Version 4.8.1 was released recently. As you could guess from the version number change, it is primarily a bug fix release, but some minor features also slipped in. From this blog, you can learn what changed in syslog-ng 4.8.1 and where you can get its latest stable version.
What is new in 4.8.1
If you take a look at the 4.8.1 release notes at https://github.com/syslog-ng/syslog-ng/releases/tag/syslog-ng-4.8.1, you will see that the list of new features is very short:
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there is a new destination for Elasticsearch data stream
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the key fingerprint of the peer is now available as a syslog-ng macro
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you can now control what happens if there is a parsing error in the syslog-parser
However, there were many more changes under the hood. The number of open issues on GitHub became a lot shorter. Many bugs were fixed, including some hard-to-debug crashes, if you used a space at the wrong place in the syslog-ng configuration.
One of the original goals of syslog-ng was to support many different platforms. Over the years, many commercial UNIX variants have disappeared. Recently, the main target of syslog-ng development became Linux on x86_64, as the majority of our users install syslog-ng on these OS-es. Some of the new features could only be compiled on the very latest Linux versions.
Version 4.8.1 did not only bring stability fixes, but going back to the roots, it also improved platform support a lot. Many syslog-ng features are now also available on older OS releases, and compile not just on Linux, but on MacOS and FreeBSD as well. We also received help from external contributors in this: syslog-ng is now available in MacPorts again with a much more extended feature set. You can read more details on this topic at https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/huge-improvements-for-syslog-ng-in-macports.
For many years, the main development platform for syslog-ng was Debian Testing, as only this OS included all the possible dependencies of syslog-ng. Using a rolling Linux distro is good for testing but can cause unexpected problems at the worst moments (like the middle of a release process). We switched to a stable OS as a base for our development and release containers: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/we-are-switching-syslog-ng-containers-from-debian-testing-to-stable The nightly containers were based on Debian Stable for the past couple of weeks, and with version 4.8.1 of syslog-ng, the release container is also based on Debian Stable.
Note that while we moved development to a more stable environment, we also added more rolling platforms to testing syslog-ng on each commit: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/rolling-rpm-platforms-added-to-the-syslog-ng-package-build-system
Before going back to regular feature development, we keep working a bit more on stabilizing the syslog-ng code base and enhancing platform support.
Where to get syslog-ng 4.8.1
There are many ways to get syslog-ng. Even if there is little chance, you might want to check if the latest syslog-ng is available for your OS: https://repology.org/project/syslog-ng/versions. While most larger Linux distributions lag behind, Alpine Linux, Homebrew, and a number of smaller Linux distributions already have syslog-ng 4.8.1.
The syslog-ng project publishes Debian and Ubuntu packages as part of the release process. You can learn how to install these at: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/installing-the-latest-syslog-ng-on-ubuntu-and-other-deb-distributions.
Docker images are also created as part of the release: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/installing-the-latest-syslog-ng-on-ubuntu-and-other-deb-distributions.
Unofficial RPM packages are available for openSUSE / SLES and Fedora / RHEL. There are multiple repositories, depending on if you want to stay on a given release “forever”, or if you always want to have the latest stable release: https://www.syslog-ng.com/community/b/blog/posts/overview-of-syslog-ng-rpm-repositories.
FreeBSD ports is also updated to 4.8.1: https://wiki.freebsd.org/Ports/sysutils/syslog-ng.
What is next?
Version 4.8.1 of syslog-ng is supposed to be our most stable release with the best platform support in many years. Still, if you run into any problems, let us know: https://github.com/syslog-ng/syslog-ng/issues
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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.