Using grc (Generic Colouriser) for RSyslog

Colorized output for RSyslog files

I started updating my Centralised RSyslog server on Raspberry Pi the other day, and one of the things I’ve been meaning to research was syntax highlighting for RSyslog logs. After a brief search online, I found grc: a great tool for seeing output of many common Unix commands and log files in a completely new, colorful and useful way.

Install grc in Raspbian (Debian/Ubuntu)

I did this in Raspbian OS:

$ sudo apt-get install grc

It brought quote a few dependencies with it, but installed fairly quickly.

grc for looking at RSyslog output

Simply run grc and tail the messages file or RSyslog file. It will look like this:

RSyslog output with grc colouriser

Looking and process listing with ps and grc

Many common commands are used, but I’ll show just the ps command highlighting for now:

ps output with colorized syntax

That’s it for today. I think this is a must-have command line tool – am really impressed!

See Also