grokevt-parselog(1) grokevt-parselog(1)
NAME
grokevt-parselog - Parse a windows event log and generate human-readable output based on message resources stored in a database.
SYNOPSIS
grokevt-parselog -?|--help .PP grokevt-parselog -l database-dir .PP grokevt-parselog -m database-dir log-type .PP grokevt-parselog [-v]
[-H] [-h] [-U] [-u] database-dir log-type .SH DESCRIPTION grokevt-parselog reads a windows event log (.evt file) and combines that informa-
tion with messages templates and other resources stored in a pre-generated database. This is then printed to stdout in a comma-separated
values (CSV) format. The database must be created by grokevt-builddb(1).
ARGUMENTS
database-dir
This is the directory where the database is stored. Currently, the actual log files from the original system are also stored in this
directory tree.
log-type
This is the windows name for the log. By default windows has the following logs:
Application
Security
System
But others may have been created by third party software. Use the -l option to print a list of all available log types. (The log
names are case-sensitive.)
OPTIONS
-? Prints a basic usage statement.
--help Same as -?.
-l Log list mode. Lists the logs available in the specified database.
-m Meta information mode. Lists meta information stored in the header of the specified log file. Does not print any actual log records.
(Format of output in this mode is still subject to change.)
-v Verbose mode. Prints status messages to stderr, which can be helpful for debugging.
-h Prints a header row at the top of the CSV output containing labels for each column. (This is the default behavior.)
-H Disables the printing of a header row. This is useful when grokevt-parselog is used in a script.
-u Enables the UTF-8 output of some strings. This can be dangerous on terminals that are not configured to support UTF-8.
-U Disables the use of UTF-8 for output. Unicode strings are instead converted to UTF-8 first, and then any remaining non-ASCII char-
acters are quoted. (This is the default behavior.)
EXAMPLES
To list all available logs types stored in '~/example.grokevt':
grokevt-parselog -l ~/example.grokevt
To read the 'Application' log from the database stored in '~/example.grokevt' and print it to stdout:
grokevt-parselog ~/example.grokevt Application
To read the 'System' log from the database stored in '~/example.grokevt' and print it to stdout without a header, and with verbosity turned
on:
grokevt-parselog -v -H ~/example.grokevt System
BUGS
Probably a few. This script has not been extensively tested with some guest platforms.
The file event log file format is pretty well understood and implemented, but some diabolical wrapped, dirty, or fragmentary logs may not
be correctly parsed.
Unicode support is currently limited. Any suggestions on how to better handle unicode output would be appreciated.
CREDITS
Originally written by Jamie French. Converted to Python and extended by Timothy D. Morgan. Andreas Schuster has contributed greatly to
the understanding of the event log format.
Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Timothy D. Morgan
Copyright (C) 2004 Jamie French
LICENSE
Please see the file "LICENSE" included with this software distribution.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER-
CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License version 2 for more details.
SEE ALSO
grokevt(7) grokevt-addlog(1) grokevt-builddb(1) grokevt-dumpmsgs(1) grokevt-findlogs(1) grokevt-ripdll(1)
File Conversion Utilities 20 March 2008 grokevt-parselog(1)