[Freeipa-devel] [PATCH 0434] log: add timestamp to filename of logs

[Jan Cholasta]

On 11.3.2016 15:56, Gabe Alford wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 7:35 AM, Petr Vobornik <pvoborni at redhat.com
> <mailto:pvoborni at redhat.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 03/11/2016 03:00 PM, Rob Crittenden wrote:
>
>         Martin Kosek wrote:
>
>             On 03/11/2016 09:55 AM, Jan Cholasta wrote:
>
>                 On 11.3.2016 09:33, Martin Kosek wrote:
>
>                     On 03/08/2016 07:07 PM, Martin Basti wrote:
>
>
>
>                         On 08.03.2016 16:37, Martin Basti wrote:
>
>
>
>                             On 08.03.2016 16:31, Martin Basti wrote:
>
>                                 https://fedorahosted.org/freeipa/ticket/4501
>
>                                 Patch attached.
>
>
>                             Rebased patch attached.
>
>
>
>                         self-NACK
>
>                         Scripts print to CLI unformatted strings, it
>                         should not be so easy.
>                         See /var/log/ipaupgrade-{timestamp}.log for more
>                         information
>
>
>                     second-NACK. We cannot break existing log file
>                     paths. The paths are mentioned
>                     in a documentation and there may be also automation
>                     around that (gathering log
>                     files). So there should be always symlink from the
>                     well known location to the
>                     newest timestampe'd log.
>
>
>                 Sorry, but this is absurd. What's the point of
>                 maintaining backward
>                 compatibility with obsolete documentation? Following
>                 this logic, we would not
>                 be able to change anything ever. What we should actually
>                 do is update the
>                 documentation. Ditto for automation.
>
>
>             +1 for updating the automation and documentation. But some
>             backward
>             compatibility will need to be retained, at least for the
>             stable systems like
>             RHEL where *other* people may have some automation or
>             documentation around it,
>             not just us.
>
>
>         Or you could just also create a symlink to the old name and it will
>         always just work.
>
>         rob
>
>
>     Aren't the symlinks what Martin2 mentioned in second-NACK?
>
>     These new timestamped logs should be combined with the Gabe's
>     patches: #5728 (renamed to command name) and #5724 (move to
>     /var/log/ipa directory).
>
>     So that there will be e.g.:
>     /var/log/ipaserver-install.log ->
>     /var/log/ipa-server-install-{timestamp}.log
>
>     /var/log/ipa/ipa-server-install.log ->
>     /var/log/ipa-server-install-{timestamp}.log
>
>
> I wonder if it would be simpler/better to always write to the *.log
> file, and then have old logs timestamped rather than write directly to a
> timestamped log file?
> Then just symlink the original log file in /var/log/ to the new log file
> name/location in /var/log/ipa.
>
> For example:
> /var/log/ipaserver-install.log ->
> /var/log/ipa/ipa-server-install.log                <-- We write to this
> log (current)
>
> /var/log/ipa-server-install-{timestamp}.log   <-- Old log with some date
>
> /var/log/ipa-server-install-{timestamp}.log   <-- Older log with some date
>
> /var/log/ipa-server-install-{timestamp}.log   <-- Oldest log with some date

This is way too overengineered for something that should actually be 
really simple. I don't care if it is done this way or not, but IMHO it 
would be a waste of time. Logs are not API and should not be treated as 
such. If it needs to be done differently on RHEL, it should be handled 
downstream.

-- 
Jan Cholasta