[logs] syslog config file format poll

[Rainer Gerhards]

Hi all,

I maintain the rsyslog project, an alternate, GPLed syslogd enhancement.
Rsyslog is currently gaining big momentum and will, for example, be
included in Fedora 8 as stock syslogd. The code for that release is more
or less ready. I am now designing the next major version of rsyslog,
called version 3.

One of the big questions I face is the configuration file format.
Rsyslog understands stock sysklogd format, but will support a new,
enhanced, config file format starting with version 3. There are a number
of choices available. Each of them have their pros and cons. I have now
finished an initial round of hard thinking and have two candidates which
*I* like best. Of course, there are some things that I need to have in
the config file - for example it must be able to specify object
definitions, as rsyslog depends heavily on objects like filters, input
and output modules. But even with that, there is a large variety of
choices.

What *I* like is not really important - important is what those folks
like that deal with the config file on a regular basis. And I hope to
find at least some of them here on list ;)

I would deeply appreciate if you could have a look at my blog post on
the config file format as well as related material. Here is the starting
point:

http://rgerhards.blogspot.com/2007/09/rsyslog-config-again.html

Any feedback is highly appreciated and will definitely be fed into the
design process. I will probably need to fix the config file format in 4
to 6 weeks from now and I will start heading into one of the directions
soon - the further I go, the more I am bound to a specific format. So if
you have some preference, it would be an exceptionally good time to tell
about it.

Thanks to everyone,
Rainer