salog - System administration log editor

The system administrator log (salog) is a wrapper for vim and emacs that allows system administrators and operators to quickly and easily record and view administrative activities on a computer system.

With salog, system administration log files are stored in a customizable directory. Log files are based on the hostname and month (e.g., salog_$HOSTNAME_$YEAR_$MONTH.txt), so that all of the files may stored on a centralized file system or consolidated in a centralized location and used to generate a daily digest. Log files are locked using a simple lock file scheme to prevent accidental simultaneous updates by multiple administrators.

By default, logfiles are stored on each system in /var/log/salog.

Usage

Invocation

salog [options]
vilog [options]
emacslog [options]

-e  Edit the current month's log file
-f  Force editing the current log file, overriding lock

Examples

• To add an entry to the system administration log:

    $ salog -e          # Uses $VISUAL if set to vim or emacs
    $ vilog -e          # Always uses vim (if present)
    $ emacslog -e       # Always uses emacs (if present)
  

• To view the current month's system administration log, simply run salog, vilog, or emacslog with no options.

Installation

• The salog script may be installed in any directory accessible via the system's configured path. Use symlinks to enable vilog or emacslog:

    $ ln -s salog vilog
    $ ln -s salog emacslog
  

• The centralized user directory should be created with group permissions that allow all members of the system administration team to create and edit files. For example:

    $ sudo mkdir /var/log/salog
    $ sudo chown root:admin /var/log/salog
    $ sudo chmod g+ws /var/log/salog
  

History

salog is based on a legacy script called vilog that doesn't seem to exist on the Internet anymore. This rewrite as salog has a simpler command-line interface and also supports emacs. The editor of choice is selected via the command-line invocation (e.g, vilog or emacslog), or, when invoked using salog, by the $VISUAL environment variable.

See Also

Other tools under development include:

• sadiff - concatenate multiple log files and generate diff for e-mail digest