Re: proposals for log file format changes

Kevin 'Kev' Hughes (kevinh@eit.COM)
Tue, 8 Feb 1994 09:11:27 --100


> Roy said:
>
> Rob said:
>
> > Here's my proposal for a new logfile format:
> >
> > host rfc931 authuser [DD/Mon/YYYY:hh:mm:ss] ``request'' ddd bbbb
>
> > The only remaining thing I haven't changed is to make the timezone GMT.
> > Comments?
>
> I prefer local time, myself, as its extremely rare that someone would
> need to compare stats across time zones and what I usually look for in
> my stats is what local time is best for system changes.
> To put it another way, if it's GMT then every analyzer will either have
> to stick with GMT format (not user-friendly) or convert each log entry's
> timestamp to localtime (a non-portable bit of code).

Good point - it's rather problematic to make portable code that
does that. As for me, I'll leave it up to the user to determine the
GMT time difference, should they wish to report times in GMT. For
backwards compatibility, the user also has to specify whether the
log times are in GMT or local time now.
So now the format would be

host rfc931 authuser [DD/Mon/YYYY:hh:mm:ss TTT] ``request'' ddd bbbb

...where TTT is the local timezone?

-- Kevin