Object
The Logger class provides a simple but sophisticated logging utility that anyone can use because it’s included in the Ruby 1.8.x standard library.
The HOWTOs below give a code-based overview of Logger’s usage, but the basic concept is as follows. You create a Logger object (output to a file or elsewhere), and use it to log messages. The messages will have varying levels (info, error, etc), reflecting their varying importance. The levels, and their meanings, are:
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 |
So each message has a level, and the Logger itself has a level, which acts as a filter, so you can control the amount of information emitted from the logger without having to remove actual messages.
For instance, in a production system, you may have your logger(s) set to INFO (or WARN if you don’t want the log files growing large with repetitive information). When you are developing it, though, you probably want to know about the program’s internal state, and would set them to DEBUG.
A simple example demonstrates the above explanation:
log = Logger.new(STDOUT) log.level = Logger::WARN log.debug("Created logger") log.info("Program started") log.warn("Nothing to do!") begin File.each_line(path) do |line| unless line =~ /^(\w+) = (.*)$/ log.error("Line in wrong format: #{line}") end end rescue => err log.fatal("Caught exception; exiting") log.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.
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.
The options below give you various choices, in more or less increasing complexity.
Create a logger which logs messages to STDERR/STDOUT.
logger = Logger.new(STDERR) logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
Create a logger for the file which has the specified name.
logger = Logger.new('logfile.log')
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 = open('foo.log', File::WRONLY | File::APPEND | File::CREAT) logger = Logger.new(file)
Create a logger which ages logfile once it reaches a certain size. Leave 10 “old log files” and each file is about 1,024,000 bytes.
logger = Logger.new('foo.log', 10, 1024000)
Create a logger which ages logfile daily/weekly/monthly.
logger = Logger.new('foo.log', 'daily') logger = Logger.new('foo.log', 'weekly') logger = Logger.new('foo.log', 'monthly')
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.
Message in block.
logger.fatal { "Argument 'foo' not given." }
Message as a string.
logger.error "Argument #{ @foo } mismatch."
With progname.
logger.info('initialize') { "Initializing..." }
With severity.
logger.add(Logger::FATAL) { 'Fatal error!' }
logger.close
Original interface.
logger.sev_threshold = Logger::WARN
Log4r (somewhat) compatible interface.
logger.level = Logger::INFO DEBUG < INFO < WARN < ERROR < FATAL < UNKNOWN
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, [Date Time mSec #pid] SeverityLabel -- ProgName: message
Log sample:
I, [Wed Mar 03 02:34:24 JST 1999 895701 #19074] INFO -- Main: info.
You may change the date and time format in this manner:
logger.datetime_format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S" # e.g. "2004-01-03 00:54:26"
You may change the overall format with Logger#formatter= method.
logger.formatter = proc { |severity, datetime, progname, msg| "#{datetime}: #{msg}\n" } # e.g. "Thu Sep 22 08:51:08 GMT+9:00 2005: hello world"
Logging formatter. formattercall is invoked with 4 arguments; severity, time, progname and msg for each log. Bear in mind that time is a Time and msg is an Object that user passed and it could not be a String. It is expected to return a logdevwrite-able Object. Default formatter is used when no formatter is set.
Logger.new(name, shift_age = 7, shift_size = 1048576) Logger.new(name, shift_age = 'weekly')
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). |
Create an instance.
# File logger.rb, line 268
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
Dump given message to the log device without any formatting. If no log device exists, return nil.
# File logger.rb, line 348
def <<(msg)
unless @logdev.nil?
@logdev.write(msg)
end
end
Logger#add(severity, message = nil, progname = nil) { ... }
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. |
true if successful, false otherwise.
When the given severity is not high enough (for this particular logger), log no message, and return true.
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.
Logfile is not locked.
Append open does not need to lock file.
But on the OS which supports multi I/O, records possibly be mixed.
# File logger.rb, line 324
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 the logging device.
# File logger.rb, line 429
def close
@logdev.close if @logdev
end
# File logger.rb, line 213
def datetime_format
@default_formatter.datetime_format
end
Logging date-time format (string passed to strftime).
# File logger.rb, line 209
def datetime_format=(datetime_format)
@default_formatter.datetime_format = datetime_format
end
Log a DEBUG message.
See info for more information.
# File logger.rb, line 359
def debug(progname = nil, &block)
add(DEBUG, nil, progname, &block)
end
Returns true iff the current severity level allows for the printing of DEBUG messages.
# File logger.rb, line 229
def debug?; @level <= DEBUG; end
Log an ERROR message.
See info for more information.
# File logger.rb, line 403
def error(progname = nil, &block)
add(ERROR, nil, progname, &block)
end
Returns true iff the current severity level allows for the printing of ERROR messages.
# File logger.rb, line 241
def error?; @level <= ERROR; end
Log a FATAL message.
See info for more information.
# File logger.rb, line 412
def fatal(progname = nil, &block)
add(FATAL, nil, progname, &block)
end
Returns true iff the current severity level allows for the printing of FATAL messages.
# File logger.rb, line 245
def fatal?; @level <= FATAL; end
Log an INFO message.
The message can come either from the progname argument or the block. If both are provided, then the block is used as the message, and progname is used as the program name.
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 Logger#progname= as well).
See add.
# File logger.rb, line 385
def info(progname = nil, &block)
add(INFO, nil, progname, &block)
end
Returns true iff the current severity level allows for the printing of INFO messages.
# File logger.rb, line 233
def info?; @level <= INFO; end
Log an UNKNOWN message. This will be printed no matter what the logger level.
See info for more information.
# File logger.rb, line 422
def unknown(progname = nil, &block)
add(UNKNOWN, nil, progname, &block)
end
Log a WARN message.
See info for more information.
# File logger.rb, line 394
def warn(progname = nil, &block)
add(WARN, nil, progname, &block)
end