LoggingHOWTO.txt

Logging system "log4j-like"

--- LOGGERS AND APPENDERS ---

Logging system has two components: loggers and appenders. These types of
components enable users to log messages according to message type and level and
control at runtime where they are reported.

LOGGERS

The first and foremost advantage of this system resided in the ability to
disable certain log statements while allowing others to print unhindered.
This capability assumes that the loggers are categorized according to some
developer-chosen criteria.

Loggers are named entitites. Logger names are case-sensitive and they follow
the hierarchical naming rule:

    A Logger is said to be an ancestor of another logger if its name followed
    by a dot is a prefix of the descendant logger name. A logger is salid to be
    a parent of a child logger if there are no ancestors between itself and the
    descendant logger.

For example, the logger named "entities.player" is a parent of the logger named
"entities.player.character". Similarly, "entities" is a parent of "entities.player"
and an ancestor of "entities.player.character".

Loggers may be assigned levels. The set of possible levels are TRACE, DEBUG,
INFO, WARN, ERROR AND FATAL, or be disabled using level DISABLED.

By definition the printing method determines the level of a logging request.
For example, TC_LOG_INFO(...) is a logging request of level INFO.

A logging request is said to be enabled if its level is higher than or equal to
the level of its logger. Otherwise, the request is said to be disabled. A logger
without an assigned level will inherit one from the hierarchy

Example
Logger Name        Assigned Level      Inherited Level
root               Proot               Proot
server             None                Proot

As "server" is not defined, it uses the root logger and it's log level.
TRACE < DEBUG < INFO < WARN < ERROR < FATAL.


APPENDERS

The ability to selectively enable of dissable logging request based on their
loggers is only part of the picture. This system allows logging requests to
print to multiple destinations. An output destination is called an appender.
Current system defines appenders for Console, files and Database, but can be
easily extended to remote socket server, NT event loggers, syslog daemons or
any other system.

More than one appender can be attached to one logger. Each enabled logging
request for a given logger will be forwarded to all the appenders in that
logger


CONFIGURATION

System will read all config elements with prefix "Logger." and "Appender."
and configure the logging system. If "root" can not be properly configured the core
will remove all loggers and appenders and create a default set:
- Logger "root" with log level Error
- Logger "server" with log level Info
- Appender "Console" to log to console


Appender config line follows the format:

    Type,LogLevel,Flags,optional1,optional2

Its a list of elements separated by comma where each element has its own meaning
    Type: Type of the appender
        1 - (Console)
        2 - (File)
        3 - (DB)
    LogLevel: Log level
        0 - (Disabled)
        1 - (Trace)
        2 - (Debug)
        3 - (Info)
        4 - (Warn)
        5 - (Error)
        6 - (Fatal)
    Flags: Define some extra modifications to do to logging message
        1 - Prefix Timestamp to the text
        2 - Prefix Log Level to the text
        4 - Prefix Log Filter type to the text
        8 - Append timestamp to the log file name. Format: YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS
            (Only used with Type = 2)
       16 - Make a backup of existing file before overwrite
            (Only used with Mode = w)

Depending on the type, elements optional1 and optional2 will take different

    Colors (read as optional1 if Type = Console)
        Format: "fatal error warn info debug trace"
        0 - BLACK
        1 - RED
        2 - GREEN
        3 - BROWN
        4 - BLUE
        5 - MAGENTA
        6 - CYAN
        7 - GREY
        8 - YELLOW
        9 - LRED
       10 - LGREEN
       11 - LBLUE
       12 - LMAGENTA
       13 - LCYAN
       14 - WHITE
        Example: "13 11 9 5 3 1"

    File: Name of the file (read as optional1 if Type = File)
        Allows to use one "%u" to create dynamic files

    Mode: Mode to open the file (read as optional2 if Type = File)
        a - (Append)
        w - (Overwrite)

Example:
    Appender.Console1=1,2,6

    Creates new appender to log to console any message with log level DEBUG
    or higher and prefixes log type and level to the message.

