Re: [gentoo-user] syslog-ng: how to read the log files

[Canek Peláez Valdés]

On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 2:29 PM, <covici@××××××××××.com> wrote:
>
> Alexander Kapshuk <alexander.kapshuk@×××××.com> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 8:26 PM, lee <lee@××××××××.de> wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > how do you read the log files when using syslog-ng?
> > >
> > > The log file seem to be some sort of binary that doesn't display too
> > > well in less, and there doesn't seem to be any way to read them.
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Again we must be afraid of speaking of daemons for fear that daemons
> > > might swallow us.  Finally, this fear has become reasonable.
> > >
> > >
> > If you're talking about /var/log/messages, which is:
> > messages: data
> >
> > I use cat(1).
>
> I wonder if the OP is using systemd and trying to read the journal
> files?

Those live under /var/lib/journal (which you need to create; Gentoo doesn't
do it by default last time I saw), in the directory named after the machine
ID (cat /etc/machine-id). And there are several journal files, of the kind:

system@××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××.journal

I think it would be really difficult to mix up that with /var/log/messages.

I think it's just that some part of /var/log/messages got corrupted
(happens a lot of times), and therefore /usr/bin/less identifies it as a
binary files since it contains non-printable characters.

Regards.
--
Canek Peláez Valdés
Profesor de asignatura, Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México