Sophie

Sophie

distrib > Mandriva > 2010.1 > x86_64 > media > main-release > by-pkgid > 4b83168e73395923a9688bce3c6a93bb > files > 11

ksystemlog-4.4.3-1mdv2010.1.x86_64.rpm

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook XML V4.2-Based Variant V1.1//EN" "dtd/kdex.dtd" [
<!ENTITY ksystemlog "<application>KSystemLog</application>">
<!ENTITY kappname "&ksystemlog;"><!-- replace kapp here -->
<!ENTITY package "kdeadmin">
<!ENTITY % addindex "IGNORE">
<!ENTITY % English "INCLUDE"><!-- change language only here -->
]>

<book lang="&language;">

<bookinfo>
<title>The &ksystemlog; Handbook</title>

<authorgroup>
	<author>
		<firstname>Nicolas</firstname><surname>Ternisien</surname>
		<affiliation>
			<address><email>nicolas.ternisien@gmail.com</email></address>
		</affiliation>
	</author>
</authorgroup>

<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->

<copyright>
	<year>2008</year>
	<holder>Nicolas Ternisien</holder>
</copyright>

<legalnotice>&FDLNotice;</legalnotice>

<date>2008-02-08</date>
<releaseinfo>0.4.1</releaseinfo>

<abstract>
<para>&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.
</para>

</abstract>

<keywordset>
	<keyword>KDE</keyword>
	<keyword>logs</keyword>
	<keyword>ksystemlog</keyword>
	<keyword>security</keyword>
	<keyword>cron</keyword>
	<keyword>boot</keyword>
	<keyword>ssh</keyword>
	<keyword>postfix</keyword>
	<keyword>apache</keyword>
	<keyword>samba</keyword>
</keywordset>

</bookinfo>

<chapter id="using_ksystemlog">
	<title>Using &ksystemlog;</title>

	<sect1 id="introduction">
		<title>Introduction</title>

		<sect2>
			<title>What is &ksystemlog; ?</title>
			<para>&ksystemlog; is a system log viewer tool.</para>

			<para>&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.
			</para>

			<para>
			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.
			</para>

			<screenshot>
				<screeninfo>&ksystemlog; main screen</screeninfo>
				<mediaobject>
					<imageobject>
					<imagedata fileref="main-screen.png" format="PNG"/>
					</imageobject>
					<textobject>
					<phrase>&ksystemlog; main screen</phrase>
					</textobject>
				</mediaobject>
			</screenshot>

		</sect2>

		<sect2>
			<title>Features</title>

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

			<itemizedlist>
				<listitem><simpara>Support for many different log files type, with the support of Syslog server formating, Samba</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Tabbed view to display several logs at the same time</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Reading one log mode from multiple sources</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Auto-display of newly logged lines in bold</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Group by different criteria (log level, log file, process, hour, ...)</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Detailed information for each log lines</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Adding a log entry manually</simpara></listitem>
			</itemizedlist>

			<para>
				It supports the following log files from your system :
			</para>

			<itemizedlist>
				<listitem><simpara>Syslog logs (system messages)</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>X.org logs</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Kernel logs</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Authentication logs</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>ACPID logs</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Cups logs</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Postfix logs</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Apache logs</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Samba logs</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Daemons logs</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>Cron logs</simpara></listitem>
				<listitem><simpara>XSessions logs</simpara></listitem>

			</itemizedlist>

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

		</sect2>

	</sect1>


	<sect1 id="reading">
		<title>Reading logs with &ksystemlog;</title>

		<para>
		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.
		</para>

		<sect2 id="getting_started">
			<title>Getting started</title>

			<para>
			When you start &ksystemlog;, it tries to open the most useful log, the <guilabel>System Log</guilabel>.
			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.
			</para>

			<screenshot>
				<screeninfo>&ksystemlog; first launch</screeninfo>
				<mediaobject>
					<imageobject>
					<imagedata fileref="first-opening.png" format="PNG"/>
					</imageobject>
					<textobject>
					<phrase>&ksystemlog; first launch</phrase>
					</textobject>
				</mediaobject>
			</screenshot>
		</sect2>

