#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my %logs;

for ( 0 .. 2 ) {
    my $id = time();
    open( $logs{$id}{fh}, '>', \$logs{$id}{var} ) or die "open failed on # $_: $!\n";
    sleep int(rand(3)) + 1;  # (i.e. for a small but variable number of seconds)
}

printf "log-file ids are: %s\n\n", join( " ", sort keys %logs );

for ( 1 .. 12 ) {
    my $id = ( keys %logs )[ int(rand(3)) ];
    print "Sending entry # $_ to log $id\n";
    print {$logs{$id}{fh}} "this is log event # $_\n";
}

print "\n";

# How many entries per log?
for my $id ( sort keys %logs ) {
    my @entries = split( /\n/, $logs{$id}{var} );
    printf "log_id %s got %d entries\n", $id, scalar @entries;
}

print "\n";

# Which log got entry #4?
for my $id ( sort keys %logs ) {
    next unless ( $logs{$id}{var} =~ /4/ );
    print "Here is the log for $id, containing the fourth entry:\n$logs{$id}{var}\n";
}