On Fri, 10 Sep 1999, Marc Haber wrote:
> On a second thought, I would prefer the log format to be configurable,
> the default being something like "[%p] %m %l" which would generate the
> pid in square brackets, followed by the message ID and the log text.
> Who wants to have Exim's date and time would change that to "%d %t
> [%p] %m %l".
I've just been thinking about that. First problem: not every log line
has a message ID. Second problem: for entries that have to be split over
several lines you probably don't want the message id (if present) and
timestamp on the continuation lines.
It seems from the responses that most people want the pid anyway, and I
am now proposing to use it like this
[1234] one-line message from process 1234
[1234-1/4] first line of four-line message from process 1234
[1234-4/4] fourth line ... etc
so I think it is probably overkill to have an option for non-pid.
The message ID (if present) is really the first part of the text, and I
can't see why anybody would not want to have it. That just leaves the
time. Exim's timestamps contain the year in the date - syslog's do not.
I propose, in the first instance, to do the simplest thing, which is to
leave the text of the log message exactly as it is at present, including
timestamp, and just prefix it with pid information when sending to
syslog, splitting into multiple lines as necessary.
--
Philip Hazel University of Cambridge Computing Service,
ph10@??? Cambridge, England. Phone: +44 1223 334714.
