How do I read a Linux error log?
Like any other OS, you can use certain commands to see Linux log files. Linux logs will display with the command cd/var/log. Then, you can type ls to see the logs stored under this directory. One of the most important logs to view is the syslog, which logs everything but auth-related messages.
- Check the log files for error messages. Examine errlog. log first.
- If indicated, check optional log files for error messages.
- Identify the errors associated with your problem.
One of the simplest ways to analyze logs is by performing plain text searches using grep. grep is a command line tool that can search for matching text in a file, or in output from other commands. It's included by default in most Linux distributions and is also available for Windows and Mac.
For searching files, the command syntax you use is grep [options] [pattern] [file] , where “pattern” is what you want to search for. For example, to search for the word “error” in the log file, you would enter grep 'error' junglediskserver. log , and all lines that contain”error” will output to the screen.
This is such a crucial folder on your Linux systems. Open up a terminal window and issue the command cd /var/log. Now issue the command ls and you will see the logs housed within this directory (Figure 1).
- Open Start.
- Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
- Type the following command to perform an advanced DISM scan and press Enter: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth. Source: Windows Central.
Double-click on the log file and it will likely open in a text program by default, or you can choose the program you'd like to use to open the file by using the right-click and “Open With” option. Another option is to use a web browser and open the server log file in HTML.
- Press ⊞ Win + R on the M-Files server computer. ...
- In the Open text field, type in eventvwr and click OK. ...
- Expand the Windows Logs node.
- Select the Application node. ...
- Click Filter Current Log... on the Actions pane in the Application section to list only the entries that are related to M-Files.
- Open PuTTY.
- Connect to your server.
- Navigate the PuTTY window to your logs.
- Enter the command to see your error logs.
- Find your Linux logs in /var/log.
- Use cat to display the entirety of a log file.
- Use tail to see just the last lines.
- Use vi to open a log in a text editor.
- Use dmesg to view the contents of /var/log/dmesg.
- Use lastlog to view the contents of /var/log/lastlog.
How do I filter log files in Linux?
- Awk Command. Awk is a remarkable pattern scanning and processing language, it can be used to build useful filters in Linux. ...
- Sed Command. ...
- Grep, Egrep, Fgrep, Rgrep Commands. ...
- head Command. ...
- tail Command. ...
- sort Command. ...
- uniq Command. ...
- fmt Command.
Linux System Logs
Linux has a special directory for storing logs called /var/log . This directory contains logs from the OS itself, services, and various applications running on the system.

e2fsck is used to check the ext2/ext3/ext4 family of file systems. For ext3 and ext4 file systems that use a journal, if the system has been shut down uncleanly without any errors, normally, after replaying the committed transactions in the journal, the file system should be marked as clean.
Description. The mkfs command makes a new file system on a specified device. The mkfs command initializes the volume label, file system label, and startup block. The Device parameter specifies a block device name, raw device name, or file system name.
- Right-click on the desktop and choose the "Open in Terminal" option from the menu that appears. ...
- Type the following command to unmount the drive you want to check: ...
- Type the following command to check the drive: ...
- Run the "fsck" command a second time if any number other than zero appears.
You can also view this log using the dmesg command. Another log you can use to view kernel information is the /var/log/kern. log file, this logs the kernel information and events on your system, it also logs dmesg output.
Logs can store any type of information you want but they typically answer who, what, when, where, and why something occurred. Logs can be useful when your shell script performs several actions or produces a lot of output that might scroll off your screen.
The tail -f command prints the last 10 lines of a text or log file, and then waits for new additions to the file to print it in real time. This allows administrators to view a log message as soon as a system creates it.
SFC will scan the integrity of all protected operating system files, including those that are not on your hard drive. It should be used before running DISM.
DISM is the primary tool for all offline-servicing tasks. DISM runs from a command prompt from Windows PE or a running Windows operating system. If a failure occurs when executing a DISM command, the tool will provide an immediate response, and log the issue in the DISM. log file.
How do I run sfc and DISM?
- Run System File Checker or SFC to fix any system file corruption from the resident component store. In an elevated CMD execute the following command: sfc /scannow. ...
- To do this, you need to Run DISM. ...
- Additionally if you feel, you may run SFC again.
- RHEL / Red Hat / CentOS / Fedora Linux Apache access log file location – /var/log/httpd/error_log.
- Debian / Ubuntu Linux Apache access log file location – /var/log/apache2/error. log.
- FreeBSD Apache access log file location – /var/log/httpd-error. log.
Netwrix Event Log Manager
It's a free tool for monitoring Windows server logs in enterprise networks. With this tool, you can capture and view various security logs, application logs, and application services logs from workstations across your network. The tool also offers real-time alerts for important events.
