TW decided to remove "/var/log/messages"?

[bonedriven]

I find that ‘/var/log/messages’ still exists on my slowroll installation but not on TW. Is this new that sometime ago TW decided to remove this file and merge it into systemd logs?

Strange though in Yast2 there is still this “Display the system’s logs(/var/log/messages)” addon, upon which you click and it says that this file doesn’t exist.

[mrmazda]

/var/log/messages can be enabled via /etc/systemd/journald.conf. Since learning to use the journal, I haven’t missed it. The journal was intended to be comprehensive, doing away with assorted other logs. The journal can be persistent, also configured via /etc/systemd/journald.conf, or via simple existence of /var/log/journal/.

[bonedriven]

I don’t remember to ever have to do anything before and I had /var/log/messages.
Also, “/etc/systemd/journald.conf” is also missing on my TW installation.

[aggie]

@bonedriven …

Also, “/etc/systemd/journald.conf” is also missing on my TW installation

Yep … execute this for possible information:

#  systemd-analyze  cat-config  systemd/journald.conf

... also:
# man journald.conf

[arvidjaar]

@bonedriven

I find that ‘/var/log/messages’ still exists on my slowroll installation but not on TW.

/var/log/messages is used by syslog implementations. Do you have one? Is it active?

@bonedriven

in Yast2 there is still this “Display the system’s logs(/var/log/messages)” addon, upon which you click and it says that this file doesn’t exist

This can be considered a bug; either this module should not be installed by default or it should pull in syslog.

@mrmazda

/var/log/messages can be enabled via /etc/systemd/journald.conf.

No, it cannot.

@bonedriven

Also, “/etc/systemd/journald.conf” is also missing on my TW installation.

Since when configuration file has to exist?

[mrmazda]

@arvidjaar

@mrmazda

/var/log/messages can be enabled via /etc/systemd/journald.conf.

No, it cannot.

# inxi -S
System:
  Host: ab250 Kernel: 6.11.8-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Console: pty pts/0 Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20241129
# grep dToS /usr/lib/systemd/journald.conf
#ForwardToSyslog=no
# zypper in syslogd
…
The following 7 NEW packages are going to be installed:
  klogd sysconfig-netconfig syslogd syslog-service system-user-news wicked wicked-service

7 new packages to install.…
# systemctl list-unit-files | grep syslog
syslog.service                              alias           -
syslogd.service                             enabled         disabled
syslog.socket                               static          -
# ls /var/log/messages
/var/log/messages
#

Seems used2could. Apparently how to enable /var/log/messages was changed, so it’s no longer that simple. ForwardToSyslog=yes seems to need to go in a drop-in in /etc/systemd/journald.conf.d/ instead of /etc/systemd/journald.conf, and/or more, to make it happen. Thankfully, systemd journal is adequate to task, so all that is unnecessary:

# zypper rm -u syslogd
…
The following 7 packages are going to be REMOVED:
  klogd sysconfig-netconfig syslogd syslog-service system-user-news wicked wicked-service
…
#

[bonedriven]

@arvidjaar

/var/log/messages is used by syslog implementations. Do you have one? Is it active?

I don’t seem to have it as I have zero package installed in the output of ‘zypper se syslog’. Should I install it manually? I remember I had ‘/var/log/messages’ in my previous TW installation by default.

[arvidjaar]

@bonedriven

Should I install it manually?

It is entirely up to you to decide.