- <para>The argument is a 128 bit ID given in
- short or UUID form and optionally followed by
- <literal>:n</literal> which identifies the nth
- boot relative to the boot ID given to the left
- of <literal>:</literal>. Supplying a negative
- value for n will look for a past boot and a
- positive value for a future boot. The boot IDs
- are searched for in chronological order. If no
- number is provided after <literal>:</literal>,
- <literal>-1</literal> is assumed. A value of 0
- is valid and equivalent to omitting
- <literal>:0</literal>.</para>
-
- <para>Alternatively, the argument may constist
- only of <literal>:n</literal>. In this case, a
- positive value will look up the nth boot
- starting from the beginning of the jouranl, a
- negative value will look up a previous boot
- relative to the current boot. <literal>:0</literal>
- will look for the current boot ID. Thus,
- <literal>:1</literal> is the first boot found in
- the journal, <literal>:2</literal> the second
- and so on; while <literal>:-1</literal> is the
- previous boot, <literal>:-2</literal> the boot
- before that and so on. Omitting a value after
- <literal>:</literal> will look for the previous
- boot.</para></listitem>
+ <para>The argument may be empty, in which case
+ logs for the current boot will be shown.</para>
+
+ <para>If the boot ID is omitted, a positive
+ <replaceable>offset</replaceable> will look up
+ the boots starting from the beginning of the
+ journal, and a equal-or-less-than zero
+ <replaceable>offset</replaceable> will look up
+ boots starting from the end of the
+ journal. Thus, <constant>1</constant> means the
+ first boot found in the journal in
+ chronological order, <constant>2</constant> the
+ second and so on; while <constant>-0</constant>
+ is the last boot, <constant>-1</constant> the
+ boot before last, and so on. An empty
+ <replaceable>offset</replaceable> is equivalent
+ to specifying <constant>-0</constant>, except
+ when the current boot is not the last boot
+ (e.g. because <option>--directory</option> was
+ specified to look at logs from a different
+ machine).</para>
+
+ <para>If the 32-character
+ <replaceable>ID</replaceable> is specified, it
+ may optionally be followed by
+ <replaceable>offset</replaceable> which
+ identifies the boot relative to the one given by
+ boot <replaceable>ID</replaceable>. Negative
+ values mean earlier boots and a positive values
+ mean later boots. If
+ <replaceable>offset</replaceable> is not
+ specified, a value of zero is assumed, and the
+ logs for the boot given by
+ <replaceable>ID</replaceable> are shown.
+ </para>
+
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--list-boots</option></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Show a tabular list of
+ boot numbers (relative to the current
+ boot), their IDs, and the timestamps
+ of the first and last message
+ pertaining to the boot.
+ </para></listitem>
~ianmdlvl / elogind.git / blobdiff