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Viewing application log files
In the last section of this chapter, let's explore log files a bit, as they bring several 
concepts that we've discussed full-circle. We went through an overview of the 
default directory layout, practiced viewing files, and we learned how to search files 
for strings. We'll discuss log files in greater detail later on in the book, but we can use 
all of these concepts to take an initial look at viewing log files now.
If you recall, during the discussion of the Linux filesystem layout earlier in this 
chapter, there was a table showing some of the most common directories that exist. 
Among the items in that table, I called out the 
/var/log
 directory. While logging is 
transitioning to a different style (more on that in 
Chapter 22
, 
Troubleshooting Ubuntu 
Servers
), we'll have a series of logs in the 
/var/log
 directory. Go ahead and use the 
ls
 
command yourself, and you'll see there are quite a few files there. While I won't go 
through all of them in this chapter, let's take a look at 
/var/log/syslog
.

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Chapter 4