    Appender.Console2=1,5,1,13 11 9 5 3 1

    Creates new appender to log to console any message with log level ERROR
    or higher and prefixes timestamp to the message using colored text.

    Appender.File=2,2,7,Auth.log,w

    Creates new appender to log to file "Auth.log" any message with log level
    DEBUG or higher and prefixes timestamp, type and level to message

In the example, having two different loggers to log to console is perfectly
legal but redundant.

Once we have the list of loggers to read, system will try to configure a new
logger from its config line. Logger config line follows the format:

    LogLevel,AppenderList

Its a list of elements separated by comma where each element has its own meaning
    LogLevel
        0 - (Disabled)
        1 - (Trace)
        2 - (Debug)
        3 - (Info)
        4 - (Warn)
        5 - (Error)
        6 - (Fatal)
    AppenderList: List of appenders linked to logger
    (Using spaces as separator).

--- EXAMPLES ---

EXAMPLE 1

Log errors to console and a file called server.log that only contain
logs for this server run. File should prefix timestamp, type and log level to
the messages. Console should prefix type and log level.

    Appender.Console=1,5,6
    Appender.Server=2,5,7,Server.log,w
    Logger.root=5,Console Server

Lets trace how system will log two different messages:
    1) TC_LOG_ERROR(LOG_FILTER_GUILD, "Guild 1 created");
    System will try to find logger of type GUILD, as no logger is configured
    for GUILD it will use Root logger. As message Log Level is equal or higher
    than the Log level of logger the message is sent to the Appenders
    configured in the Logger. "Console" and "Server".
    Console will write: "ERROR [GUILD     ] Guild 1 created"
    Server will write to file "2012-08-15 ERROR [GUILD     ] Guild 1 created"

    2) TC_LOG_INFO(LOG_FILTER_CHARACTER, "Player Name Logged in");
    System will try to find logger of type CHARACTER, as no logger is
    configured for CHARACTER it will use Root logger. As message Log Level is
    not equal or higher than the Log level of logger the message its discarted.

EXAMPLE 2

Same example that above, but now i want to see all messages of level INFO on
file and server file should add timestamp on creation.

    Appender.Console=1,5,6
    Appender.Server=2,4,15,Server.log
    Logger.root=4,Console Server

Lets trace how system will log two different messages:
    1) TC_LOG_ERROR(LOG_FILTER_GUILD, "Guild 1 created");
    Performs exactly as example 1.
    2) TC_LOG_INFO(LOG_FILTER_CHARACTER, "Player Name Logged in");
    System will try to find logger of type CHARACTER, as no logger is
    configured for CHARACTER it will use Root logger. As message Log Level is
    equal or higher than the Log level of logger the message is sent to the
    Appenders configured in the Logger. "Console" and "Server".
    Console will discard msg as Log Level is not higher or equal to this
    appender
    Server will write to file
    "2012-08-15 INFO [CHARACTER ] Player Name Logged in"

EXAMPLE 3
As a dev, i may be interested in logging just a particular part of the core
while i'm trying to fix something. So... i want to debug GUILDS to maximum
and also some CHARACTER events to some point. Also im checking some Waypoints
so i want SQLDEV to be logged to file without prefixes. All other messages
should only be logged to console, GUILD to TRACE and CHARACTER to INFO

    Appender.Console=1,1
    Appender.SQLDev=2,2,0,SQLDev.log
    Logger.guild=1,Console
    Logger.entities.player.character=3,Console
    Logger.sql.dev=3,SQLDev

With this config, any message logger with a Log type different to GUILD,
CHARACTER or SQLDEV will be ignored, as we didn't define a logger Root and
system created a default Root disabled. Appender Console, log level should be
defined to allow all possible messages of its loggers, in this case GUILD uses
TRACE (1), so Appender should allow it. Logger Characters will limit it's own
messages to INFO (3)