Add a filter into rsyslog.conf

[jeusdi]

Cookbook version

6.0.1

Chef-client version

12.19.36

Platform Details

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Scenario:

We are using some custom rsyslog filters like this:

:msg, contains, "watcherout"                            /var/log/watcherout

We are doing that manually currently.
Is there any way to configure it and add the filter into rsyslog.conf using this cookbook?

[jeusdi]

I figure out this option is not available by now, isn't it?

[bby-bishopclark]

I think it's not available even now.

It's a very tricky thing to figure out, given the permutations of rulesets, and maybe no one's tackled it yet. I'm working on something similar, internally, but I expect it'll be so ugly that I won't want to release it -- even if it DOES work!

Consider writing your own, first as a template and then better as a LWRP or so, and see whether you can get something that's usable, versatile and, ideally, pretty.

[sailorfred]

While we wait for a better solution, here are a couple of workarounds:

To override the rsyslog.conf.erb template from a different cookbook: https://syshero.org/2013-11-22-override-templates-from-third-party-cookbooks-on/

This breaks the DRY principle, since your wrapper cookbook's rsyslog.conf.erb might drift over time.

Here's a horribly hacky way to do it without modifying the template or cookbook (in an attribute rb file):

# The sous-chef rsyslog cookbook doesn't allow the rsyslog.conf.erb file
# from another cookbook to be pointed to by an attribute. :(
# So we're going to do a horrible hack to get the filters loaded
# before the modules
if node['rsyslog'].key?('filter_msg_contains')
  override['rsyslog']['preserve_fqdn'] << "\n\n# Filters from attributes. This needs to happen
# before any output modules are loaded so will affect local logging too\n"
  node['rsyslog']['filter_msg_contains'].each do |f|
    override['rsyslog']['preserve_fqdn'] << ":msg, contains, \"#{f}\" ~\n"
  end
end

[sailorfred]

Another option is to pay attention to an attribute that defines a pre-module include directive