Howto: Linux monitor logfiles

[goku]

Hi!

Linux logfiles are real pain in a$$. I mean there is so much information logged in. For example /var/log/message file. How do you guyes filter log messages? Do you use any automated tool?

I have tons of services running but monitoring logfiles is a pain.

I’d be thankful if someone point out tools or script for me

[nixcraft]

Download logwatch (log analyser with nice output written in Perl) from following url
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sentrytools/

It allows you to watch (monitor) logs.

Installation
Debian Linux type the following command::

apt-get install logwatch

Fedora Linux type the following command:

yum install logwatch

RedHat Enterprise Linux type the following command::

up2date logwatch

To customize logwatch go to /usr/share/doc/logwatch-*/ directory and read the file HOWTO-Customize-LogWatch

Or Open logwatch.conf file:

vi /etc/logwatch/conf/logwatch.conf

OR

vi /usr/share/logwatch/default.conf/logwatch.conf

Read man page of logwatch for more information.

[ra6880]

What commanddo i nee to use to view system messages in real time as they are written to the system log file

[monk]

use tail -f

tail -f /var/log/messages
tail -f /path/to/log/file
tail -f /var/log/httpd/access_log