Yum Install dependency collision with rsyslog

[LTRand]

syslog-ng

Version of syslog-ng

latest (3/14/17)

## Platform

RHEL7

# Issue
syslog-ng fails to install via standard yum install.

## Failure
syslog-ng package wants to write to /etc/logrotate.d/syslog.  Systems with rsyslog installed report this as a dependency violation.

## Optimal fix
configure package to use /etc/logrotate.d/syslog-ng to avoid future collision.

[faxm0dem]

@czanik you really want to rename the logrotate file. I think if we should call it syslog-ng and comment stuff in it

[czanik]

@LTRand

• which RHEL version do you use?
• which syslog-ng do you use? 3.5 from EPEL? 3.9 from Copr?

I had long discussions with Red Hat about it, but renaming it to syslog-ng does not work. The problem is, that if rsyslog stays on the system, logs are rotated twice. If we comment out the content and rsyslog is removed, then we don't have logrotation.
And to make it even nicer: the content of the file changed somewhere during the RHEL 7.2 lifecycle. AFAIR, both the EPEL and Copr packages have the this later /etc/logrotate.d/syslog included.

[faxm0dem]

Well, then let's manage the file using a %post scriptlet:

• if rsyslog is installed, do nothing
• if rsyslog is not installed, generate the file

what do you think?

[alexxkn]

Hello!

I have the same problem.

I can't delete rsyslog in my virtual machine, because cloud-init requires rsyslog package.
So, if I use epel version of syslog-ng - everything is OK, but epel version is too old. If I use package from copr-be.cloud.fedoraproject.org/results/czanik, I've got same conflict as described above.

[faxm0dem]

I can implement the %post script what do you think @czanik?

[czanik]

I updated my package, and now the two can be installed together:

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/system-release
CentOS Linux release 7.3.1611 (Core) 
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -qa | grep syslog
syslog-ng-3.9.1-2.el7.centos.x86_64
rsyslog-7.4.7-16.el7.x86_64
[root@localhost ~]# 

[alexxkn]

That's great! Tanks a lot!

[czanik]

Related question: why would you install rsyslog and syslog-ng on the same box?

[alexxkn]

I wrote about this above.
I can't delete rsyslog in my virtual machine in openstack, because cloud-init package requires rsyslog package.
if I delete both package, I missing part of control functionality.

[faxm0dem]

I thought the dependency used to be on libvirt?

[mochrul]

Which exact version of cloud-init do you use? Interestingly the fedora package does not depend on rsyslog but the centos version do. And in the changelog I saw some rsyslog log file parsing change, so the dependency seems genuine.

[alexxkn]

$ yum info cloud-init
Installed Packages
Name        : cloud-init
Arch        : x86_64
Version     : 0.7.5
Release     : 10.el7.centos.1
Size        : 1.4 M
Repo        : installed

$ yum deplist cloud-init | grep syslog
dependency: rsyslog
provider: rsyslog.x86_64 7.4.7-16.el7

[Kokan]

I think this has been solved. Please reopen if you think it is still an issue.

[HanouaJ]

This issue still exists on syslog-ng-3.14.1 :

Transaction check error:
file /etc/logrotate.d/syslog from install of syslog-ng-3.14.1-4.el7.centos.x86_64 conflicts with file from package rsyslog-8.24.0-2.el7.centos.x86_64

[Kokan]

I just spin up a centos:latest docker and follow this https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/installing-latest-syslog-ng-on-rhel-and-other-rpm-distributions
I had no conflict, could you reproduce this in a container or VM (clean environment) ?

[HanouaJ]

Hi Kokan !

I have switched to version 3.17 of syslog-ng and it works fine, no conflict on the /etc/logrotate.d/syslog file.

[Kokan]

I am glad to hear it.

[oso24]

Hi,
up to relaese 3.22 it was fine. syslog-ng cloud be installed in parallel to an runing rsyslod. now I want to use version 3.27 and I got an confict:
Transaction check error:
file /etc/logrotate.d/syslog from install of syslog-ng-3.27.1-1.el7.x86_64 conflicts with file from package rsyslog-8.24.0-41.el7_7.2.x86_6
can you please check it.

