I'm afraid the regexp that'd match the whole file would be too long and messy. And testing each line separately whether its something unexpected is not good enough, I need to test the lines in context.

But I like this config file with patterns and state changes idea. I think I'll use something like

(
    START => {
        '^FileCreate \d+\.\d+.\d+$' => 'START',
        '^---- Ticking: \d{4}/\d\d/\d\d \d\d:\d\d:\d\d - \d\d:\d\d:\d\
+d$' => 'START',
        '^Creating files for site ' => 'FILES'
    },
    FILES => {
        '^\tCreating file ' => 'FILE',
        '^File generation succeeded for site ' => 'START',
        '^File generation failed for site ' => '--ERROR--',
        '^Jobs for site \d+ with parameter type "\w+" are to be proces
+sed by HTTPPost or something.' => 'FILES',
        '^Site \d+ has posting parameters either only for single or fo
+r package jobs!!!' => 'FILES',
    },
    ...
)
[download]

or maybe

(
    START => [
        qr'^FileCreate \d+\.\d+.\d+$' => 'START',
        qr'^---- Ticking: \d{4}/\d\d/\d\d \d\d:\d\d:\d\d - \d\d:\d\d:\
+d\d$' => 'START',
        qr'^Creating files for site ' => 'FILES'
    ],
    FILES => [
        qr'^\tCreating file ' => 'FILE',
        qr'^File generation succeeded for site ' => 'START',
        qr'^File generation failed for site ' => '--ERROR--',
        qr'^Jobs for site \d+ with parameter type "\w+" are to be proc
+essed by HTTPPost or something.' => 'FILES',
        qr'^Site \d+ has posting parameters either only for single or 
+for package jobs!!!' => 'FILES',
    ],
    ...
)
[download]

and read it with do() or eval().

The second has two advantages. The regexps will be precompiled and they will be tested in a dependable order. But the code will look a little awkward.

Thanks for your ideas, Jenda