How to use cmd parsetest for troubleshooting?

[splunk_zen]

From
http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/6.2.1/Troubleshooting/CommandlinetoolsforusewithSupport

Example:
parsetest "10/11/2009 12:11:13" "syslog"

I adapted it to my current use case but can't figure out what it's trying to do

/opt/splunk/bin/splunk cmd /opt/splunk/bin/parsetest "2014-11-01 23:50:21,318" "my_test_sourcetype"
Conf is currently being modified by process 15206.
Conf is currently being modified by process 15206.
Conf is currently being modified by process 15206.
Conf is currently being modified by process 15206.
Conf is currently being modified by process 15206.
Conf is currently being modified by process 15206.

[MuS]

Hi splunk_zen,

if you run splunk cmd parsetest --help you will get some options:

Usage: /opt/splunk/bin/splunkd [OPTION...]
  --nodaemon      causes the system not to daemonize
  -c STRING       override the config path
  -h              no longer supported
  -i              no longer supported
  -n STRING       the component name to start with
  -p INT          the management port Splunkd will listen on
  --debug         start with debug log config

Help options:
  -?, --help      Show this help message
  --usage         Display brief usage message

You maybe noticed, that is says Usage: /opt/splunk/bin/splunkd [OPTION...] so this means the parsetest command should be used when Splunk is stopped. Running the parsetest command will start a Splunk process with the provided options, like --debug which will increase debug verbosity in splunkd.log.

But I would only use it when advised by Splunk support to do so, like mentioned in the docs http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/6.3.3/Troubleshooting/CommandlinetoolsforusewithSupport

Hope this helps ...

cheers, MuS

[splunk_zen]

Bump. Anyone with experience using bin/parsetest?