Logger.pl
By Patricio D. Anguita (pdazero@yahoo.com)

Usage: perl logger.pl < [input file] > [output file]
Example: perl logger.pl <messages >analysis.log
Platforms: Well, its written in Perl so... 

Description:

This utility examines certain types of logs, watching for keywords and 
extracting interesting lines as it builds a smaller, and easily reading log 
analysis. If the same error repeats itself, the script will count the number of 
repetitions and output it between brackets at the end of the line. Its designed 
to work with files in the /var/log/ dir, like 'messages','secure', etc.

It is specially useful when run from the crontab once a day on the combined syslog
of many servers, e.g., you have configured all your servers to send syslog information
to one host, so that logging is centralized. For example, take this script:

#!/bin/sh
#*****************************************************************************
# chklog.sh
# Parses every log under /var/log/syslog directory with logger.pl
# And mails results to root
#*****************************************************************************


DATE=`date +%d%m%y`

for file in auth.log daemon.log kernel.log mail.log
do
   if [ -f /var/log/syslog/$file ]
   then
       echo "***********"$file"***********" >> /var/log/syslog/out.tmp
       /usr/bin/logger.pl < /var/log/syslog/$file >> /var/log/syslog/out.tmp
       mv /var/log/syslog/$file /var/log/syslog/$file.$DATE
   fi
  
   if [ ! -f /var/log/syslog/$file.$DATE ]
   then
      echo "Problems with logs." | mail root@somehost.edu
   fi

done

kill -HUP `cat /var/run/syslogd.pid`

cat /var/log/syslog/out.tmp | mail -s "logger $DATE" root@somehost.edu
rm /var/log/syslog/out.tmp
#*****************************************************************************

It will get auth.log, daemon.log, kernel.log & mail.log parsed & mailed. Then you can
add a line on the root crontab to do the checking once a day, like this:

#*****************************
# Check the logs
55 23 * * * /usr/bin/chklog &
#*****************************

Licence:

This package is to be copied freely as long as it remains intact. I hold no 
responsability whatsoever for what the package could do wrong.

Comments are deeply appreciated, just send an email.

-Pda