Use this documentation with care! It describes
the outdated version 7, which was actively
developed around 2014 and is considered dead by the
rsyslog team.
This documentation reflects the latest update of the
v7-stable branch. It describes the 7.6.8 version, which was never
released. As such, it contains some content that
does not apply to any released version.
To obtain the doc that properly matches your installed
v7 version, obtain the doc set from your distro. Each
version of rsyslog contained the version that exactly
matches it.
As general advise, it is strongly suggested to
upgrade to the current version supported by the rsyslog
project. The current version can always be found on
the right-hand side info box on the rsyslog web site.
Note that there is only limited rsyslog community support
available for the outdated v7 version (officially we do not
support it at all, but we usually are able to answer simple
questions). If you need to stick with v7, it probably is
best to ask your distribution for support.
Free Services for Rsyslog¶
A personal word from Rainer, the lead developer of rsyslog:
The rsyslog community provides ample free support resources. Please see our troubleshooting guide to get started.
Every now and then I receive private mail with support questions. I appreciate any feedback, but I must limit my resources so that I can help driver a great logging system forward.
To do so, I have decided not to reply to unsolicited support emails, at least not with a solution (but rather a link to this page ;)). I hope this does not offend you. The reason is quite simple: If I do personal support, you gain some advantage without contributing something back. Think about it: if you ask your question on the public forum or mailing list, others with the same problem can help you and, most importantly, even years later find your post (and the answer) and get the problem solved. So by solving your issue in public, you help create a great community resource and also help your fellow users find solutions quicker. In the long term, this also contributes to improved code because the more questions users can find solutions to themselves, the fewer I need to look at.
But it becomes even better: the rsyslog community is much broader than Rainer ;) - there are other helpful members hanging around the public places. They often answer questions, so that I do not need to look at them (btw, once again a big “thank you”, folks!). And, more important, those folks have a different background than me. So they often either know better how to solve your problem (e.g. because it is distro-specific) or they know how to better phrase it (after all, I like abstract terms and concepts ;)). So you do yourself a favor if you use the public places.
An excellent place to go to is the rsyslog forum inside the knowledge base (which in itself is a great place to visit!). For those used to mailing lists, the rsyslog mailing list also offers excellent advise.
Don’t like to post your question in a public place? Well, then you should consider purchasing rsyslog professional support. The fees are very low and help fund the project. If you use rsyslog seriously inside a corporate environment, there is no excuse for not getting one of the support packages ;)
Of course, things are different when I ask you to mail me privately. I’ll usually do that when I think it makes sense, for example when we exchange debug logs.
I hope you now understand the free support options and the reasoning for them. I hope I haven’t offended you with my words - this is not my intension. I just needed to make clear why there are some limits on my responsiveness. Happy logging!