Logs Filter

Description
Gamall has way too much free time. You know, Gamall, Relic Entertainment currently have quite a few vacancies for programmers, if you're interested in a coding career.

Oh, sorry, the file. Yeah. I'll get right on that.

It's hard to give a substantial review to what amounts to a search tool for server logs, because it's a straight forward file, designed to be used intuitively by the masses (presumably). However, searching through server logs can be a tedious task, which is why you need something to filter them, straightforward or not. And that's what you have here. The ability to filter through logs and only retain relevant information based on strings entered. I'm not sure how much more I can really say without going into techno-babble, and I very nearly got fired the last time I did that. Check the included docu.txt file for further details.

Just two slight niggles, really. First, it's command-line based, and not all of the server admins for JA - in fact, I'd be willing to bet hardly any of them - have experience with UNIX-based operating systems and CLIs. Hey, welcome to the age of graphical user interfaces, where people consider such things obsolete despite the fact command line tools are extremely valuable for a lot of things. :(

Second niggle, is the documentation. It assumes former knowledge, and in this case, for a tool useful to the masses at large, I'd have expected the app to be better documented for those not in-the-know. After all, no one will ever know if no one ever teaches.

Source code is included under the GNU General Public License, as always, but unless you're a programmer it won't help much. Nice to know the option is there, though.

Other than that, though, another good utility that's practical and useful for server admins. Emphasis on server, though, because this does require you to be running a dedicated server process with SSH access to the system, so "glorified LAN games" (home-hosted servers) are left in the dark, as they are for just about anything else server-based short of JA+; there's a reason many recommend against those, after all. But, that's enough soapboxing.

Another good service rendered to the server managers of the world, from Gamall's rather over-worked brain. I'd bet hosting companies themselves would find good uses for this, too.

~Kouen