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Document data available in the different log types #148

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mlw opened this issue Nov 21, 2024 · 0 comments
Open

Document data available in the different log types #148

mlw opened this issue Nov 21, 2024 · 0 comments
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docs Improvements or additions to documentation
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@mlw
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mlw commented Nov 21, 2024

There are different amounts of data contained for the same events in the different log types. Generally, the protobuf logs are the most rich, and many of the new values being added are not added to the file/syslog logs.

The background for the difference has a few technical reasons (taken from #137 (comment)):

  1. To not unintentionally break compatibility. Santa log output followed a standard, but was undocumented. There was concern that not all parsers would properly handle changes to the output. To be conservative and not break users, new fields were often not added.
  2. When streaming, syslog lines are capped to a maximum line length. To prevent lost data due to overflow, data included in the lines was kept more minimal
  3. Structured logging via protobuf is much more easily consumed, has built in parsers, and much better type safety. The general feeling is that consumers should be migrating to protobuf as soon as possible.

We should document which keys/values are included in each of the log types to make clear to consumers what choices are available.

@mlw mlw added the docs Improvements or additions to documentation label Nov 21, 2024
@pmarkowsky pmarkowsky added this to the 2025.2 milestone Jan 17, 2025
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