Score:1

How to understand the log entries in /var/log/syslog or /var/log/messages?

bf flag

I got this log file entries which I think are from either /var/log/syslog or /var/log/messages file for analysis. I'm trying to find what each column means. I searched around and found very few references as to what each log column means. Its like they forgot to write the column names in the manuals. :)

Feb  1 00:00:49 mycom01 kernel: [7292044.592265] oo:contactc[627578]: Importing OpenOnload 7.1.2.141_ON-13486 [128]

Feb  1 01:02:16 mycom01 kernel: [7321313.400084] [onload] [457]: WARNING: all PIO bufs allocated to other stacks. Continuing without PIO. Use EF_PIO to control this.

I can understand the obvious ones like the date/time and host. But the items in square brackets are not clear. Appreciate your help in understanding this.

Doug Smythies avatar
gn flag
7292044.592265 is time since boot in seconds, or 84.4 days ago. Note there is no `/var/log/messages` in Ubuntu anymore. Is this Ubuntu?
Sampath avatar
bf flag
@DougSmythies I'm sorry, but I don't know the exact Linux flavor used as the logs are from a client of a third party and they are not very helpful :(. It was my speculation that these are either `/var/log/syslog` or `/var/log/messages` extracts.
Doug Smythies avatar
gn flag
Well, your date and time stamps do not agree with the difference in the two kernels times (1 hour and 2 minutes verses over 8 hours). So that does not seem to be Ubuntu.
waltinator avatar
it flag
The format is [time since boot seconds.nanoseconds] [who issued it][PID]: freeform message supplied by the issuer.
Sampath avatar
bf flag
@waltinator Thank you. This is exactly what I wanted to know. Can you kindly point me to a manual page of this. I would like to learn a bit more.
waltinator avatar
it flag
`man logger rsyslog rsyslog.conf` to start, plus https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5424 the `syslog` protocol definition.
Sampath avatar
bf flag
@waltinator Thank you very much.
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