AxoSyslog on macOS

AxoSyslog has no official macOS package or Homebrew formula. For production use, run AxoSyslog on a Linux host or as a container. For details, see Install AxoSyslog and Install AxoSyslog with Docker.

To develop, test, or collect logs locally on a Mac, build AxoSyslog from source. The upstream CI builds and tests AxoSyslog on macOS 15 and the latest macOS GitHub runner.

Build from source

1. Install Homebrew, then clone the source code.

   git clone https://github.com/axoflow/axosyslog.git
   cd axosyslog

2. Install the build dependencies listed in the contrib/Brewfile.

   brew update
   brew bundle --file=contrib/Brewfile

3. Point the build to the Homebrew libraries and to the Homebrew version of bison.

   HOMEBREW_PREFIX="$(brew --prefix)"
   export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="${HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/opt/openssl@3/lib/pkgconfig:${HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/opt/net-snmp/lib/pkgconfig:${HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/lib/pkgconfig:${PKG_CONFIG_PATH}"
   export PATH="${HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/opt/bison/bin:${PATH}"
   export CFLAGS="-I${HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/include"
   export LDFLAGS="-L${HOMEBREW_PREFIX}/lib"

4. Configure, build, and install AxoSyslog. Replace <install-dir> with the directory to install to. You can use either autotools or CMake.

   • With autotools:

     ./autogen.sh
     ./configure --prefix=<install-dir> \
       --with-ivykis=system --with-python=3 --with-systemd-journal=no \
       --disable-smtp --disable-java --disable-java-modules \
       --disable-pacct --disable-stackdump --disable-jit
     make
     make install

   • With CMake:

     cmake --install-prefix <install-dir> -B build . \
       -DIVYKIS_SOURCE=system -DPYTHON_VERSION=3 -DENABLE_JOURNALD=OFF \
       -DENABLE_AFSMTP=OFF -DENABLE_GRPC=OFF -DENABLE_JAVA=OFF \
       -DENABLE_JAVA_MODULES=OFF -DENABLE_PACCT=OFF -DENABLE_LIBUNWIND=OFF
     cmake --build build --target install

Limitations

The macOS builds disable the following modules:

• the systemd-journal() source
• the smtp() destination
• Java and the Java-based modules
• the pacct() source
• stack dumps on crash (--disable-stackdump)

The CMake build also disables the gRPC-based modules, for example, opentelemetry(), loki(), and bigquery(). On macOS 14, an incompatibility between Apache Arrow and Apple clang (apache/arrow#49841) breaks the arrow-flight module. Disable it with --disable-arrow-flight (autotools) or -DENABLE_ARROW_FLIGHT=OFF (CMake).

Collect macOS system logs

macOS has its own logging system. To collect its logs, use the darwin-oslog() and darwin-oslog-stream() sources. For details, see Collect native macOS system logs.

Run as a service

The source tree includes a sample launchd property list at contrib/com.syslog-ng.syslog-ng.plist. Adjust the paths to match your <install-dir> before you use it.