Provided by: lwatch_0.6.2-3_amd64 
NAME
lwatch.conf — configuration file for lwatch(1), syntax highlighting for syslog/syslog-ng
file
DESCRIPTION
Default configuration file for lwatch is /etc/lwatch.conf (built-in value), but you can
specify another file with -C command line option. Read lwatch(1) for details.
Comments
Everything from # (hash) to end of line is a comment.
General options
cfg_ver - this is obligatory variable and it must be placed as the first option in config
file. This variable contains version of configuration file syntax. Current manual
describes version 1.
rule_action - after successful matching rule lwatch tries to match next one. You can
choose to exit after executing matching rule changing this parameter from continue (that's
the default) to exit. You can override this global parameter for each rule. See section
Actions and modificators.
use_syslog - if set to yes some messages will be logged through syslog, default is yes
log_level - how verbose log messages should produce lwatch
date_color - default color of date part
host_color - default color of hostname part
serv_color - default color of service part
mesg_color - default color of message part
input_file - where lwatch is reading data from, built-in default is /var/lib/syslog.fifo,
could be overwritten with command line option -i
output_file - where lwatch output colored data; built-in default is stdout (-), could be
overwritten with command line option -o
show_unparsed - by default lwatch ignores lines which cannot be split into date, host,
service and message, set this variable to yes if you would like to see those lines; it is
the same as command line option -s
Available colors
To specify color you can use following strings: black, red, green, brown, blue, magenta,
cyan, lightgray, darkgray, brightred, brightgreen, yellow, brightblue, purple, brightcyan,
white.
Available log levels
To specify the lower visible log level you can use following strings: LOG_EMERG,
LOG_ALERT, LOG_CRIT, LOG_ERR, LOG_WARNING, LOG_NOTICE, LOG_INFO, LOG_DEBUG. However,
lwatch logs some debug data at LOG_DEBUG, some maybe useful messages at LOG_NOTICE and
errors at LOG_ERROR. So, technically, meaningful values are:
• LOG_DEBUG - log everything
• LOG_NOTICE - log maybe useful messages and errors (this is the default)
• LOG_ERROR - log only errors (if LOG_NOTICE is too verbose for you this is the next
recommended setting)
• LOG_CRIT - be quiet
Please keep in mind that meaningful values may be a subject of change in future releases.
Matching patterns
There The True Power of Lwatch is hidden. You can match input lines against PCRE (Perl
Compatible Regular Expression) and change output depends on matching. You can read more
about PCRE in pcrepattern(3) (from libpcre) or in perlre(1) (from perl).
There are two ways to define matching pattern/action. First one is the simple one. Just
pattern and one action:
/regexp/ action
The second one is more complex, but it allows to specify more than one action or
modificator with one pattern:
/regexp/ {
action1
action2
...
actionN
}
There is one important thing you should remember. There is no need to quote / (slash) if
you use it inside regexp pattern. For example:
//USR/SBIN/CRON/ { # cron's messages are not important
color=blue # display it in blue
match_service
}
Actions and modificators
date_color - set date color
mesg_color, color - set message color
serv_color - set service name color
host_color - set hostname color
ignore - ignore this pattern, do not match next patterns
exit - do not match next patterns when rule_action is set to continue, in other case it is
superfluous
continue - continue with next pattern when rule_action is set to exit, in other case it is
superfluous; please note, that if ignore> is used in the same action it takes a priority -
it makes no sense to match other rules for string that has been ignored
highlight - highlight matched string with given color (see NOTES)
match_host - match hostname insted message
match_service - match service name instead message
NOTES
highlight action changes the matched text. That's why the following part of configuration
wont work:
/root/ highlight=brown
/session closed for user root/ ignore
when
(pam_unix) session closed for user root
would appear as an input line.
First rule changes the text to:
(pam_unix) session closed for user [BROWN]root[NORMAL]
where [BROWN] and [NORMAL] are control sequences to change color to brown, then change it
back to default color of this part. Of course this line does not match the second rule and
you can see it on the output.
There are two possible workarounds:
• put the ignore pattern before the highlight one
• enhance your second rules like:
/session closed for user .*root.*/ ignore
EXAMPLES
Just look into provided lwatch.conf.
COPYRIGHT
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
Regular expression support is provided by the PCRE library package, which is open source
software, written by Philip Hazel, and copyright by the University of Cambridge, England.
This library is available at: ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/
SEE ALSO
lwatch(1), pcrepattern(3), perlre(1)
lwatch.conf(5)