[Omaha.pm] RE: Net::Dev::Tools::Syslog -- local?

[Jay Hannah]

From: Scott Parsons [mailto:scott.parsons at marconi.com]
> For just syslog functionality you should not need both modules, just 
> Sys::Syslog, it looks like it tries to handle streams.

Yes. Sys::Syslog works great for local and remote delivery until I want to log locally and simultaneously log to multiple remote machines, depending on the message / facility / priority / what have you. Since it's procedural code, calls to openlog() and closelog() are unilateral and I don't have granular control of open/close on multiple simultaeous sessions. If it was OO, I could just have as many $syslog objects as I wanted and do whatever. Unless I'm missing something, which wouldn't surprise me.

FWIW, below is a snippet of POD from one of my classes talking about the various Syslog'y packages...

> Thanks for the feedback, guess I should add to my doc about the intent of 
> the functions, since its limiting.

Sure. Thanks for all your work on the module! It's slick! I'm using it to log to mutiple remote machines. (err.... I *will be* using it soon... -grin-)

Take care,

j



=item B<Sys::Syslog>

Procedural. Works great to local and remote syslogd processes.
Local delivery can be accomplished via "setlogsock 'unix';", which avoids
the overhead of UDP/TCP delivery. This is the B<only Perl class> that works
like this. Remote delivery via UDP or TCP can
be used by setting $Sys::Syslog::host. (Jay sent a POD patch to perl5-porters.)

=item B<Net::Syslog>

OO. Needs an open UDP port.

=item B<Net::Dev::Tools::Syslog>

OO. Needs an open UDP port. Very verbose interface w/ lots of
fancy dials and switches. Does parsing too, and is actively maintained.

=item B<Unix::Syslog>

Procedural. Sys::Syslog does everything Unix::Syslog does anyway? The
docs for Unix::Syslog make claims that don't seem true anymore while
comparing itself to Sys::Syslog.

=item B</usr/bin/logger>

Little command line utility that works great. Logs to syslog and metalog
with no problems. You can even open a filehandle to it, turn on autoflushing,
and just leave it running, which should avoid the overhead of forking it
every time.

=item B<Conclusion>

So... it's decision time. Let's do this:

  local server
    metalog
      /usr/bin/logger
    syslog
      /usr/bin/logger
  central server(s)
    syslog - these have to be syslog. metalog won't listen.
      One Net::Dev::Tools::Syslog instance per server