Just to try to clear this up: There is nothing in Linux corresponding to the AIX Error Log. The AIX Error Log is a disciplined, architectural means for recording system events, through /dev/error. Entries in the log are rigorously structured and readily reported in a uniform mannner, with event type, time, and details. This AIX facility is in addition to conventional syslogging, for more mundane conditions.
Linux basically has just syslog, with /var/log/messages holding what messages that system facilities choose to log, in arbitrary form (and thus no uniform structured reporting capability inherent), with timestamps (but no year included, which hampers historical review). There is also the Kernel Ring Buffer, as reported by the dmesg command; but this area usually contains little more than boot time messages recorded by the kernel, with no timestamps. In pursuing a problem, you basically have just /var/log/messages, and it often lacks the kind of information you need because participation is so arbitrary. Linux is largely an undisciplined, free-for-all environment where subsystems are contributed by creative individuals having disparate views of how things should work and present information. And anything you become familiar with could wildly change or be wholly replaced by something new in the next level. Linux is a "challenge" for system administrators and systems programmers due its philosophical nature being such a departure from more rigorous, commercial versions of Unix. Personally, coming from AIX I find systems programming in Linux to be rather disappointing, and even exasperating, as exemplified by the absence of a Process Table from which one could readily obtain structured information, instead having to parse /proc "files" whose content is textual and whose layout is defined by narrative rather than structures. Richard Sims http://people.bu.edu/rbs/
