Splunk Search

Splunk Tailing Errors

cvajs
Contributor

ok, my sources use syntax like \dir\dir\...\log so that it recursively finds all of my log files.

but now i see this in Splunk errors report (splunk v4.3.1 for linux)

03-19-2012 13:11:32.755 -0400 ERROR TailingProcessor - matching /logs/syslog/ironports/hostA/2012/03/ against ^/logs/syslog/ironports/.*/log$

  1. so why the tailing error? kinda a silly event as it gives no info as to what the error was.
  2. why does this report show a modified regex for the dir path? me personally, i dont like configs to look like one thing in one place and something else in another place. so instead of using ... in my source paths i should use .* ?? (question marks to indicate this is a question, etc)
Tags (2)
0 Karma

dart
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

The reason for the second one is that Splunk uses PCRE internally to implement the filters. The log message reflects the regex as used internally.

0 Karma
Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

SOK it to Me: Top 3 Benefits of Using Splunk Operator on Kubernetes that’ll Make ...

    Thursday, July 9, 2026  |  11:00AM–12:00PM PDT Duration: 1 hour (includes Q&A) Managing can feel like a ...

Upgrade Prep for 10.4, Network Observability Deep Dives, and More from Splunk Lantern

Splunk Lantern is Splunk’s customer success center that provides practical guidance from Splunk experts on key ...

Splunk Developer Day announcements: AI agents, MCP tools, Forecasting, and Custom ...

Splunk Developer Day was packed with product and platform updates for developers building in the AI ...