Install jlog with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• jlog_change_endian
• jlog_sanity_check
• jlogctl
• jlogtail

Project history

The project comes from OmniTI Labs and the README lists Wez Furlong, Alec Peterson, George Schlossnagle, Theo Schlossnagle, and Alexey Toptygin as the team. The changelog begins with a 1.0 initial release on 2009-05-13, placing JLog in the older generation of C infrastructure libraries built for reliable log and event pipelines.

JLog evolved through operational fixes and API additions rather than broad feature expansion. The 2.x line added Darwin support, `jlogtail`, repair APIs, Java and PHP support, bulk reads, precommit-buffer performance work, and later filesystem-focused fixes around `mmap`, compression, and short writes.

Adoption history

The README documents installation via FreeBSD's `databases/jlog` port and Homebrew on macOS, while the input package metadata records Homebrew packaging. Its adoption story is narrower than general-purpose queues because it is a library and CLI toolkit for systems that need local durability rather than a networked broker.

How it is used

JLog is used when an application needs to write records locally and let one or more subscribers consume them later. The README's sample scenario is log shipping: server A writes to a JLog if server B is down, so A keeps operating and B can later consume messages.

The concepts document explains the core model: a JLog is a directory containing control files and segment files; writers append messages; subscribers keep unique names and checkpoint progress; segment files are removed after all subscribers have moved past them.

Why package nerds care

JLog is package-nerdy because it is small, old-school C infrastructure: not a fashionable distributed queue, but a durable local primitive with command-line tools such as `jlogctl` and `jlogtail`. It matters in package indexes as a compact building block for logging and asynchronous notification systems.

Timeline

• 2009: Version 1.0 is released.
• 2011: Version 1.2 fixes interrupted `fstat()` handling and an uninitialized variable.
• 2013: Version 1.2.2 adds PHP and Java JNI support.
• 2015: Version 2.0.0 adds Darwin support, `jlogtail`, cleanup APIs, and robustness work.
• 2016: Version 2.2.1 adds a precommit buffer and lockless writes using `pwritev`.
• 2017: Version 2.3.0 adds the bulk-read API.
• 2020: Version 2.5.0 reworks `jlogctl` around subcommands and adds repair/metastore reconstruction.
• 2024: Version 2.6.0 adds an option to switch message reads from `mmap` to `pread` and fixes compression and short-write issues.

Related projects

• JLog sits near local durable queues, log buffers, and broker-adjacent infrastructure rather than general log viewers. Its README contrasts the low-level local queue with the network service an implementor would build around it for remote consumption.

Sources

• Project README, concepts document, changelog, GitHub repository metadata, and Homebrew formula metadata.