Using grc (Generic Colouriser) for RSyslog

RSyslog output with grc
RSyslog output with grc

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 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 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