Hello, Currently, I'm using syslog-ng version 3.1.1. I would like to parse that kind of message by using pattern database. Here is the message : "<<<<< Message message message". So I created that xml file : <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <patterndb version='3' pub_date='2010-07-22'> <ruleset name='test' id='yann-test-9999999999'> <description>Programme : test</description> <pattern>test</pattern> <rules> <rule provider='yann' id='ss-test:syslog:dest:123123123:id005' class='system'> <patterns> <pattern><<<<< Message message message</pattern> <values> <value name=".classifier.facility">local0</value> <value name=".classifier.severity">notice</value> <value name=".classifier.priority">133</value> </values> </patterns> </rule> </rules> </ruleset> </patterndb> I obtain that message when I try to parse with the pdbtool application : $ pdbtool match -p syslog-ng.xml -P test -M "<<<<< Message message message" Error parsing pattern database file; filename='/tmp/syslog-ng.xml', error='Error on line 9 char 22: \'<\' is not a valid character following a \'<\' character; it may not begin an element name' Into the xml file, I replaced '<<<<<' with @STRING::@ or @ESTRING...@ but it doesn't work. Is it possible to match that kind of message ? Regards, Yann