Rsyslog is a rocket-fast system for log processing pipelines.
It offers high performance, advanced security features, and a modular design.
Originally a regular syslogd, rsyslog has evolved into a highly versatile logging solution capable of ingesting data from numerous sources, transforming it, and outputting it to a wide variety of destinations.
Rsyslog can deliver over one million messages per second to local destinations under minimal processing (based on v7, Dec 2013). Even with complex routing and remote forwarding, performance remains excellent.
- Getting Rsyslog News
- 🤖 Rsyslog Assistant (Experimental AI Help)
- Getting Help (Other Sources)
- Installation
- Contributing
- AI-Based Code Review (Experimental)
- Documentation
- Project Philosophy
- Global Accessibility and Collaboration
- Sponsors
- Legal Notice (GDPR)
Stay up to date with official rsyslog announcements and community insights:
Official Channels
Maintainer Insights
Updates, technical commentary, and behind-the-scenes notes from
Rainer Gerhards, rsyslog founder and maintainer:
Need help with rsyslog configuration or troubleshooting?
Try the rsyslog Assistant — your AI-powered support tool built by the rsyslog team.
⚠️ Experimental. May occasionally generate incorrect config examples — always review before applying.
✅ Trained on official docs and changelogs
✅ Covers both Linux rsyslog and Windows Agent
✅ Version-aware and best-practice focused
👉 Try it now: rsyslog.ai
- 💬 GitHub Discussions: Ask questions or start a conversation
- 📧 Mailing List: rsyslog mailing list
- 🐛 GitHub Issues: Open an issue
Rsyslog is available in most Linux distribution repositories and often is pre-installed.
Distributions may lag behind in packaging the latest rsyslog releases.
Official builds for newer versions are available here:
For users in regions where GitHub access is limited, see the
Global Accessibility and Collaboration section for alternative mirrors.
Building from Source (click to expand)
See: Build Instructions
pkg-configlibestrliblogging(stdlog component, for testbench)
Build support libraries from source if you're working with the latest git master.
The master branch tracks active development.
For production use, prefer the latest tagged release.
Refer to the respective section in the original README for required packages on CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, etc.
Ready-to-use build environments are provided in packaging/docker/dev_env.
These images were previously built in the separate rsyslog-docker repository and are now maintained here.
See packaging/docker/README.md for details.
Runtime container definitions are in packaging/docker/rsyslog.
Run the test suite inside the container with:
make check -j4Rsyslog is a community-driven open-source project. Contributions are welcome and encouraged!
- See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines
- Starter tasks: Good First Issues
- To develop new output plugins in Python or Perl, see plugins/external/README.md
- If you're working with AI coding agents (e.g. GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex), see AGENTS.md
- Community: Code of Conduct
If GitHub access is difficult in your region, please contact us or use one of the mirrors listed below;
we will help route your patch for review.
Commit Assistant (recommended):
Draft compliant commit messages with
rsyslog Commit Assistant
and follow rules in CONTRIBUTING.md.
Put the substance into the commit message (amend before PR if needed).
We are currently testing AI-based code review for pull requests.
At this time, we use Google Gemini to automatically analyze code and provide comments on new PRs.
- Reviews are informational only
- Every contribution is still manually reviewed by human experts
- The goal is to evaluate how AI can support contributor feedback and code quality assurance
Please report any issues, false positives, or suggestions about the AI review process.
Documentation is located in the doc/ directory of this repository.
Contributions to the documentation should be made there.
Visit the latest version online:
Rsyslog development is driven by real-world use cases, open standards, and an active community.
While sponsored primarily by Adiscon, technical decisions are made independently via consensus.
All contributors are welcome — there is no formal membership beyond participation.
Rsyslog aims to remain accessible worldwide. Different regions sometimes face network or platform limits, so we provide mirrors to ensure that everyone can obtain the source code and contribute on equal terms.
- GitHub (canonical): https://github.com/rsyslog/rsyslog
- European mirror (Germany, hosted on DigitalOcean): http://github-mirror.rsyslog.com/rsyslog/rsyslog
- Community mirror (China, maintained by Gitee): https://gitee.com/mirrors_rsyslog
All pull requests ultimately flow through GitHub, where our CI and review infrastructure run.
If you experience access issues but can provide a patch, the rsyslog team will gladly assist in forwarding it to GitHub.
Our contribution workflow remains GitHub-based for now because CI and automated testing are tightly integrated there.
Always verify releases and tags from the official GitHub repository before production use.
Open source should have no borders.
(FR) Le code ouvert ne devrait pas avoir de frontières
(ZH) 开源应该没有边界
(JA) オープンソースに国境はない
(ES) El código abierto no debe tener fronteras
(HI) ओपन सोर्स की कोई सीमाएँ नहीं होनी चाहिए
(AR) المصدر المفتوح يجب ألا يكون له حدود
The rsyslog project is proudly supported by organizations that help sustain its continuous development, infrastructure, and innovation.
(See also Project Philosophy.)
Adiscon GmbH
Adiscon employs core rsyslog developers including Rainer Gerhards and provides ongoing engineering, infrastructure, and CI resources.
Through its commercial Windows log management products — such as WinSyslog and Rsyslog Windows Agent — Adiscon helps fund rsyslog’s continued open-source development and ecosystem growth.
DigitalOcean powers key parts of rsyslog’s CI pipeline, package distribution network, and AI infrastructure as part of their #DOforOpenSource initiative.
Their support enables fast, globally available builds and the next generation of AI-assisted rsyslog documentation and tooling.
rsyslog also benefits from various open-source infrastructure providers and community initiatives that make modern CI, code hosting, and collaboration possible.
If your organization benefits from rsyslog and would like to contribute to its sustainability, please consider sponsoring or contributing.
Contributions to rsyslog are stored in git history and publicly distributed.