| One of the log files we mentioned in the section "Log Files" on page 165 of Chapter 6 ("The Filesystem and Its Contents") was /var/adm/messages. This file contains messages from the kernel and is therefore one of the most important log files. The messages contained in this file are not neceserily error messages; in fact, you should find that most are simply informational messages. But if your server does suffer a major error, chances are there will be messages from the kernel in this file that can help you (or the Sun Support Team) diagnose the fault. Since Solaris 8 was introduced, every message has a specific ID number associated with it, which makes the job of interpreting the messages much simpler. As well as examining the messages file manually, you can use the command dmesg to display the most recent messages from this file: [View full width] hydrogen# dmesg | tail -4 Apr 13 13:22:44 hydrogen obio: [ID 349649 kern.info] obio0 at obio0: obio 0x400000, sparc  ipl 11 Apr 13 13:22:44 hydrogen genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] fd0 is /obio/SUNW,fdtwo@0,400000 Apr 13 13:23:12 hydrogen pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: pm0 Apr 13 13:23:12 hydrogen genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] pm0 is /pseudo/pm@0 hydrogen#
This shows the four most recent messages written to the messages file. They are all information-type messages and were actually written as the machine was last booted. The format of the new-style messages is as follows: | 
