LogSurfer

Logsurfer is a program for monitoring system logs in real-time, and reporting on the occurrence of events. It is similar to the well-known swatch program on which it is based, but offers a number of advanced features which swatch does not support.

Logsurfer is capable of grouping related log entries together - for instance, when a system boots it usually creates a high number of log messages. In this case, logsurfer can be setup to group boot-time messages together and forward them in a single Email message to the system administrator under the subject line "Host xxx has just booted". Swatch just couldn't do this properly.

Logsurfer is written in C - this makes it extremely efficient, an important factor when sites generate a high amount of log traffic. I have used logsurfer at a site where a logging server was recording more than 500,000 events per day - and Logsurfer had no trouble keeping up with this load. Swatch, on the other hand, is based on perl and runs into trouble even when dealing with a much smaller rate of log traffic.