Everything from # (hash) to end of line is a comment.

cfg_ver - this is obligatory variable and it must be placed as the first option in config file (note: although it is not enforced now, it shall be in next release of lwatch). This variable contains version of configuration file syntax. Current manual describes version 1.

date_color - default color of date part

host_color - default color of hostname part

serv_color - default color of service part

mesg_color - default color of message part

input_file - where lwatch is reading data from, built-in default is /var/lib/lwatch/syslog.fifo, could be overwritten with command line option -i

output_file - where lwatch output colored data; built-in default is stdout (-), could be overwritten with command line option -o

show_unparsed - by default lwatch ignores lines which cannot be splitted into date, host, service and message, set this variable to yes if you would like to see those lines; it is the same as command line option -s

To specify color you can use following strings: black red green brown blue magenta cyan lightgray darkgray brightred brightgreen yellow brightblue purple brightcyan white.

There The True Power of Lwatch is hidden. You can match input lines against PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) and change output depends on matching. You can read more about PCRE in pcrepattern(3) (from libpcre) or in perlre(1) (from perl).

There are two ways to define matching pattern/action. First one is the simple one. Just pattern and one action:

/regexp/      action 
 

/regexp/      { 
        action1 
        action2 
        ... 
        actionN 
} 
 

There is one important thing you should remember. There is no need to quote / (slash) if you use it inside regexp pattern. For example:

//USR/SBIN/CRON/        {       # cron's messages are not important 
        color=blue              # display it in blue 
        match_service 
} 
 

For every input line message part is matched against all defined patterns, from top to bottom. For every matched pattern attached actions are run until exit is specified (see below).

date_color - set date color

mesg_color, color - set message color

serv_color - set service name color

host_color - set hostname color

exit - do not match next patterns

highlight - highlight matched string with given color

ignore - ignore this pattern, do not match next patterns

match_host - match hostname insted message

match_service - match service name instead message