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I just noticed that a range of log entries in /var/log/syslog.1 are out of order. Here's an abbreviated sample:

$ awk '{print $1, $2, $3}' syslog.1 | uniq > natural
$ sort natural > sorted 
$ diff --side-by-side natural sorted 
Dec 6 01:28:39                          Dec 6 01:28:39
Dec 6 01:39:10                          Dec 6 01:39:10
Dec 6 01:39:59                          Dec 6 01:39:59
Dec 7 20:04:26                        <
Dec 7 20:04:27                        <
Dec 7 20:04:28                        <
Dec 7 19:06:12                          Dec 7 19:06:12
Dec 7 19:06:13                          Dec 7 19:06:13
Dec 7 19:06:15                          Dec 7 19:06:15
                                      > Dec 7 20:04:26
                                      > Dec 7 20:04:27
                                      > Dec 7 20:04:28
Dec 7 20:07:02                          Dec 7 20:07:02
Dec 7 20:07:03                          Dec 7 20:07:03
Dec 7 20:07:06                          Dec 7 20:07:06

The Dec 7 20:04 entries are moved when the log is sorted. Here is the full sample.

Why does this happen?

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looks as if one generator of log entires uses another time zone / a time shift. Is there a causal connection between the entries which are out of order? Can you reproduce it to see whether at your current time an entry with a wrong timestamp is generated? – Michael K Dec 12 '11 at 6:14
Are you still experiencing this issue? – jrg♦ Jan 24 '12 at 13:49
I don't have the ability to troubleshoot this anymore. The operating system has been cleanly reinstalled. – ændrük Mar 2 '12 at 20:43

closed as too localized by ændrük, Takkat, bodhi.zazen, fossfreedom♦ Mar 30 '12 at 21:55

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