Help with regex

[sk1ds]

Hi all,

sorry not a Perl user, but I have to enter a "perl pattern matching" expression into
a monitoring tool i'm using to parse log files for certain messages.

The perl expression I have at the moment is

(.*directory does not exist.*)|(ftp.lock file exists.*running.*)|(The FTP program.*is not recognised.*)

Which I want to match the following messages in a log file

ftp.lock file exists may already be running
The local directory dirname does not exist
The transferred directory dirname does not exist
The followup directory dirname does not exist
Specified directory does not exist or cannot be accessed

Am I on the right lines ?

Can I separate each pattern with brackets like I have ?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

[KevinADC]

without knowing anything else, I'd say you are on the right track. Have you tried your regexp with your monitoring tool?

[sk1ds]

without knowing anything else, I'd say you are on the right track. Have you tried your regexp with your monitoring tool?

Thanks Kevin

yeah, tried it with the tool (this is Oracle Grid Control BTW) but it wont seem
to work unless it is a simple, single expression like (Error-)

Form my information, what is the difference, in Perl terms, between

(Err1|Err2) and (Err1)|(Err2)

Thanks

[KevinADC]

This should help you:

$_ = 'Err2';

if (/(Err1|Err2)/) {
    print "First regexp: $1\n";
}
if (/(Err1)|(Err2)/) {
    print "Second regexp: $2\n";
}

The difference is that the first one captures the match in $1 only, the second one will capture the match in $1 if it matches "Err1" or $2 if it matches "Err2".

[sk1ds]

This should help you:

$_ = 'Err2';

if (/(Err1|Err2)/) {
    print "First regexp: $1\n";
}
if (/(Err1)|(Err2)/) {
    print "Second regexp: $2\n";
}

The difference is that the first one captures the match in $1 only, the second one will capture the match in $1 if it matches "Err1" or $2 if it matches "Err2".

Thanks for that Kevin - much appreciated