On Thu, 23 Aug 2001, Mike Meredith wrote:
> I don't think it would be impossible to generate some stats --- just
> update some counters when the log entry is generated. Updating a single
> counter file from multiple processes would be tricky, but not
> impossible.
That introduces interlocking between the multiple processes. A
bottleneck. It would impact on performance.
> It isn't really necessary as the stats can be pulled from the mail
> logs, but processing a 500,000 line log file can be a bit on the
> painful side.
Better to write yourself (or the world!) a long-running process that
tails the log and maintains the stats. It would only have to read the
whole log file at start-up. (Even then, if it had remembered where it
had got to, it could start at the end and do backwards skips.)
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
