On Sat, 27 Nov 2010 09:31:49 -0600, Joel C. Ewing <[email protected]> wrote:
>Having the message ID on each line would seem to me a lot of unnecessary >visual clutter and non-informational bytes to record. Are there any >cases where the mechanisms for recording syslog data don't result in all >lines from a MLWTO being continguous? > Prior to the z/OS Console Restructure, it was not uncommon for the lines of a multi-line message to be interspersed with other single line or multi-line message lines if the message was a connecting multi-line message (the lines of the multi-line are created one at a time and connected together dynamically). With the Console Restructure, connecting multi-line messages are buffered in a data space until either the "end" line is received or a time- out occurs in which case an end line is generated. The now complete multi- line is then processed for SYSLOG/OPERLOG and queuing to consoles, which should all see the multi-line message as a contiguous whole. Note that programs that observe messages on the subsystem interface (SSI) will see the lines of the message as they are created, and may see lines of other messages interspersed. That behavior was not altered by the Console Restructure. >But,... >having had to deal with some automation tools that make it awkward to >identify all lines of a multi-line message as a unit, what would be >extremely useful would be a guarantee that at a minimum the last line of >a MLWTO with variable number of lines would always be unique in some way >that makes it unambiguous that the last line is indeed the last line. > A properly constructed multi-line message produces flags in the WQE and MDB control blocks that allow automation to identify the parts of the multi-line message. Likewise, when the message is formatted for the SYSLOG, the two character record type at the beginning of each SYSLOG line can be used in conjunction with the 3-digit message number to identify the parts of the multi- line message. The gotcha in all of this is "properly constructed" -- if the creator of the message doesn't create a true multi-line WTO or adhere to the protocol for identifying the parts of the message, then the automation or programs reading the SYSLOG, can have a hard time processing the message. Most major automation is reasonably competent at handling multi-line messages that are properly constructed. Unfortunately, there are few ways of enforcing the proper construction of a multi-line message (or a single-line message, for that matter). W. Kevin Kelley -- IBM POK Lab -- z/OS Core Technical Development ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
