[syslog-ng] RFC: Removing the 'dummy' module

[Balazs Scheidler]

----- Original message -----
> Hi!
> 
> syslog-ng comes with a 'dummy' module, that does nothing, but emit a
> notice whenever it receives a message. I doubt anyone uses it, because
> it is useless, and serves as an aid for module writers only, as a
> skeleton to build on.
> 
> However, it is built AND installed by default, which is kinda awkward,
> in my opinion, and perhaps a bit confusing too: when I see a dummy
> module automatically installed, I start to wonder just what the heck it
> is good for and why it is there in the first place?
> 
> Since it's completely useless, I'd like to propose either of the
> following:
> 
> 1) Remove the module completely from the source code.
> 
>       The rationale behind this is that it's a very basic example, shows
>       very little about how a destination driver should work, and is even a
>       little bit stale here and there.
> 
>       For example, the grammar directly pokes the driver structure, which
>       is a bad habit (accessors are a whole lot better!).
> 
>       Furthermore, when I wanted to write a driver, I looked at the dummy
>       driver first, but after a couple of minutes, I concluded it has so
>       very little information, that it's not enough for me as a starting
>       point. So I started to look at other drivers, and learned from there.
> 
>       In that sense, it doesn't even succeed at being a reasonable
>       skeleton, or starting point.
> 
>       A HOWTO document, or something similar about the architecture of the
>       various drivers would be much much more useful, but this document is
>       yet to be written.
> 
> 2) Keep the module, but don't install it, ever.
> 
>       As a compromise, the module could be kept, but not installed. This
>       way we still have a very small example, but it's not installed
>       needlessly.
> 
> I think it's obvious I'd rather go with the first option, but perhaps
> there's good reasons for keeping it, that I overlooked. The decision is
> in Bazsi's hand, anyway.

I completely agree it should be removed, it's been the first plugin of syslog-ng when I was working on modularizing the grammar and the core.

So RIP. can you please post a patch that removes it?
Thanks.
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