Exporting and parsing log file.

[Dolf]

Is there a way to export the log file? If so, does anyone know of a good way to parse it? It would be nice to have an organized way to look at the data from the log file.

 

Thanks!

 

--Dolf

[CallMeDave]

There was a program for Classic Mac OS a number of years ago that would parse the Operations Log and the Report, but that's likely long gone (it wasn't very good). But it would be trivial for a smart scripter to create a way to parse the log text using existing technologies.

 

The icons that Retrospect displays in the log are represented by simple text strings in the underlying ACSII;

$[xyz].

 

Most of the text in the brackets is simple [31], [32], etc, while a few places is a bit more cryptic

[*!s312,,14,+3]

 

Unless your file naming scheme includes these strings, and those files were likely to show up in the log, a find/replace for the observable set of codes would allow formatting of the text however you want.

[Dolf]

Is there a way to at least export the log to a txt file? I don't even know how to get it outside of Retrospect (without doing a copy/paste). Is there a clean way to export?

 

--Dolf

[waltr]

hi dolf,

 

 

 

i don't think there is a way to export the log from within Retrospect. you could always use a cron job to make a copy of the report wherever you'd like it. the operations log is just unicode text, as dave points out above.

[Dolf]

Okay. I figured something out here that no one mentioned, and I had never seen before. There is a file in Library > Preferences > Retrospect called "Operations Log". This file contains all that text.

 

So, if someone comes looking for this again, the easiest answer is:

 

There is no export, but the program keeps it's own copy of the log in Library > Preferences > Retrospect. This file can be opened in a text editor app.

 

Thanks guys. I'll let you know if we have more trouble from here.

 

--Dolf

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

---

I figured something out here that no one mentioned, and I had never seen before.

 

---

 

Oh, sorry. Seemed so obvious I didn't think to point it out... <grin>

 

As for the location, the correct unix way to note the exact file is:

 

"/Library/Preferences/Retrospect/Operations Log"

 

The quotes are there to handle the space in the file name; without the quotes the exact file is:

 

/Library/Preferences/Retrospect/Operations\ Log