System Log Parsing: A Survey
Tianzhu Zhang, Han Qiu, Gabriele Castellano, Myriana Rifai, Chung Shue, Chen, and Fabio Pianese

TL;DR
This survey comprehensively reviews log parsing techniques, categorizing existing solutions and empirically analyzing 17 open-source parsers to aid practitioners in selecting suitable tools for managing complex system logs.
Contribution
It provides an exhaustive taxonomy and empirical evaluation of 17 open-source log parsers, addressing the lack of systematic comparison in the field.
Findings
Analyzed 17 open-source log parsers both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Identified key performance and operational features of log parsers.
Discussed future challenges and research directions in log parsing.
Abstract
Modern information and communication systems have become increasingly challenging to manage. The ubiquitous system logs contain plentiful information and are thus widely exploited as an alternative source for system management. As log files usually encompass large amounts of raw data, manually analyzing them is laborious and error-prone. Consequently, many research endeavors have been devoted to automatic log analysis. However, these works typically expect structured input and struggle with the heterogeneous nature of raw system logs. Log parsing closes this gap by converting the unstructured system logs to structured records. Many parsers were proposed during the last decades to accommodate various log analysis applications. However, due to the ample solution space and lack of systematic evaluation, it is not easy for practitioners to find ready-made solutions that fit their needs.…
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Taxonomy
TopicsSoftware System Performance and Reliability · Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services · Data Quality and Management
