Version 4.7.1 of syslog-ng OSE was released recently. It brings many smaller enhancements to metrics, OpenTelemetry and other features, while it also retires support for some older platforms.
Which platforms are affected?
The following three platforms will reach their end of life this summer:
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SLES 12
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RHEL 7 and compatibles
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Debian 10
The next version of syslog-ng will be published most likely after these old distro versions become end of life. You can still use syslog-ng version 4.6.0 for the next few months.
What happened?
The JSON-C library is a core syslog-ng dependency and is used, for example, for message parsing. The minimum version required by syslog-ng was increased recently, and this new version is not available in some of the older Linux distributions. As the JSON-C library is a core component in Linux distributions, providing an up-to-date version in third-party syslog-ng repos would be a risky option.
I checked with our most active users how dropping old distros would affect them. In all cases, they told me that while they used these old operating systems, dropping their support would not impact them in any way. They also told me they did not use the very latest features on these machines: only the central servers needed the latest features, but those were not locked to use old Linux distributions.
What is next?
We try to keep backwards compatibility with major old Linux distributions while they receive regular support. This will end in the coming months for all above-mentioned distros. Without regular package builds and testing, compatibility with these old releases will break even more over time. Luckily, there are new major versions available both for SLES and Debian. For RHEL, there are even two new major releases: 8 and 9, with RHEL 9 being new enough to support most modern syslog-ng features, including OpenTelemetry.
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If you have questions or comments related to syslog-ng, do not hesitate to contact us. You can reach us by email or even chat with us. For a list of possibilities, check our GitHub page under the “Community” section at https://github.com/syslog-ng/syslog-ng. On Twitter, I am available as @PCzanik, on Mastodon as @Pczanik@fosstodon.org.