Class: Logger

Inherits:
Object
  • Object
show all
Includes:
Severity
Defined in:
lib/logger.rb

Overview

Description

The Logger class provides a simple but sophisticated logging utility that you can use to output messages.

The messages have associated levels, such as INFO or ERROR that indicate their importance. You can then give the Logger a level, and only messages at that level or higher will be printed.

The levels are:

UNKNOWN

An unknown message that should always be logged.

FATAL

An unhandleable error that results in a program crash.

ERROR

A handleable error condition.

WARN

A warning.

INFO

Generic (useful) information about system operation.

DEBUG

Low-level information for developers.

For instance, in a production system, you may have your Logger set to INFO or even WARN. When you are developing the system, however, you probably want to know about the program’s internal state, and would set the Logger to DEBUG.

Note: Logger does not escape or sanitize any messages passed to it. Developers should be aware of when potentially malicious data (user-input) is passed to Logger, and manually escape the untrusted data:

logger.info("User-input: #{input.dump}")
logger.info("User-input: %p" % input)

You can use #formatter= for escaping all data.

original_formatter = Logger::Formatter.new
logger.formatter = proc { |severity, datetime, progname, msg|
  original_formatter.call(severity, datetime, progname, msg.dump)
}
logger.info(input)

Example

This creates a Logger that outputs to the standard output stream, with a level of WARN:

require 'logger'

logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
logger.level = Logger::WARN

logger.debug("Created logger")
logger.info("Program started")
logger.warn("Nothing to do!")

path = "a_non_existent_file"

begin
  File.foreach(path) do |line|
    unless line =~ /^(\w+) = (.*)$/
      logger.error("Line in wrong format: #{line.chomp}")
    end
  end
rescue => err
  logger.fatal("Caught exception; exiting")
  logger.fatal(err)
end

Because the Logger’s level is set to WARN, only the warning, error, and fatal messages are recorded. The debug and info messages are silently discarded.

Features

There are several interesting features that Logger provides, like auto-rolling of log files, setting the format of log messages, and specifying a program name in conjunction with the message. The next section shows you how to achieve these things.

HOWTOs

How to create a logger

The options below give you various choices, in more or less increasing complexity.

  1. Create a logger which logs messages to STDERR/STDOUT.

    logger = Logger.new(STDERR)
logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)

  2. Create a logger for the file which has the specified name.

    logger = Logger.new('logfile.log')

  3. Create a logger for the specified file.

    file = File.open('foo.log', File::WRONLY | File::APPEND)
# To create new (and to remove old) logfile, add File::CREAT like:
# file = File.open('foo.log', File::WRONLY | File::APPEND | File::CREAT)
logger = Logger.new(file)

  4. Create a logger which ages the logfile once it reaches a certain size. Leave 10 “old” log files where each file is about 1,024,000 bytes.

    logger = Logger.new('foo.log', 10, 1024000)

  5. Create a logger which ages the logfile daily/weekly/monthly.

    logger = Logger.new('foo.log', 'daily')
logger = Logger.new('foo.log', 'weekly')
logger = Logger.new('foo.log', 'monthly')

How to log a message

Notice the different methods (fatal, error, info) being used to log messages of various levels? Other methods in this family are warn and debug. add is used below to log a message of an arbitrary (perhaps dynamic) level.

  1. Message in a block.

    logger.fatal { "Argument 'foo' not given." }

  2. Message as a string.

    logger.error "Argument #{@foo} mismatch."

  3. With progname.

    logger.info('initialize') { "Initializing..." }

  4. With severity.

    logger.add(Logger::FATAL) { 'Fatal error!' }

The block form allows you to create potentially complex log messages, but to delay their evaluation until and unless the message is logged. For example, if we have the following:

logger.debug { "This is a " + potentially + " expensive operation" }

If the logger’s level is INFO or higher, no debug messages will be logged, and the entire block will not even be evaluated. Compare to this:

logger.debug("This is a " + potentially + " expensive operation")

Here, the string concatenation is done every time, even if the log level is not set to show the debug message.

