Hi there,
Michael has done an excellent job of summing up things :)
Just let me add a few thoughts. First of all, the versioning document needs to be updated and I'll do that soon ;)
The frequent releases are a result of rapid development. There is lots to do and we do it quickly. This, of course, introduces bugs. To develop rapidly and still provide stable releases, we have settled on this for now:
The v2-stable is a feature-dead end. It receives patches only. Ultra-stable, quite featureless. V3-stable primarily receives patches but from time to time new functionality is integrated. This functionality ripens in the beta branch. The devel version has the newest code and most bugs. It is NOT recommended for production use. At some point in time, beta is branched off devel. Beta than receives bug fixes, but no new features. After some time (between 3 and 10 weeks, depending on bug reports), beta becomes v3-stable.
Even inside stable or beta or devel there are several levels of maturity - some code is unmodified for more than a year, while other just recently made it into stable. I have recently begun to add some information about when features have been introduced into a version. The general rule is that the newer a feature is, the more likely it contains bugs.
In general, rsyslog is rock-solid. However, some so far seldomly-used features (expression based filters are a good example) has seen limited exposure to practice. Such features are more likely to have problems. If you try judge project and feature stability, it may be a good idea to look at the bugzilla and the code commits:
http://bugzilla.adiscon.com/buglist.cgi?cmdtype=runnamed&namedcmd=rsyslog-all http://git.adiscon.com/?p=rsyslog.git;a=summary You may also want to have a look at my blog, where I post anything of note. It's also a good place to see what is going on and actually even to see what is giving me a hard time every now and then:
http://rgerhards.blogspot.com Finally, if you let me know what you intend to do, I can provide you my personal view of how stable the required features are. But as I said - it's pretty stable now. Rsyslog also recently made it into Red Hat Enterprise Linux (5.2) and you probably know that these folks are quite conservative when it comes to stability ;)
HTH
Rainer
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rsyslog-bounces at lists.adiscon.com [mailto:rsyslog-
> bounces at lists.adiscon.com] On Behalf Of Michael Biebl
> Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 3:16 AM
> To: rsyslog-users
> Subject: Re: [rsyslog] rsyslog in general
>
> 2008/4/23, lanas <lanas at securenet.net>:
> > Le Mercredi, 23 Avril 2008 02:37:15 +0200,
> > "Michael Biebl" <mbiebl at gmail.com> a ?crit :
> >
> >
> > >> I'd be interested to use rsyslog in a production environment.
> On
> > >> one side I have the impression that it is a stable product but
> then
> > >> if I look at the releases, they are quite numerous over a small
> > >> amount of time. I would like to know what is the average count
> of
> > >> bug fixes in general and to which severity.
> >
> > > There are frequent releases of devel "snapshots".
> >
> > > For stable releases you should check out
> > > http://www.rsyslog.com/Downloads-req-viewsdownload-sid-1.phtml
> > > (not sure if you are already aware of that)
> >
> >
> > Thanks. The package I ended up with was version 3.17.1. What about
> > this version ? It is not tagged as beta, although it is
> development.
> > What is the schedule for a stable release of that version ? I see
> that
> > the page you gave lists 3.14 as stable.
>
> 3.17.1 is from the devel branch, so I wouldn't recommend it for
> production use.
> The version numbering has been in discussion not long ago, so take the
> following with a grain of salt (Rainer, the lead author, will probably
> have additional information).
>
> 2.0.x is the old-stable branch (the current version being 2.0.4). If
> you want something ultra-stable, without the need for some of the nice
> feature of the v3 branch, take this one.
>
> The first stable release of the v3 branch was 3.14.1 (the current
> version being 3.14.2). If you need some of the features of the v3
> branch, go with 3.14.2.
>
> Stable versions are even numbered (second digit).
>
> See also
> http://www.rsyslog.com/doc-status.html
>
> The devel branch is usually for bleeding edge stuff and has a odd
> numbered second digit.
> The beta branch is for stabilizing features, resulting in the next
> stable release. I also has a odd numbered second digit.
>
> >
> >
> > > Or do you also have concerns about the frequency of stable
> releases?
> >
> >
> > Well, to have a grasp at how the development is planned and one would
> > be great.
> >
>
> http://www.rsyslog.com/doc-status.html
> http://www.rsyslog.com/doc-features.html
> http://www.rsyslog.com/doc-v3compatibility.html
> http://www.rsyslog.com/doc
>
> HTH,
> Michael
> --
> Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
> universe are pointed away from Earth?
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