The syslog-ng Administrator Guide

Source driver: A communication method used to receive log messages. For example, syslog-ng can receive messages from a remote host via TCP/IP, or read the messages of a local application from a file.

Source: A named collection of configured source drivers.

Destination driver: A communication method used to send log messages. For example, syslog-ng can send messages to a remote host via TCP/IP, or write the messages into a file.

Destination: A named collection of configured destination drivers.

Filter: An expression to select messages. For example, a simple filter can select the messages received from a specific host.

Log path: A combination of sources, filters, and destinations: syslog-ng examines all messages arriving to the sources of the log path and sends the messages matching all filters to the defined destinations. Log paths are also called log statements.

Template: A template is a user-defined structure that can be used to restructure log messages or automatically generate file names. For example, a template can add the hostname and the date to the beginning of every log message.

Option: Options set global parameters of syslog-ng, like the parameters of name resolution and timezone handling.