Post by **dmpogo** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:18 am

I am using sysklogd because I know the syntax and got used to it from old times and it does a job.

Nerdanel · Post by **Nerdanel** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:03 pm

Metalog. It was the default when I started with Gentoo and I've seen no reason to change, especially with having to install logrotate.

disi · Post by **disi** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:14 pm

switched from syslog-ng to metalog because it rotates automatically. One disadvantage is that you would have to customize other software that expects a normal logfile hierarchy.

bendeguz · Post by **bendeguz** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 8:58 pm

I'm using syslog-ng, because it was in the handbook.

But another good feature of that app, (as I learned) that it is developed by hungarians.