Error counter status variable

For monitoring purposes it would be great to be able to know if an error has occurred and entered into the error log without needing access to the actual log file and in particular without having to read the actual error message as it could contain sensitive information.

If there was an error counter then a monitoring system could just monitor the error counter and create an alert each time an error happens. This alert can then be acted upon by someone with privileges to read the error log. In this way the monitoring tool would not need access to the error log and potentially sensitive information.