hemanthc has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am trying to extract parts of a text log file. The format is kind of fixed, I can always write code to retrieve the important parts, but I am trying to look for a generic way - or a framework that already does this.

I am looking for something simple and lightweight.

In case the requirement is not clear, the log file has a format like:

my_header (.*)
...
time: (.*)
...
[error: (.*)]
...
status: (.*)
...
end_signature

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Basically, this contains some lines that may be matched (those enclosed in []s) and some lines that must be matched (those not). Also, it would be interesting if there is a way to specify that the some line need not be at any given location.

If anyone has any pointers on how I can achieve this, I would really appreciate it.

Thanking you in advance,
Hemanth

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Log File Extracter
by jdporter (Paladin) on Jul 24, 2007 at 20:05 UTC

    Is there any reason the following wouldn't work? 

    my( $header, $time, $error, $status );
while (<>)
{
    /my_header (.*)/ and $header = $1;
    /time: (.*)/     and $time   = $1;
    /error: (.*)/    and $error  = $1;
    /status: (.*)/   and $status = $1;
}

$header && $time && $status or
    die "Error: missing one or more of header, time, status\n";

    [download]

    This is completely flexible with regard to line order, and doesn't even check for the presence of the footer line.

    PS - btw - Please don't repost, unless instructed to do so. Posts can be moved. TIA.

    A word spoken in Mind will reach its own level, in the objective world, by its own weight
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[d/l]
Re: Log File Extracter
by hemanthc (Initiate) on Jul 24, 2007 at 13:12 UTC
    ok - I saw the part about "wrong section" a little too late. Will post to "Seekers of Perl Wisdom"
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