[rsyslog] -cX command line option

[Rainer Gerhards]

On Tue, 2009-09-01 at 16:06 -0700, david at lang.hm wrote:
> with version 3+ do we really need to change the X in this option?
> if you run v5 with -c4 is it really going to do something different with 
> the config file than if you use -c5?
> 
> yes, there are new config options in the newer versions, and once in a 
> while some depriciated config options stop working, but does changing from 
> -c3 to -c4 to -c5 actually fix any of these?

The -cX is more a vehicle to change things like *defaults*, that is
something that breaks existing configurations. So far, there is no
difference between v4 and v5 in this regard. However, I would not like
to give up this vehicle. That would actually force me to never change
any defaults.

> 
> in my testing I keep switching between the v4 series and the v5 series and 
> having to change the startup to give the correct -c flag has tripped me up 
> more than once.
> 
> it would also be helpful if rsyslog would spit out errors about unknown 
> config files (either to the console or as syslog messages) without needing 
> to be in debug mode.

The current versions already does this. I think they go to stderr (maybe
stdout).

> 
> it may that it tries to do this, but I don't see them (either with the 
> debian startup scripts or when starting it directly on the command line)
> 

I could offer the follwing solution for what you describe: I could
permit (in newer v3/v4 builds) to specify a higher version (-c5) and
only sending an alert. Doing so, of course, means "I know what I do and
I can live with any consequences from it" what should be fine for your
use case.

Please let me know if that would be helpful for you.

Rainer