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Since the migration to Ubuntu 15.04 both journald and rsyslog are installed and running. I'm wondering if this is by design or if rsyslog might not have been uninstalled by accident?

Can I uninstall rsyslog without problems or should I take precautions?

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    You almost certainly mean journald not journalctl.
    – JdeBP
    Jun 28, 2015 at 10:48
  • Correct. I adjusted the text
    – Mausy5043
    Jul 30, 2017 at 9:21

1 Answer 1

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UPDATE AS OF 18.04:

As of 18.04, there doesn't seem to be any real dependencies. Aside from other rsyslog specific packages, most of the dependencies listed by apt-cache rdepends rsyslog appear to be "recommends" and not actual dependencies.

Therefore, it might be safe but proceed with caution.

To assess the situation, you can do a "dry run" removal to show which packages would be removed:

sudo apt remove --dry-run rsyslog

This will not remove any packages but it will show which packages would be removed.

If you remove rsyslog, apt may install another package to replace it. This is the case when there is an "either/or" dependency for rsyslog or a similar package.

Example:

Depends: rsyslog | inetutils-syslogd

Here, either package will satisfy the dependency so if you uninstall one, the other will install automatically to satisfy the dependency.

ORIGINAL ANSWER (15.04):

journalctl is part of systemd.

Many packages depend on rsyslog and it is not recommended to uninstall it.

see:

apt-cache rdepends rsyslog
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  • Does this mean that I shouldn't - on Kubuntu 18.04 - follow the advice at askubuntu.com/questions/925440/… to mask rsyslogd? I have a handful of rdepends on rsyslog.
    – pbhj
    Dec 10, 2018 at 15:38
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    @pbhj I cannot say without knowing the specifics. Masking will not "break your dependencies" in dpkg or apt but may theoretically cause some issues. You can try and see what happens, especially if you use another log service. Alternatively, if you want to play it safe, you can disable the service instead of using mask so that the service will not automatically start at boot but will start if called upon by another service. See: askubuntu.com/questions/816285/…
    – mchid
    Dec 13, 2018 at 0:43
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    my apt-cache show only a handful of commands using rsyslog, most of which i never use.
    – Ahmad Ismail
    Jan 31, 2022 at 10:47
  • @blueray Thanks! I updated the answer.
    – mchid
    Jan 31, 2022 at 19:40

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