# &app; Manual V&manrevision;

## Introduction

The &app; application enables you to monitor and view system log files. To view system log files, you may need to log in as root.

## Getting Started

You can start &app; in the following ways:

Applications menu

- Choose System Tools System Log.

Command line

- Type `gnome-system-log`, then press Return.

When you start &app;, the following window is displayed.

### &app; Window

Shows &app; main window. Contains menubar, display area, scrollbars, and statusbar.

When you start &app;, the application displays the `/var/log/messages` log file by default.

## Usage

### To View a Log File

To view a log file, choose File Open. In the Open new logfile dialog, enter the name of the log file that you want to open, then click OK. Use the scrollbars to scroll through the log file.

You can open as many log files as you want. &app; displays one log file at a time in the System Log Viewer window. To display another log file that is already open in &app;, choose File Switch Log. To continue to move through the open log files, choose File Switch Log .

### To View More Information About a Log File Entry

To view more detailed information about a log file entry, select the entry in the display area, then choose View Entry Detail. &app; displays a Zoom view window that contains the following information:

- The date of the log entry.

- The name of the process that caused the log entry.

- The log message.

- A description of the log message if available.

### To Monitor Log Files

You can use &app; to monitor selected log files. When you select a log file to monitor, &app; displays the most recent entries from the log file in a separate window. &app; updates the Monitoring logs window to display new entries as they are added.

To monitor a log file, perform the following steps:

1. Choose File Monitor.

2. Select the log file that you want to monitor in the left pane of the Monitor options dialog.

3. Click Add.

4. To hide the main &app; window while you are monitoring log files, select the Hide Application checkbox.

&app; displays the log file in a Monitoring logs window. &app; can monitor several log files simultaneously but the application only displays one file at a time in the Monitoring logs window. &app; adds a tab for each log file that the application is monitoring.

### To View a Calendar

To view a calendar, choose View Calendar. The dates for which log files exist are displayed in bold. To view the log files for a particular date, select the date in the calendar.

### To View Log File Properties

To view the properties of the log file, choose File Properties. The Log stats dialog displays the following information about the file:

- Size of the file in bytes.

- Date the file was last modified.

- Date the file was created.

- Date of the most recent log entry.

- Number of lines in the file.

### To Close a Log File

To close a log file, choose File Close.

### To Exit &app;

To exit &app;, choose File Quit.