logtail functionality for journalctl versions older than 242 not supporting the "--cursor-file" option

check_logs.bash

#!/usr/bin/env bash

get_journal_logs() {

        log_type="$1"

        if [[ "$log_type" == "system" ]]; then

                args+=( "--dmesg" )

        elif [[ "$log_type" == "apache" ]]; then

                args+=( "--unit=apache2" )

        fi

        cursor_file="$HOME/.journal_cursor_${log_type}"

        if [[ -f "$cursor_file" ]]; then

                read -r cursor < "$cursor_file"
                [[ -n "$cursor" ]] && args+=( "--after-cursor" "$cursor" )

        fi

        args+=( "--no-pager" )
        args+=( "--show-cursor" )
        args+=( "--lines=1000" )

        while read -r logline; do

                case "$logline" in

                        "-- cursor:"*)
                                echo "${logline#-- cursor: }" > "$cursor_file"
                                ;;

                        # Supress the "-- No entries --" message.
                        # Avoid using --quiet which suppresses all
                        # informational messages.
                        "-- No entries --")
                                ;;

                        *)
                                echo "$logline"
                                ;;

                esac

        done < <(journalctl "${args[@]}")

}

get_journal_logs "system" | \
mailx --discard-empty-messages -s "system log check" [email protected]

get_journal_logs "apache" | \
mailx --discard-empty-messages -s "Apache log check" [email protected]