Timestamp dmesg entries

loadedmind · 10-29-2009, 10:12 AM

Hi all. Is it possible to timestamp system events shown by dmesg as they occur? For example, I'm using VMware ESX/vCenter and have a RedHat 5.3 VM. I edit the CD-ROM settings for the VM and connect an ISO located on a datastore. I'd like to see if/when the CD-ROM was connected or any other event, for that matter, as they occur, real-time.

Thanks ahead of time,
Loadedmind

bhaslinux · 10-29-2009, 12:32 PM

yes!
but you have to re-compile the kernel and enable
CONFIG_PRINTK_TIME=y

loadedmind · 10-29-2009, 02:50 PM

Ugghhh, ok. Thanks for the info. Was hoping for a something a bit less intrusive, but thank you nonetheless.

Loadedmind

Mattw4 · 06-26-2012, 04:02 PM

old thread, I know, but this deserves a good answer.

On a Fedora/CentOS/RHEL system, one way to do what you're asking is to use the tail command on /var/log/messages that holds kernel prints and time:
tail -f /var/log/messages

The -f flag will keep it alive and display new messages as they hit the kernel.
You'd obviously have to watch a terminal or something, but you could also filter the output through grep to only show what you wanted.

Cheers!