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

[Martin Basti]

On 14.03.2016 14:15, Jan Cholasta wrote:
> On 14.3.2016 13:56, Rob Crittenden wrote:
>> Jan Cholasta wrote:
>>> 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.
>>
>> Sure logs are not API but they have been named the same way since
>> inception (nearly 8 years now). I don't think symlinking to the old
>> names is a big deal.
>
> It kind of is, since you have to keep the symlink up to date, handle 
> the case when there is a regular file in place of the symlink, and 
> they won't work properly for commands which currently append to their 
> log files rather than overwrite them anyway.
>
> To do this properly, you have to add a new FileHandler with proper 
> options for each old log file. IMHO there is no benefit in doing this 
> upstream, but it is relatively straightforward and isolated to be done 
> downstream.
>
PermaNACK, the ticket has been moved to Future Releases