You can also press Ctrl+F to search your log messages or use the Filters menu to filter your logs. If you have other log files you want to view — say, a log file for a specific application — you can click the File menu, select Open, and open the log file.
Log files are a set of records that Linux maintains for the administrators to keep track of important events. They contain messages about the server, including the kernel, services and applications running on it. Linux provides a centralized repository of log files that can be located under the /var/log directory.
Q4: How do you read a log table? A: Take the first 2 digits of the number irrespective of the decimal and look for the row with that number. Next look for the column number corresponding to the third digit of the number. You may also need to look into the mean difference table to get the final value.
- Enter the tail command, followed by the file you'd like to view: tail /var/log/auth.log. ...
- To change the number of lines displayed, use the -n option: tail -n 50 /var/log/auth.log. ...
- To show a real-time, streaming output of a changing file, use the -f or --follow options: tail -f /var/log/auth.log.
This folder contains overall system notifications and messages recorded at system boot. The folder /var/log/messages contain a variety of messages, such as mail, kern, auth, cron, daemon, and so on.
- Open a terminal window and create the first file: cat >test1.txt.
- The cursor moves to a new line where you can add the wanted text. ...
- To exit the prompt and write the changes to the file, hold the Ctrl key and press d.
- Repeat the process to create test2.txt. ...
- Type: ...
- Press Ctrl+d.
Linux Filter commands accept input data from stdin (standard input) and produce output on stdout (standard output). It transforms plain-text data into a meaningful way and can be used with pipes to perform higher operations.
What are filter commands?
In UNIX/Linux, filters are the set of commands that take input from standard input stream i.e. stdin, perform some operations and write output to standard output stream i.e. stdout. The stdin and stdout can be managed as per preferences using redirection and pipes. Common filter commands are: grep, more, sort. 1.
1. Grep Command. Coming in the first place is the grep utility tool – is an acronym for Global Regular Expression Print, is a powerful command-line tool that comes in handy when searching for a specific string or a pattern in a file.
Syslog is a protocol and utility for capturing and logging system information. This system information can be stored locally, remotely, or both. syslog allows a server to forward log messages over the network to SL1. SL1 then uses these messages to monitor the health of the server and trigger events (if necessary).
Mainly there are four types of log files generated in a Linux based environment and they are: Application Logs. Event Logs. Service Logs.
DESCRIPTION. mke2fs is used to create an ext2/ext3 filesystem (usually in a disk partition). device is the special file corresponding to the device (e.g /dev/hdXX). blocks-count is the number of blocks on the device. If omitted, mke2fs automagically figures the file system size.
dumpe2fs is a command line tool used to dump ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem information, mean it displays super block and blocks group information for the filesystem on device. Before running dumpe2fs, make sure to run df -hT command to know the filesystem device names.
What is the purpose of fsck and e2fsck in Linux? fsck is a wrapper that identifies the specific tool to use to analyze/repair a filesystem that might be corrupted. e2fsck is specific to the Ext2 family of filesystems and will check ext2, ext3, ext4 file systems.
- Create a file that will be used for swap: sudo fallocate -l 1G /swapfile. ...
- Only the root user should be able to write and read the swap file. ...
- Use the mkswap utility to set up the file as Linux swap area: sudo mkswap /swapfile.
- Enable the swap with the following command: sudo swapon /swapfile.
mkfs does not explicitly delete files. In the target device it creates structures specific to the desired filesystem, not taking care of anything that is already there. The new filesystem is created empty.
Fdisk partitions your hard drive. It sets up partitions on the disk by creating a partition table. mkfs formats the partition after it has been created. It formats it based on a specific filesystem like NTFS, FAT32, Unix ext2 & ext2.
How do I check hard drive for errors in Linux?
You can check the hard drive for errors using the smartctl command, which is control and monitor utility for SMART disks under Linux / UNIX like operating systems. smartctl controls the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) system built into many ATA-3 and later ATA, IDE and SCSI-3 hard drives.
- If you don't know the device name, use fdisk , df , or any other tool to find it.
- Unmount the device: sudo umount /dev/sdc1.
- Run fsck to repair the file system: sudo fsck -p /dev/sdc1. ...
- Once the file system is repaired, mount the partition: sudo mount /dev/sdc1.
In disk terms, CHKDSK /R scans the entire disk surface, sector by sector, to make sure every sector can be read properly. As a result, a CHKDSK /R takes significantly longer than /F, since it's concerned with the entire surface of the disk, not just the parts involved in the Table of Contents.