Parsing a log file

[Andreas Kostyrka]

Am Samstag, den 13.08.2005, 14:01 -0700 schrieb CG:

Well, you have described your problem nicely. One thing that's missing
is how to deal with incorrect input. (For example missing connect or
disconnect messages).

Furthermore, you can now:
a) try to find somebody who writes it for you. How you motivate that
person is another question.
b) try to hack some solution yourself. Start with doing the python
tutorial?

Andreas

> I am looking for a way to parse a simple log file to get the
> information in a format that I can use.  I would like to use python,
> but I am just beginning to learn how to use it.  I am not a programmer,
> but have done some simple modifications and revisions of scripts.  I am
> willing to attempt this on my own, if someone can point me in the right
> direction (any example scripts that do similar things would be
> helpful).  This doesn't have to be Python, but I need a cross-platform
> solution (i.e. Perl or some other kind of script).  I just wanted to
> try Python because I like the concept of it.
> 
> Here is my scenario:
> I have a program that connects and disconnects to a server.  It writes
> a simple log file like this:
> 
> 08-13-2005  13:19:37:564 Program: CONNECTED to 'Server'
> 08-13-2005  15:40:08:313 Program: DISCONNECTED from 'Server'
> 08-13-2005  15:45:39:234 Program: CONNECTED to 'Server'
> 08-13-2005  15:55:18:113 Program: DISCONNECTED from 'Server'
> 08-13-2005  16:30:57:264 Program: CONNECTED to 'Server'
> 08-13-2005  16:59:46:417 Program: DISCONNECTED from 'Server'
> 08-13-2005  17:10:33:264 Program: CONNECTED to 'Server'
> 08-13-2005  18:25:26:316 Program: DISCONNECTED from 'Server'
> 08-13-2005  18:58:13:564 Program: CONNECTED to 'Server'
> 08-13-2005  19:29:10:715 Program: DISCONNECTED from 'Server'
> 
> What I basically want to do is end up with a text file that can be
> easily imported into a database with a format like this (or I guess it
> could be written in a SQL script form that could write directly to a
> database like Mysql):
> 
> Connect_Date Connect_Time Disconnect_date Disconnect_time User
> ------------ ------------ --------------- --------------- -------
> 08-13-2005   13:19:37     08-13-2005      15:40:08        John
> 08-13-2005   15:45:39     08-13-2005      15:55:18        John
> 08-13-2005   16:30:57     08-13-2005      16:59:46        John
> 08-13-2005   17:10:33     08-13-2005      18:25:26        John
> 08-13-2005   18:58:13     08-13-2005      19:29:10        John
> 
> Here are some notes about this:
> * the username would come from the log file name (i.e.
> John_Connect.log)
> * I don't need the fractions of seconds in the timestamps
> * I only need date, time, and connect or disconnect, the other info is
> not important
> * If it is possible to calculate the elapsed time between Connect and
> Disconnect and create a new field with that data, that would help (but
> I can easily do that with SQL queries)
> * This log file layout seems to be consistent
> * There may not be a "disconnect" statement if the log file is read
> while connected, so the next time it would have to insert the
> disconnect information.  The file will be read quite regularly, so this
> is very likely.
> * This would eventually need to be done without intervention (maybe
> every 5 minutes).
> 
> I am open to other ideas or existing programs and am flexible about the
> final solution.
> 
> Thanks,
> Clint
> 
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