Extract last lines of a logfile by time

Question

tail -n 100 myfile.log

gives my the last 100 lines of myfile.log.

Is there an existing tool that expects the first "column" of each line in a file as a timestamp and can give me the n last hours/days/...?

We can assume the lines in the file have ascending timestamps.

e.g.

tailtm -h 10 myfile.log

The tool should accept most common timestamp-formats of Linux logfiles.

stdout of systemd services is redirected to journald. If it's your case you can just use journalctl -u abc.service --since=XXX — mrc02_kr, Nov 12 '19 at 21:11
This is a nice way! But can I use it to find PAM-entries too? — chris01, Nov 12 '19 at 21:25

chris01 · Accepted Answer · 2019-11-13 07:37:15Z

1

As mentioned in the comments it is working with journalctl.

EDIT

journalctl -u sshd.service --since "2019-11-01 12:00:00"

I generate the sinde-timestamp for each call so I can have the timerange back as I need.

Thanks to mrc02_kr!

answered Nov 12 '19 at 21:48

chris01

3995 silver badges17 bronze badges

Please edit this so it looks like an answer to the question. It’s OK to repeat information provided by somebody else if you give credit to the original author. – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica' Nov 13 '19 at 2:51

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1