This could be used for example to process historical log data as part of an investigation. Say you have a search tool (like ELK or something that needs preprocessing to json, sql, etc). Being able to send those logs through a command line version that does the exact same processing as the real time one would be extremely valuable. Jim Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: "Scheidler, Balázs" <balazs.scheidler@balabit.com> Date: 04/10/2015 12:39 AM (GMT-05:00) To: Syslog-ng users' and developers' mailing list <syslog-ng@lists.balabit.hu> Subject: Re: [syslog-ng] Understanding Sources & Destinations Hi, The command line tool should work primarily between stdin/stdout just like for instance awk. We may make it possible to fire up tcp listeners but the primary use-case is batch processing already received data. Another use case is to debug configuration snippets in a faster way than edit/reload/test cycle that nromal syslog-ng offers. On Apr 10, 2015 12:55 AM, "Asadullah Hussain" <asadxflow@gmail.com> wrote: Hi Guys, I am working to understand the task of developing syslog-ng as a command line tool (GSoC2015) and I am trying to figure what "possible outputs" the command line tool will take. As per my understanding the input & outputs to syslog are defined as Sources & Destinations (which are places where applications output their logs from respectively). I have read the documentation about sources & destinations [Table 6.2 ](http://www.balabit.com/sites/default/files/documents/syslog-ng-ose-3.6-guide...) and my understanding is that syslog has following 3 types of sources: files, streams on tcp/ip sockets and stdout from a program. and 3 types of destinations: files or remote hosts (TCP/IP socket) and applications (mentioned in section 7). So are these all possible types of inputs/outputs that syslog-ng can have? which have to be supported by the command line tool. Or am I missing some points? -- Cheers, Asadullah Hussain ______________________________________________________________________________ Member info: https://lists.balabit.hu/mailman/listinfo/syslog-ng Documentation: http://www.balabit.com/support/documentation/?product=syslog-ng FAQ: http://www.balabit.com/wiki/syslog-ng-faq