Merging multiple log files by date including multilines

Question

I have several logs containing lines all starting with a timestamp, so that the following works as expected to merge them:

cat myLog1.txt myLog2.txt | sort -n &g         


        

Answer 1

You should use the merge, stable, ignore-leading-blanks, numeric-sort, and an easily sortable datetime format (such as yyyyMMddHHmmssSSS) in your log files.

So, I changed your log format to be more easily sortable, resulting in sort -bsnm log1 log2:

 $ cat -n log1 log2 && sort -m -b -n -s log1 log2
      1 114818825 [main] INFO  org.hibernate.cfg.Environment - HHH000206 hibernate.properties not found
      2 114855784 [main] INFO  o.h.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaUpdate - HHH000396 Updating schema
      1 114835377 [qtp1484319352-19] ERROR c.w.b.c.ControllerErrorHandler -
      2 org.springframework.beans.TypeMismatchException Failed to convert value of type   'java.lang.String' to required type 'org.joda.time.LocalDate'; nested exception is    org.springframework.core.convert.ConversionFailedException Failed to convert from type     java.lang.String to type @org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestParam   @org.springframework.format.annotation.DateTimeFormat org.joda.time.LocalDate for value    '[2013-03-26]'; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException Invalid format "    [2013-03-26]"
      3     at org.springframework.beans.TypeConverterSupport.doConvert(TypeConverterSupport.java68) ~[spring-beans-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar3.2.1.RELEASE]
      4 at org.springframework.beans.TypeConverterSupport.convertIfNecessary(TypeConverterSupport.java45) ~[spring-beans-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar3.2.1.RELEASE]
      5 at org.springframework.validation.DataBinder.convertIfNecessary(DataBinder.java595) ~[spring-context-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar3.2.1.RELEASE]
      6 at org.springframework.web.method.annotation.AbstractNamedValueMethodArgumentResolver.resolveArgument(AbstractNamedValueMethodArgumentResolver.java98) ~[spring-web-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar3.2.1.RELEASE]
      7 at org.springframework.web.method.support.HandlerMethodArgumentResolverComposite.resolveArgument(HandlerMethodArgumentResolverComposite.java77) ~[spring-web-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar3.2.1.RELEASE]
      8 at org.springframework.web.method.support.InvocableHandlerMethod.getMethodArgumentValues(InvocableHandlerMethod.java162) ~[spring-web-3.2.1.RELEAS
      9 
 114818825 [main] INFO  org.hibernate.cfg.Environment - HHH000206 hibernate.properties not found
 114835377 [qtp1484319352-19] ERROR c.w.b.c.ControllerErrorHandler -
 org.springframework.beans.TypeMismatchException Failed to convert value of type   'java.lang.String' to required type 'org.joda.time.LocalDate'; nested exception is    org.springframework.core.convert.ConversionFailedException Failed to convert from type     java.lang.String to type @org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestParam   @org.springframework.format.annotation.DateTimeFormat org.joda.time.LocalDate for value    '[2013-03-26]'; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException Invalid format "    [2013-03-26]"
     at org.springframework.beans.TypeConverterSupport.doConvert(TypeConverterSupport.java68) ~[spring-beans-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar3.2.1.RELEASE]
 at org.springframework.beans.TypeConverterSupport.convertIfNecessary(TypeConverterSupport.java45) ~[spring-beans-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar3.2.1.RELEASE]
 at org.springframework.validation.DataBinder.convertIfNecessary(DataBinder.java595) ~[spring-context-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar3.2.1.RELEASE]
 at org.springframework.web.method.annotation.AbstractNamedValueMethodArgumentResolver.resolveArgument(AbstractNamedValueMethodArgumentResolver.java98) ~[spring-web-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar3.2.1.RELEASE]
 at org.springframework.web.method.support.HandlerMethodArgumentResolverComposite.resolveArgument(HandlerMethodArgumentResolverComposite.java77) ~[spring-web-3.2.1.RELEASE.jar3.2.1.RELEASE]
 at org.springframework.web.method.support.InvocableHandlerMethod.getMethodArgumentValues(InvocableHandlerMethod.java162) ~[spring-web-3.2.1.RELEAS

 114855784 [main] INFO  o.h.tool.hbm2ddl.SchemaUpdate - HHH000396 Updating schema

As said in @Magoo's answer, the way your logs' datetime is currently formatted is hard to sort.