How to colorize tailf output.

How to colorize tailf output.

Purpose

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The article shows how to add colors to your tail -f output, making the output more readable.

Resolution

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The following command add colors to three logging key words: calendar, mailop, misc.

tailf /opt/zimbra/log/mailbox.log | awk '/calendar/ {print "\033[33m" $0 "\033[39m"} /mailop/ {print "\033[1;34m" $0 "\033[39m"} /misc/ {print "\033[1;35m" $0 "\033[39m"}'

The colors you can choose from are:

Black 0;30	Dark Gray 1;30
Blue 0;34	Light Blue 1;34
Green 0;32	Light Green 1;32
Cyan 0;36	Light Cyan 1;36
Red 0;31	Light Red 1;31
Purple 0;35	Light Purple 1;35
Brown 0;33	Yellow 1;33
Light Gray 0;37	White 1;37

The logging key words can be the following:

• account - Account operations
• acl - ACL operations
• activity - Document operations
• autoprov - Auto provision operations
• backup - Backup and restore
• cache - In-memory cache operations
• calendar - Calendar operations
• datasource - Data Source operations
• dav - DAV operations
• dbconn - Database connection tracing
• doc - Docs operations
• ews - EWS operations
• extensions - Server extension loading
• filter - Mail filtering
• gal - GAL operations
• im - Instant messaging operations
• imap - IMAP server
• imap-client - IMAP client
• index - Indexing operations
• io - Filesystem operations
• ldap - LDAP operations
• lmtp - LMTP server (incoming mail)
• mailbox - General mailbox operations
• mailop - Changes to mailbox state
• milter - MILTER protocol operations
• misc - Miscellaneous
• nginxlookup - Nginx lookup operations
• pop - POP server
• pop-client - POP client
• purge - Mailbox purge operations
• redolog - Redo log operations
• search - Search operations
• security - Security events
• session - User session tracking
• smtp - SMTP client (outgoing mail)
• soap - SOAP protocol
• sqltrace - SQL tracing
• store - Mail store disk operations
• sync - Sync client operations
• system - Startup/shutdown and other system messages
• zimlet - Zimlet operations

Additional Information

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You can also combine tail -f with grep as follows:

tail -f /opt/zimbra/log/mailbox.log | grep <key_word>

And also add colors to grep, as you edit .bashrc and add:

export GREP_OPTIONS="--color=always"
export GREP_COLORS="ms=01;33:mc=01;31:sl=:cx=:fn=1:35:ln=32:bn=32:se=36"

The colors to choose from are the same as listed above.