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+<html>
+<head>
+<title>rsyslog history</title>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>RSyslog - History</h1>
+
+<b>Rsyslog is a GPL-ed, enhanced syslogd. Among others, it offers support for 
+reliable syslog over TCP, writing to
+MySQL databases and fully configurable output formats (including great timestamps).</b>
+Rsyslog was initiated by Rainer Gerhards. It has
+been forked from the <a href="http://www.infodrom.org/projects/sysklogd/">sysklogd standard package</a>.
+The goal of the
+rsyslog project is to provide a more configurable and reliable
+syslog deamon while retaining drop-in replacement capabilities for stock syslogd. By "reliable", we mean support for reliable transmission
+modes like TCP or <a href="http://www.monitorware.com/Common/en/glossary/rfc3195.php">RFC 3195</a> (syslog-reliable).
+We do NOT imply that the sysklogd package is unreliable. In fact, the
+opposite is the case and we assume that for the time being the well-used
+sysklogd package offers better program reliability than our
+brand-new modifications to it.
+
+</p><p>The name "rsyslog" stems back to the
+planned support for syslog-reliable. Ironically, the initial release
+of rsyslog did NEITHER support syslog-reliable NOR tcp based syslog.
+Instead, it contains enhanced configurability and other enhancements
+(like database support). The reason for this is that full support for
+RFC 3195 would require even more changes and especially fundamental architectural
+changes. Also, questions asked on the loganalysis list and at other
+places indicated that RFC3195 is NOT a prime priority for users, but
+rather better control over the output format. So here we are, with
+a rsyslod that covers a lot of enhancements, but not a single one
+of these that made its name ;) Since version 0.9.2, receiving syslog messages 
+via plain tcp is finally supported, bringing rsyslogd a bit closer to its name.
+</p><p>
+The next enhancement scheduled is support for the new syslog-protocol
+internet draft format, not the least to see how easy/complicated it is
+to implement. We already know that some subleties of syslog-protocol will
+require at least one considerable architectural change to the syslogd
+and this might delay things a little. Our immediate goal is to receive
+feedback and get the bugs out of the current release. Only after that
+we intend to advance the code and introduce new features.
+</p><p>
+The database support was included so that our web-based syslog interface
+can be used. This is another open source project which can be found
+under <a href="http://www.liblogging.org/">http://www.liblogging.org</a> (this 
+site needs serious redesign!). We highly recommend having a look at 
+it. It might not work for you if you expect thousands of messages per
+second (because your database won't be able to provide adequate performance),
+but in many cases it is a very handy analysis and troubleshooting tool.
+
+</p>
+<p>Rsyslogd supports an enhanced syslog.conf file format, and also works
+with the standard syslog.conf. In theory, it should be possible to simply replace
+the syslogd binary with the one that comes with rsyslog. Of course, in order
+to use any of the new features, you must re-write your syslog.conf. To learn
+how to do this, please review our commented <a href="sample.conf.php">sample.conf</a>
+file. It outlines the enhancements over stock syslogd.
+<p>If you are interested in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHE">IHE</a> 
+environment, you might be interested to hear that rsyslog supports message with 
+sizes of 32k and more. This feature has been tested, but by default is turned off 
+(as it has some memory footprint that we didn't want to put on users not 
+actually requiring it). Search the file syslogd.c and search for &quot;IHE&quot; - you 
+will find easy and precise instructions on what you need to change (it's just 
+one line of code!).
+<p>Be sure to visit Rainer's <a href="http://rgerhards.blogspot.com/">syslog block</a>
+to get some more insight into the development of rsyslog and syslog in general.</p>
+<h2>Some useful links</h2>
+<ul>
+	<li><a href="http://www.rsyslog.com/Topic4.phtml">the rsyslog change log</a></li>
+</ul>
+</body>
+</html>
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