# The &ksystemlog; Handbook

Nicolas
Ternisien

    nicolas.ternisien@gmail.com

2008
Nicolas Ternisien
&FDLNotice;
2008-02-08
0.4.1

&ksystemlog; is a system log viewer tool for &kde;. This program is developed for beginner users who don't know how to find information about their system or where the log files are located. It is also designed for advanced users who want to quickly see problems occuring on their server.

KDE
logs
ksystemlog
security
cron
boot
ssh
postfix
apache
samba

## Using &ksystemlog;

### Introduction

#### What is &ksystemlog; ?

&ksystemlog; is a system log viewer tool.

&ksystemlog; helps users understand what their machine does in the background. &ksystemlog; aims to simplify the reading of system log files. This program is developed for beginner users who don't know how to find information about their system or where the log files are located in their computer.

But it is also designed for advanced users who want to quickly see problems occuring on their server. &ksystemlog; tries to provide some advanced features to allow sorting and reading logs from specifical programs.

&ksystemlog; main screen
&ksystemlog; main screen

#### Features

In its current version, &ksystemlog; 0.4.1 has quite a number of helpful features, such as:

- Support for many different log files type, with the support of Syslog server formating, Samba

- Tabbed view to display several logs at the same time

- Reading one log mode from multiple sources

- Auto-display of newly logged lines in bold

- Group by different criteria (log level, log file, process, hour, ...)

- Detailed information for each log lines

- Adding a log entry manually

It supports the following log files from your system :

- Syslog logs (system messages)

- X.org logs

- Kernel logs

- Authentication logs

- ACPID logs

- Cups logs

- Postfix logs

- Apache logs

- Samba logs

- Daemons logs

- Cron logs

- XSessions logs

Many other features are included and will be discussed in the appropriate chapters of this manual.

### Reading logs with &ksystemlog;

As you will see in the following screenshots, &ksystemlog; provides features to easily sort and filter log lines. We are now going to describe them in the next parts of this documentation.

#### Getting started

When you start &ksystemlog;, it tries to open the most useful log, the System Log. If it does not display it and pops up a message box, you probably forgot to launch &ksystemlog; as an administrator user (commonly named root). The log files are usually available in the /var/log folder, which is often protected against normal users.

&ksystemlog; first launch
&ksystemlog; first launch

#### Reading log files easily

##### Sorting log lines

Every log lines are displayed in a list view, which can be sorted by clicking on the wanted column. Another click will sort it in the other order. If you want to sort the list as it was on the first loading, you can use the Edit Refresh menu item, or simply click on the first column of the list, generally named Date, to sort the list in the ascending order. Even if your log mode does not use time to describe each log lines, for example the X.org Log, the list will be correctly sorted, because &ksystemlog; keeps an internal order of the list.

##### Filtering log lines

Filtering on a specific process
Filtering on a specific process

You can also use the filter bar to filter according to the selected criteria and the typed string. Simply type something in the filter, and the list will automatically be modified to only display lines which match your filter string. By default, the combo box next to the filter selects All, which means that a line will be displayed only if one of its columns contains the filter string.

You can select another field to filter only this column of the list. For example, in the System Log, by selecting the Process column, and writing its name in the filter bar, &ksystemlog; will display every log lines sent by this process.

#### Other features

##### Colorizing log lines

This option is activated by default and helps you see which lines have a higher level than the others. For example, Error level will be highlighted in a different color than the Notice one. This feature can be disabled in the configuration dialog.

##### Hiding the process identifier

If you are only interested in a specific process (for example in the System Log or the Cron Log), you can hide its PID in the Process column. This can be useful if you are trying to analyze the output of a specific command, like a Samba server. In this case, please use the Filter Bar.

### Monitoring Management

&ksystemlog; provides an easy way to control the reading and the monitoring of log files. Indeed, sometimes you only need to analyze some existing log lines. In this case, you cannot tolerate the appearance of a new line. You can deactivate the monitoring of log files by clicking on the Stop button. This stops the opened log files from being updated while still letting them get filled by other processes. Of course, you can reactivate the monitoring by clicking on Resume, which will display the log lines added since the last pause.

Furthermore, to focus on the newly appeared log lines, you can toggle the Scroll to New Lines option.

### Management of several opened tabs

&ksystemlog; allows you to open several log modes by opening multiple tabs. For this, simply use the Window menu to manage and open new tabs. Once you have selected the right tab, simply choose the desired log mode using the dedicated menu.

## Credits and License

&ksystemlog;

&ksystemlog;, Copyright 2008 by Nicolas Ternisien

Contributors:

- Patrick Dreker : Ideas, Code Improvements.

- Bojan : SSH Log mode, Printing.

Special thanks to all translators of &ksystemlog;.

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## How to obtain and install &ksystemlog;

&ksystemlog; has its own home page http://ksystemlog.forum-software.org. Please refer to the instructions on the home page since they will contain up-to-date information about how to obtain &ksystemlog;.

&ksystemlog; can also be found in the following folder of the &kde; Subversion Repository : &ksystemlog; in the &kde; repository

&documentation.index;