[MrAnno]

@oso24 I can reproduce the same with syslog-ng-3.27.1-1.el7.x86_64 and rsyslog-8.24.0-52.el7.x86_64.

We haven't changed anything logrotate-related in the RPM spec file between v3.22 and v3.27.

The actual conflict has been there for a long time, we seem to use the namesyslog for log rotation instead of syslog-ng (we do that in the deb packaging).
@czanik mentioned that:

I had long discussions with Red Hat about it, but renaming it to syslog-ng does not work.

I guess this problem was fixed by packaging the exact same logrotate file that rsyslog had.
This is the only thing that has changed since v3.22, the following must be the cause of the conflict:

--- a/syslog-ng.logrotate.3.22
+++ b/syslog-ng.logrotate.3.27
@@ -7,6 +7,6 @@
     missingok
     sharedscripts
     postrotate
-       /bin/kill -HUP `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid 2> /dev/null` 2> /dev/null || true
+       /usr/bin/systemctl kill -s HUP syslog-ng.service >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
     endscript
 }

@czanik Could you check it, please?

[czanik]

Strange. I recall fixing this a few releases ago: RHEL 7 should have the "kill -HUP" version (the exact same file as in rsyslog for RHEL 7) and RHEL 8 & Fedora should have the "systemctl" version, but under a different file name.

OK, problem found. To have the above setup working, I had some local modifications to syslog-ng.spec and two copies for the logrotate file. Then after a larger upstream .spec file change I simply replaced my own with upstream, and my changes got lots.

There is another open logroate related ticket in RH bugzilla. I'll look into these later this week.

[czanik]

OK. A solution is available for testing, which solves both this issue and https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1802165

• Installs the same logrotate script on RHEL/CentOS 7 as rsyslog
• On RHEL/CentOS 8 and Fedora the logrotate script is called syslog-ng and uses systemctl to reload syslog-ng after rotation, just as the rsyslog variant. It is in a separate subpackage, and installed only when rsyslog is not on the system (for reasons check the RH bugzilla ticket: in short it would not be used anyway due to conflicts)

The fix is currently available in my git snapshot repository at https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/czanik/syslog-ng-githead/

If it works, I'll port this to the "official" syslog-ng package in EPEL 8

Please let me know your experiences with this fix!

[MrAnno]

@czanik Thank you!

It works for me.
I've also checked the source RPM, it looks good to me.

Could you also create a patch, please, to keep packaging/rhel and dbld up-to-date?

[czanik]

Added three files, all with .txt appended to the filename, so I could upload:

• spec.diff -- patch for the spec file, some changes seem to be unrelated (I modified the 3.27.1 release spec file, there might be some changes since that)
• syslog-ng.logrotate7 -- logrotate script for RHEL 7 (identical to the one for rsyslog)
• syslog-ng.logrotate -- logrotate script for RHEL 8 and Fedora

spec.diff.txt
syslog-ng.logrotate.txt
syslog-ng.logrotate7.txt

[MrAnno]

Thanks, I'm opening a PR from it.

@oso24 Please let us know if something is wrong.

[sumedhpathak]

Is there an estimate on when a new release of syslog-ng with this fix for RHEL7 will be released? Thanks!

[czanik]

I just did another little change and waiting for feedback on it: https://lists.balabit.hu/pipermail/syslog-ng/2020-June/025949.html
Version 3.28.1 is expected to be released in the coming days, and those packages will contain the fix.

[pauliopolis]

Why is there no documentation anywhere for 3.5.6 in EPEL 🥲

[bazsi]

The documentation marks version dependencies, so you should be fine with the latest version of the documentation.

You can use the one on syslog-ng.com, but my preference is using the Axoflow edition here:

https://axoflow.com/docs/axosyslog-core/

Also, if you have questions you can ask here on github or use this discord server: https://discord.gg/vsCEkfaUk8