The program must be well documented which includes meaningful variable and subroutine names ("self documenting code") along with comments in the code. The following block of code will appear at the start of your program to which you will add meaningful descriptions (formatting, spelling and grammar will count here!! - the target of your descriptions is someone who can program at a basic level, but is not familiar with Perl - so be verbose where necessary :)

Format your code so it is readable - indent your code in blocks so that the "{" and "}" line up correctly. Use the code examples in the textbook as a guide. You are also allowed to put blank lines in the code where necessary to enhance readability. This makes the program easier to read in the same way that the blank lines I have placed between the paragraphs of this document make it easier to read.  i.e., use whitespace appropriately!

The messages log file will contain various records (lines) and fields (information) but not all the records or fields are needed to produce the required reports. The log file is to be processed to produce the requested report on screen. Only relevant records that correspond to the service that is of interest are to be processed, while all other records are to be skipped and not counted toward the statistics created.

Store the example messages log file in the" /home/user/assignment1 " directory along with your Perl program, but the program should work with the filename given as a commandline argument, or get the logs from the command line if no filename is given. That is the program could also receive the file from, for example piping "cat /var/log/messages | log-message-stats.pl".