collect red hat linux error logs

Hi,
I have two questions,first of all is where can I collect more error logs(the log under /var/log/messages), also give the corresponding explain is grateful.The second one is the log under various versions(such as red hat,suse,etc) is the same or not.
Thanks for answers.

There is no formal consensus about what or where logs should be kept on a Linux distribution or even how the logs should be rotated, Each distribution does things slightly differently. If you are writing a general purpose tool to parse Linux distribution logs, you need first to determine the specific Linux distribution and release (not as trivial as it may seem) and then build the appropriate logic into your log parser to handle the differences between distributions and releases.