How can I parse Apache's error log in PHP?

$contents = @file('/path/to/error.log', FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES);
if (is_array($contents)) {
    echo end($contents);
}
unset($contents);

php_flag error_log /web/mysite/logs/error.log

<?php
exec('tail /usr/local/apache/logs/error_log', $output);
?>
<Table border="1">
    <tr>
        <th>Date</th>
        <th>Type</th>
        <th>Client</th>
        <th>Message</th>
    </tr>
<?
    foreach($output as $line) {
    	// sample line: [Wed Oct 01 15:07:23 2008] [error] [client 76.246.51.127] PHP 99. Debugger->handleError() /home/gsmcms/public_html/central/cake/libs/debugger.php:0
    	preg_match('~^[(.*?)]~', $line, $date);
    	if(empty($date[1])) {
    		continue;
    	}
    	preg_match('~] [([a-z]*?)] [~', $line, $type);
    	preg_match('~] [client ([0-9.]*)]~', $line, $client);
    	preg_match('~] (.*)$~', $line, $message);
    	?>
    <tr>
        <td><?=$date[1]?></td>
        <td><?=$type[1]?></td>
        <td><?=$client[1]?></td>
        <td><?=$message[1]?></td>
    </tr>
    	<?
    }
?>
</table>

BigFile.php
<?php
$run_test = true;
$test_file = 'BigFile.php';

class BigFile
{
private $file_handle;

/**
 *
 * Load the file from a filepath
 * @param string $path_to_file
 * @throws Exception if path cannot be read from
 */
public function __construct( $path_to_log )
{
    if( is_readable($path_to_log) )
    {
        $this->file_handle = fopen( $path_to_log, 'r');
    }
    else
    {
        throw new Exception("The file path to the file is not valid");
    }
}

/**
 *
 * 'Finish your breakfast' - Jay Z's homme Strict
 */
public function __destruct()
{
    fclose($this->file_handle);
}

/**
 *
 * Returns a number of characters from the end of a file w/o loading the entire file into memory
 * @param integer $number_of_characters_to_get
 * @return string $characters
 */
public function getFromEnd( $number_of_characters_to_get )
{
    $offset = -1*$number_of_characters_to_get;
    $text = "";

    fseek( $this->file_handle, $offset , SEEK_END);

    while(!feof($this->file_handle))
    {
        $text .= fgets($this->file_handle);
    }

    return $text;
}
}

if( $run_test )
{
$number_of_characters_to_get =  100000;
$bf = new BigFile($test_file);
$text = $bf->getFromEnd( $number_of_characters_to_get );
echo "$test_file has the following $number_of_characters_to_get characters at the end:
    <br/> <pre>$text</pre>";
}

?>