How to close a logger

logger.close

Setting severity threshold

  1. Original interface.

    logger.sev_threshold = Logger::WARN

  2. Log4r (somewhat) compatible interface.

    logger.level = Logger::INFO

# DEBUG < INFO < WARN < ERROR < FATAL < UNKNOWN

Format

Log messages are rendered in the output stream in a certain format by default. The default format and a sample are shown below:

Log format:

SeverityID, [DateTime #pid] SeverityLabel -- ProgName: message

Log sample:

I, [1999-03-03T02:34:24.895701 #19074]  INFO -- Main: info.

You may change the date and time format via #datetime_format=.

logger.datetime_format = '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'
      # e.g. "2004-01-03 00:54:26"

Or, you may change the overall format via the #formatter= method.

logger.formatter = proc do |severity, datetime, progname, msg|
  "#{datetime}: #{msg}\n"
end
# e.g. "2005-09-22 08:51:08 +0900: hello world"

Defined Under Namespace

Modules: Severity Classes: Application, Error, Formatter, LogDevice, ShiftingError

Constant Summary collapse

VERSION = 
"1.2.7"
ProgName = 
"#{name}/#{rev}"

Constants included from Severity

Severity::DEBUG, Severity::ERROR, Severity::FATAL, Severity::INFO, Severity::UNKNOWN, Severity::WARN

Instance Attribute Summary collapse

Instance Method Summary collapse

Constructor Details

#initialize(logdev, shift_age = 0, shift_size = 1048576) ⇒ Logger

:call-seq:

Logger.new(name, shift_age = 7, shift_size = 1048576)
Logger.new(name, shift_age = 'weekly')

Args

logdev

The log device. This is a filename (String) or IO object (typically STDOUT, STDERR, or an open file).

shift_age

Number of old log files to keep, or frequency of rotation (daily, weekly or monthly).

shift_size

Maximum logfile size (only applies when shift_age is a number).

Description

Create an instance.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 311

def initialize(logdev, shift_age = 0, shift_size = 1048576)
  @progname = nil
  @level = DEBUG
  @default_formatter = Formatter.new
  @formatter = nil
  @logdev = nil
  if logdev
    @logdev = LogDevice.new(logdev, :shift_age => shift_age,
      :shift_size => shift_size)
  end
end

Instance Attribute Details

#formatter ⇒ Object

Logging formatter, as a Proc that will take four arguments and return the formatted message. The arguments are:

severity

The Severity of the log message.

time

A Time instance representing when the message was logged.

progname

The #progname configured, or passed to the logger method.

msg

The Object the user passed to the log message; not necessarily a String.

The block should return an Object that can be written to the logging device via write. The default formatter is used when no formatter is set.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 266

def formatter
  @formatter
end

#level ⇒ Object Also known as: sev_threshold

Logging severity threshold (e.g. Logger::INFO).



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 237

def level
  @level
end

#progname ⇒ Object

Program name to include in log messages.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 240

def progname
  @progname
end

Instance Method Details

#<<(msg) ⇒ Object

Dump given message to the log device without any formatting. If no log device exists, return nil.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 388

def <<(msg)
  unless @logdev.nil?
    @logdev.write(msg)
  end
end

#add(severity, message = nil, progname = nil, &block) ⇒ Object Also known as: log

:call-seq:

Logger#add(severity, message = nil, progname = nil) { ... }

Args

severity

Severity. Constants are defined in Logger namespace: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL, or UNKNOWN.

message

The log message. A String or Exception.

progname

Program name string. Can be omitted. Treated as a message if no message and block are given.

block

Can be omitted. Called to get a message string if message is nil.

Return

When the given severity is not high enough (for this particular logger), log no message, and return true.

Description

Log a message if the given severity is high enough. This is the generic logging method. Users will be more inclined to use #debug, #info, #warn, #error, and #fatal.

