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Getting Started

Upgrading

In-place upgrades are first-class on both platforms. Your settings, database, archives, certificates, users, and license are preserved automatically. Downtime is typically under 30 seconds.

Update notifications

The application checks https://lucedev.com/api/version/syslog once per day and surfaces a banner on every page when a newer version is available. Only admin users see the banner.

You can trigger a manual check anytime from Settings → About → Check for Updates.

Upgrading

  1. Download LuceDevSyslog_v{version}.exe from lucedev.com/products/lucedev-syslog, or click the link in the update banner.
  2. Right-click the installer and choose Run as administrator.
  3. Click through the prompts.

The installer:

  • Stops the running service
  • Force-kills the application process if it's still holding files
  • Replaces application binaries in C:\Program Files\LuceDev Syslog\
  • Skips settings.json, license_state.json, and the data/, logs/, certs/, archives/ directories
  • Re-registers the WinSW service wrapper and starts it
  • Ensures the three firewall rules exist (skips creation if already present)

  1. Download the new tarball:

    wget https://lucedev.com/static/downloads/LuceDevSyslog_v{version}_linux_amd64.tar.gz

  2. Extract and run the installer:

    tar -xzf LuceDevSyslog_v{version}_linux_amd64.tar.gz
cd LuceDevSyslog
sudo bash install.sh

The installer detects the existing installation, stops the service, replaces the binary at /opt/lucedev-syslog/, then restarts. Symlinks to /var/lib/lucedev-syslog/ and /var/log/lucedev-syslog/ are re-created so all user data stays in place.

Brief log gap is expected

The upgrade takes around 30 seconds. During that window UDP syslog messages will be dropped (syslog is unreliable by design). TCP/TLS senders typically buffer and retry. If you can't tolerate gaps, run the upgrade during a maintenance window or shift senders to TLS.

What's preserved across upgrades

Item Location
Configuration settings.json
License state license_state.json + Windows Registry
SQLite database data\syslog.db
Application logs logs\
TLS certificates certs\
Log archives archives\
Users & passwords Inside syslog.db
Audit trail Inside syslog.db
Item Location
Configuration /var/lib/lucedev-syslog/settings.json
License state /var/lib/lucedev-syslog/license_state.json
SQLite database /var/lib/lucedev-syslog/data/syslog.db
Application logs /var/log/lucedev-syslog/
TLS certificates /var/lib/lucedev-syslog/certs/
Log archives /var/lib/lucedev-syslog/archives/
Users & passwords Inside syslog.db
Audit trail Inside syslog.db

The Windows trial start date is anchored in HKLM\SOFTWARE\LuceDev\Syslog\InstallDate so it survives a complete uninstall and reinstall.

Rolling back

  1. Stop the service: net stop LuceDevSyslog
  2. Run the older version's installer
  3. Your data is preserved — the older binary reads the same settings.json and syslog.db
  1. Stop the service: sudo systemctl stop lucedev-syslog
  2. Re-run the older version's install.sh
  3. Symlinks are re-created over the old binary; user data in /var/lib/lucedev-syslog/ is untouched

Database schema changes

If a newer version added schema columns or tables, the older binary won't know about them. Your existing logs and settings stay intact, but features that depend on the newer schema won't work until you upgrade again. We don't intentionally break backward compatibility, but rolling back across multiple minor versions isn't tested.