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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 09/30/16 07:00, Damian wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:mailman.3.1475236802.9536.mythtv-users@mythtv.org"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">And if I need to go to the logs, how the hell do you guys get useful
information out of them? I may as well be looking at the code from the
Matrix for all of the sense they make to me!
</pre>
</blockquote>
I'll grant that reading some of the log files can be challenging.
Even if you're not too familiar with them, a pattern recognition
approach can be useful.<br>
<br>
<ol>
<li>Look at a section of the logs covering a few hours when the
system is behaving normally. This will give you an idea of
messages that your system routinely logs and that (probably)
don't relate to the problem.</li>
<li>Look at the log messages made at the time of the problem and
for a few minutes previously. Disregard messages that you saw
frequently in step 1. The remainder *may* be interesting and
related to the problem.</li>
<li>If you have multiple failures logged, see if the same messages
appear at the time of each failure.<br>
</li>
<li>Pay particular attention if you see messages at any time that
use "fail", "not responding", "error", "fault", "out of memory",
"oops", "panic", or similar worrisome phrases.</li>
</ol>
<p>Once you have some suspect messages, Google for hints on their
meaning and/or ask.<br>
</p>
<p>Keith<br>
</p>
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