Message format: message can be any object, but it has to be converted to a String in order to log it. Generally, inspect is used if the given object is not a String. A special case is an Exception object, which will be printed in detail, including message, class, and backtrace. See #msg2str for the implementation if required.

Bugs

  • Logfile is not locked.

  • Append open does not need to lock file.

  • If the OS supports multi I/O, records possibly may be mixed.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 364

def add(severity, message = nil, progname = nil, &block)
  severity ||= UNKNOWN
  if @logdev.nil? or severity < @level
    return true
  end
  progname ||= @progname
  if message.nil?
    if block_given?
      message = yield
    else
      message = progname
      progname = @progname
    end
  end
  @logdev.write(
    format_message(format_severity(severity), Time.now, progname, message))
  true
end

#close ⇒ Object

Close the logging device.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 477

def close
  @logdev.close if @logdev
end

#datetime_format ⇒ Object

Returns the date format being used. See #datetime_format=



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 250

def datetime_format
  @default_formatter.datetime_format
end

#datetime_format=(datetime_format) ⇒ Object

Set date-time format.

datetime_format

A string suitable for passing to strftime.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 245

def datetime_format=(datetime_format)
  @default_formatter.datetime_format = datetime_format
end

#debug(progname = nil, &block) ⇒ Object

Log a DEBUG message.

See #info for more information.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 399

def debug(progname = nil, &block)
  add(DEBUG, nil, progname, &block)
end

#debug? ⇒ Boolean

Returns true iff the current severity level allows for the printing of DEBUG messages.

Returns:

  • (Boolean) 


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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 273

def debug?; @level <= DEBUG; end

#error(progname = nil, &block) ⇒ Object

Log an ERROR message.

See #info for more information.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 451

def error(progname = nil, &block)
  add(ERROR, nil, progname, &block)
end

#error? ⇒ Boolean

Returns true iff the current severity level allows for the printing of ERROR messages.

Returns:

  • (Boolean) 


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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 285

def error?; @level <= ERROR; end

#fatal(progname = nil, &block) ⇒ Object

Log a FATAL message.

See #info for more information.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 460

def fatal(progname = nil, &block)
  add(FATAL, nil, progname, &block)
end

#fatal? ⇒ Boolean

Returns true iff the current severity level allows for the printing of FATAL messages.

Returns:

  • (Boolean) 


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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 289

def fatal?; @level <= FATAL; end

#info(progname = nil, &block) ⇒ Object

:call-seq:

info(message)
info(progname, &block)

Log an INFO message.

message

The message to log; does not need to be a String.

progname

In the block form, this is the #progname to use in the log message. The default can be set with #progname=.

block

Evaluates to the message to log. This is not evaluated unless the logger’s level is sufficient to log the message. This allows you to create potentially expensive logging messages that are only called when the logger is configured to show them.

Examples

logger.info("MainApp") { "Received connection from #{ip}" }
# ...
logger.info "Waiting for input from user"
# ...
logger.info { "User typed #{input}" }

You’ll probably stick to the second form above, unless you want to provide a program name (which you can do with #progname= as well).

Return

See #add.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 433

def info(progname = nil, &block)
  add(INFO, nil, progname, &block)
end

#info? ⇒ Boolean

Returns true iff the current severity level allows for the printing of INFO messages.

Returns:

  • (Boolean) 


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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 277

def info?; @level <= INFO; end

#unknown(progname = nil, &block) ⇒ Object

Log an UNKNOWN message. This will be printed no matter what the logger’s level is.

See #info for more information.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 470

def unknown(progname = nil, &block)
  add(UNKNOWN, nil, progname, &block)
end

#warn(progname = nil, &block) ⇒ Object

Log a WARN message.

See #info for more information.



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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 442

def warn(progname = nil, &block)
  add(WARN, nil, progname, &block)
end

#warn? ⇒ Boolean

Returns true iff the current severity level allows for the printing of WARN messages.

Returns:

  • (Boolean) 


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# File 'lib/logger.rb', line 281

def warn?; @level <= WARN; end