WELF(3pm)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so WELF(3pm) from LogReport's Lire Documentation is literally the home of Lire::WELF — Base implementation of a WebTrends(tm) Enhanced Log Format parser. periodt.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

use Lire::WELF;

my $parser = new Lire::WELF;

my $welf_rec = $parser->parse( $line );

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

This module defines an object able to parse WebTrends(tm) Enhanced Log Format. That log format was defined by WebTrends(tm) for its Firewall Suite. It defines an extensible format that is now used by several packet filter and/or proxy firewall.

The document describing that format is available from http://www.webtrends.com/partners/welfOverview.htm.

A list of products/vendor that supports this format can be found at http://www.webtrends.com/partners/firewall.htm.

You create a WELF parser object using the new() method:

my $parser = new Lire::WELF();

To parse a WELF record you invoke the parser() method with the line containing the record as parameter:

my $rec    = $parser->parse( $line );

The $rec is a hash reference with the WELF field name used as keys and the value of the records as values.

No values are interpreted or checked at all, except for the following:

• time — the time field will be converted to epoch time.
• quotation — the quotation marks used when the value contains spaces are removed.

🦋 WELF EXTENSIONS 🦋

The parser also supports "extensions" to the format found in the field.

• port — we will interpret correctly src and dst fields that have the port embedded in them: src=192.168.1.1:1037
• interface — a possible :IFNAME will also be interpreted as the interface name: dst=192.168.100.10:23:WAN
• timezone — the time field may contain a time zone identifier: time="2001-12-02 12:34:12 UTC"

🎀 Derived Fields 🎀

The parser will generate a few 'derived' fields to complete the format.

• src_port — will contain the src port portion of the dst field when SonicWall extensions are used.
• dst_port — will contain the interface portion of the dst field when SonicWall extensions are used.
• src_if — will contain the interface portion of the src field when SonicWall extensions are used.
• dst_if — will contain the interface portion of the dst field when SonicWall extensions are used.

💅 AUTHOR 💅

Francis J. Lacoste <flacoste@logreport.org>

⭐ VERSION ⭐

the version string is $Id: WELF.pm,v 1.11 2006/07/23 13:16:30 vanbaal Exp $.

👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright (C) 2001 Stichting LogReport Foundation LogReport@LogReport.org

This file is part of Lire.

Lire is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program (see COPYING); if not, check with http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.

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💖 that's the WELF(3pm) tea, bestie — Lire 2.1.1, dated 2025-09-28. go parse something iconic! 💅