[systemd-devel] Linux Journal API/client lib

[Rainer Gerhards]

Hi there,

as you probably know, I am not a big fan of the journald proposal, but
that's not the point of my question. I am thinking about how to
integrate journal data into a syslog logging solution. So I have a
couple of questions in regard to accessing the journal. The most
important one is how to read information from it. From what I have
read, a client API is planned. I know git has working code, but this
code is tied into systemd and is not a lib.

So I wonder how a non-systemd app would gain access to journal data.
Do you actually plan a client library (-ljournal) ? Or do you plan to
make this available as a core OS service (and thus via a system call
interface)? Or anything else? Also, in order to read the complete
journal, is it necessary to run under the root user or can lower
privileges be used (and, if so, which)?

These questions were mostly related to the syslogd pulling data from
the journal to transmit it some remote site (or do some other
transformation). Now let's assume the contrary, syslogd receives data
via the network and wants to store it inside the journal. Will there
be an API provided for that case as well?

Looking forward to any insight you can provide.
Rainer