Thanks for the response,  The -F flag was based on other posts. 

If I remove the -F it does return but systemd keeps restarting it. 

On Apr 13, 2016, at 2:23 AM, Scheidler, Balázs <balazs.scheidler@balabit.com> wrote:

-F specifies that syslog-ng should stay in the foreground.

I assumed that it was needed for systemd. You could try --process-mode background

That causes syslog-ng to go to the  background but without its own supervisor.

On Apr 12, 2016 9:00 PM, "Scot Needy" <scotrn@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, 

I need help setting up my control files for systemd I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong. If I make a SystemV start stop script it runs fine. 

From systemd I think there is something missing in the control files that lets syslog-ng report that is started successfully. 

When I add -F to SYSLOGNG_OPTS then systemctl start syslog-g.service never returns but syslog-ng does start. 

Compiled syslog-ng  syslog-ng 3.8.0alpha0 no problems. 

On the command line syslog-ng will start fine. 

 /opt/syslog-ng/sbin/syslog-ng -f  /opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng.conf -p  /var/run/syslogd.pid

Using  contrib/systemd/syslog-ng.service as an example I created /usr/lib/systemd/system/syslog-ng.service 

[Unit]

Description=System Logger Daemon

Documentation=man:syslog-ng(8)

[Service]

Type=notify

ExecStart=/opt/syslog-ng/sbin/syslog-ng $SYSLOGNG_OPTS

ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID

EnvironmentFile=-/opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng.env

StandardOutput=journal

StandardError=journal

Restart=on-failure

[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

cat  /opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng.env

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/java/jdk1.8.0_77/jre/lib/amd64/server:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

SYSLOGNG_OPTS="-f /opt/syslog-ng/etc/syslog-ng.conf -p /var/run/syslogd.pid"

systemctl daemon-reload

systemctl restart systemd-journald

systemctl start    syslog-ng.service

systemctl status    syslog-ng.service

● syslog-ng.service - System Logger Daemon

   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/syslog-ng.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)

   Active: inactive (dead) since Tue 2016-04-12 14:51:04 EDT; 29s ago

     Docs: man:syslog-ng(8)

  Process: 2494 ExecStart=/opt/syslog-ng/sbin/syslog-ng $SYSLOGNG_OPTS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

 Main PID: 2494 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Apr 12 14:41:08 loghost systemd[1]: Unit syslog-ng.service entered failed state.

Apr 12 14:41:08 loghost systemd[1]: syslog-ng.service failed.

Apr 12 14:41:08 loghost systemd[1]: syslog-ng.service holdoff time over, scheduling restart.

Apr 12 14:41:08 loghost systemd[1]: Starting System Logger Daemon...

I can see syslog-ng starting and stoping over and over from /var/log/messages 

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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

______________________________________________________________________________
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

______________________________________________________________________________
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