Rainer Gerhards

2026-03-022026-02-27

The “Kampfbegriff” That Isn’t: Making Digital Sovereignty Less Scary and More Sensible

So, “Digital Sovereignty.” The new “Kampfbegriff” (combat term), as they say here in Germany. It’s remarkable how quickly a single phrase can make you a tech hero or a protectionist villain before you’ve even had your morning coffee. Everyone tells me you must have it. No one quite agrees on what it is, but it sounds expensive, deeply political, and probably involves lots of PowerPoint slides with shiny shields on them.

Honestly, the whole “exclusionary” or “punitive” framing of the term just makes me… well, let’s go with “mildly disappointed.” For me, this shouldn’t be a grand ideological statement. It’s much simpler. Digital Sovereignty is just Freedom of Choice. That’s it. No more, no less. It’s the right to change your mind without your entire infrastructure collapsing like a house of cards.

2026-02-272026-02-27

AI slop. AI is hype. AI will replace us all.

Or maybe not.

If you are fighting low-quality AI code, or you think the whole thing is just marketing noise, here is a radical idea: fix the environment instead of blaming the tool. Doing AI right is not rocket science. It is mostly common sense. And, as so often, discipline.

I keep repeating this because it matters. There are three simple pillars that make AI code generation actually work. I can prove it, I do it every day.

2026-02-262026-02-26

Rsyslog is moving fast – let’s make sure everyone keeps up!

We are in “pushing new features out” mode since mid-2025. Observability Stack, Open Telemetry support, enhanced ETL tooling, centralized ratelimiters, CI improvements, AI components, much better doc, and, and and – a wealth of new features. Together with community contributors, that’s close to 900 commits. Big and small, some very big!

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2026-02-122026-02-12

AI Slop – or Human Laziness?

It’s strange – we have great new tools, but many folks are using them in such a sloppy way, that the tools get discredited. And this also tends to boil down that serious users get into trouble. You probably guess what I am talking about: AI tooling.

I am for sure nobody who jumps on the latest hype. So I resisted AI quite long for complex things. Until it was ready, which for me was around summer 2025. That was for coding. For some doc writing it was ready earlier (and I used it to cover my weak spots). Now, AI has evolved to also help with video and audio.

2026-02-112026-02-11

How a Missing Windows Feature in 1995 Led to WinSyslog and rsyslog | 30 Year Throwback

Remember – I am for quite a while in this business. Have you ever wondered why I took up that work on logging. Which, btw, was perceived as “pretty boring” on those days without real cyber attacks. I took the time to record one of my usual and “highest-quality” videos to tell you the story. I hope you enjoy.

2026-02-072026-02-07

Using Local AI Review to Save CI Time, Money, and Nerves

You know, I like efficient processes. After all, that was one reason that I wrote rsyslog. Which, btw, nowadays is increasingly useful and cost-saving as an ETL/ingestion issue for its speed. So no surprise, I also like efficient workflows.

Terminal showing iterative local AI code review with cubic CLI, code fixes, rebuilds, and test runs before final commit.”

We strongly believe in CI. Especially with AI code generation, it is your ultimate safeguard. However, CI is costly, and AI review usually runs max once per CI run.

So I have paired that review with some local test execution and review. Nowadays of course AI assisted. I usually use CLI tools for their efficiency. As part of the post-build process, I make the AI run various checks. The last one is a full review. I often use cubic for that, because it provides very good results to me.

2026-01-222026-01-22

AI Code Generation in a 200k LOC C Codebase: What Actually Worked in rsyslog

If you want the CS summary: it is at the end.

I keep seeing the same take pop up: “AI is overhyped. Mostly money burning.” Sure. There is hype. There is also a whole lot of low-effort “vibe coding” that produces low-quality output at impressive speed.

Illustration of a robotic hand carefully adjusting gears in a large rsyslog C codebase machine, symbolizing AI-assisted maintenance of mature software.

But there is also something else: if you treat AI as a serious engineering tool and you are willing to do the unglamorous work, it can make measurable difference and boost productivity and quality.

So here is a concrete case study: agentic code work in rsyslog.

2025-12-08

How We Run Open Source and Closed Source at Adiscon

I know many people know I am with Adiscon. They also know we do both open source and closed source software. That combination often raises eyebrows, and I occasionally get the same question: how do we manage this without open-core games, dual-licensing traps, or hidden agendas?

Blue and orange streams converge into a gear, symbolizing concept transfer between open source and commercial development. — Blue and orange streams meet in a gear: open source and commercial work, shared concepts, clear boundaries. (Image: Rainer Gerhards via AI)

So I decided to write it down, plainly.

2025-12-072025-12-07

Alhambra: Beauty, and Engineering That Quietly Holds It Together

I finally visited the Alhambra in Spain this year.

I had been to that part of Spain in my youth, in my twenties, but I did not manage to visit the Alhambra back then. And somehow I also never made it back in between. So it was fantastic for me to finally be there.

Panoramic view of the Alhambra on a wooded hill above Granada, with cypress trees in the foreground and mountains under a sky of scattered clouds. — The Alhambra, Granada. (Photo: Rainer Gerhards.)

2025-12-042025-12-04

The Context Wall in AI Code Generation

The ultimate promise of AI agents in software development is autonomy. We want to be able to hand off a task and have the agent execute it reliably. However, in my recent experiments with AI-driven code generation, I’ve hit a recurring roadblock: The Context Wall.