I added the line: | file_dir_perm_option to the source_affile_option in ./modules/affile/affile-grammar.y:419 would allow setting ownership and permissions on source files (or opting for no-change) This would gave: source_affile_option : KW_FOLLOW_FREQ '(' LL_FLOAT ')' { affile_sd_set_follow_freq(last_driver, (long) ($3 * 1000)); } | KW_FOLLOW_FREQ '(' LL_NUMBER ')' { affile_sd_set_follow_freq(last_driver, ($3 * 1000)); } | KW_PAD_SIZE '(' LL_NUMBER ')' { ((AFFileSourceDriver *) last_driver)->pad_size = $3; } | file_dir_perm_option | multi_line_option | source_reader_option ; I did this with the syslog-ng.3.6.4 source and it now does the following: The owner group and permissions are changed only if the file source line specifies a value (not -1) for one of these items. In other words, it does not use any default value from the configuration, it simply leaves things as it found them. -- Jim Segrave jes@j-e-s.net