Colorize log files on CentOS and Ubuntu using ccze tool

ccze is a wonderful tool that brings real joy to the arduous task of reading or searching thru log files. It uses a modular approach to support custom colour formatting for popular applications such as Apache, Postfix, Exim, etc.

ccze on Centos / Fedora Linux

First enable Epel repository and run following command:

# yum install ccze -y

ccze on Debian / Ubuntu Linux

On Debian/Ubuntu, you can use apt-get to install:

# apt-get install ccze -y

How to use ccze tool

ccze colourises logs that are sent to standard out, for example, we can use tailf to follow a log file and then prettify the output by piping to ccze, examples:

# tail /var/log/syslog | ccze -A

Export log files to html file using ccze tool

#cat /var/log/syslog | ccze -h > ~/Desktop/syslog.html

Example:

This tool comes with plenty of options. You can customize it more in these file

#/etc/cczerc, $HOME/.cczerc

To see list of plugins available just d

#ccze -l

Example output:

# ccze -l
Available plugins:
 
Name      | Type    | Description
------------------------------------------------------------
apm       | Partial | Coloriser for APM sub-logs.
distcc    | Full    | Coloriser for distcc(1) logs.
dpkg      | Full    | Coloriser for dpkg logs.
exim      | Full    | Coloriser for exim logs.
fetchmail | Partial | Coloriser for fetchmail(1) sub-logs.
ftpstats  | Full    | Coloriser for ftpstats (pure-ftpd) logs.
httpd     | Full    | Coloriser for generic HTTPD access and error logs.
icecast   | Full    | Coloriser for Icecast(8) logs.
oops      | Full    | Coloriser for oops proxy logs.
php       | Full    | Coloriser for PHP logs.
postfix   | Partial | Coloriser for postfix(1) sub-logs.
procmail  | Full    | Coloriser for procmail(1) logs.
proftpd   | Full    | Coloriser for proftpd access and auth logs.
squid     | Full    | Coloriser for squid access, store and cache logs.
sulog     | Full    | Coloriser for su(1) logs.
super     | Full    | Coloriser for super(1) logs.
syslog    | Full    | Generic syslog(8) log coloriser.
ulogd     | Partial | Coloriser for ulogd sub-logs.
vsftpd    | Full    | Coloriser for vsftpd(8) logs.
xferlog   | Full    | Generic xferlog coloriser.