		<sect2 id="easy_reading">
			<title>Reading log files easily</title>

			<sect3 id="sorting">
				<title>Sorting log lines</title>
				<para>
				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 <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu><guimenuitem>Refresh</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item, or simply
				click on the first column of the list, generally named <guilabel>Date</guilabel>, 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 <guilabel>X.org Log</guilabel>, the list will be correctly sorted,
				because &ksystemlog; keeps an internal order of the list.
				</para>
			</sect3>

			<sect3 id="filtering">
				<title>Filtering log lines</title>

				<screenshot>
					<screeninfo>Filtering on a specific process</screeninfo>
					<mediaobject>
						<imageobject>
						<imagedata fileref="filter-process.png" format="PNG"/>
						</imageobject>
						<textobject>
						<phrase>Filtering on a specific process</phrase>
						</textobject>
					</mediaobject>
				</screenshot>

				<para>
				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 <guilabel>All</guilabel>, which means that
				a line will be displayed only if one of its columns contains the filter string.
				</para>

				<para>
				You can select another field to filter only this column of the list. For example, in the <guilabel>System Log</guilabel>, by selecting
				the <guilabel>Process</guilabel> column, and writing its name in the filter bar, &ksystemlog; will display every log lines sent by this process.
				</para>
			</sect3>

		</sect2>

		<sect2 id="other_features">
			<title>Other features</title>

			<sect3 id="colorizing">
				<title>Colorizing log lines</title>

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

			</sect3>

			<sect3 id="hiding_pid">
				<title>Hiding the process identifier</title>

				<para>
				If you are only interested in a specific process (for example in the <guilabel>System Log</guilabel> or the <guilabel>Cron Log</guilabel>), you can hide its PID
				in the <guilabel>Process</guilabel> 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 <link linkend="filtering">Filter Bar</link>.
				</para>

			</sect3>
		</sect2>
	</sect1>

	<sect1 id="monitoring_management">
		<title>Monitoring Management</title>

		<para>
		&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 <guibutton>Stop</guibutton>
		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 <guibutton>Resume</guibutton>, which will display the log lines added since the last pause.
		</para>

		<para>
		Furthermore, to focus on the newly appeared log lines, you can toggle the <guimenuitem>Scroll to New Lines</guimenuitem> option.
		</para>
	</sect1>

	<sect1 id="multiple_logs">
		<title>Management of several opened tabs</title>

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

		</para>
	</sect1>

</chapter>

<chapter id="credits">

	<title>Credits and License</title>

	<para>&ksystemlog;</para>
	<para>
	&ksystemlog;, Copyright 2008 by Nicolas Ternisien
	</para>

	<para>Contributors:</para>
	<itemizedlist>
		<listitem><simpara>Patrick Dreker : Ideas, Code Improvements.</simpara></listitem>
		<listitem><simpara>Bojan : SSH Log mode, Printing.</simpara></listitem>
	</itemizedlist>

	<para>
		<emphasis>Special thanks to all translators of &ksystemlog;.</emphasis>
	</para>

	<!-- TRANS:CREDIT_FOR_TRANSLATORS -->

	&underFDL;           <!-- FDL: do not remove -->
	&underGPL;        	 <!-- GPL License -->

</chapter>

<appendix id="installation">
	<title>How to obtain and install &ksystemlog;</title>

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

	<para>
	&ksystemlog; can also be found in the following folder of the &kde; Subversion Repository :
	<ulink url="http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdeadmin/ksystemlog">&ksystemlog; in the &kde; repository</ulink>
	</para>

</appendix>

&documentation.index;
</book>

<!--
Local Variables:
mode: sgml
sgml-minimize-attributes:nil
sgml-general-insert-case:lower
sgml-indent-step:0
sgml-indent-data:nil
End:

// vim:ts=2:sw=2:tw=78:noet
-->