docs: update notes on log levels

Hopefully helps clarify questions like  and .
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Trent Mick 2016-01-31 17:35:43 -08:00
parent cc7606a60d
commit b0b9bed17b

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@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ in production.**
# Levels # Levels
The log levels in bunyan are as follows. The level descriptions are best The log levels in bunyan are as follows. The level descriptions are best
practice *opinions*. practice *opinions* of the author.
- "fatal" (60): The service/app is going to stop or become unusable now. - "fatal" (60): The service/app is going to stop or become unusable now.
An operator should definitely look into this soon. An operator should definitely look into this soon.
@ -363,17 +363,19 @@ practice *opinions*.
- "trace" (10): Logging from external libraries used by your app or *very* - "trace" (10): Logging from external libraries used by your app or *very*
detailed application logging. detailed application logging.
Suggestions: Use "debug" sparingly. Information that will be useful to debug Setting a logger instance (or one of its streams) to a particular level implies
errors *post mortem* should usually be included in "info" messages if it's that all log records *at that level and above* are logged. E.g. a logger set to
generally relevant or else with the corresponding "error" event. Don't rely level "info" will log records at level info and above (warn, error, fatal).
on spewing mostly irrelevant debug messages all the time and sifting through
them when an error occurs.
Integers are used for the actual level values (10 for "trace", ..., 60 for While using log level *names* is preferred, the actual level values are integers
"fatal") and constants are defined for the (bunyan.TRACE ... bunyan.DEBUG). internally (10 for "trace", ..., 60 for "fatal"). Constants are defined for
The lowercase level names are aliases supported in the API. the levels: `bunyan.TRACE` ... `bunyan.FATAL`. The lowercase level names are
aliases supported in the API, e.g. `log.level("info")`. There is one exception:
DTrace integration uses the level names. The fired DTrace probes are named
'bunyan-$levelName'.
Here is the API for changing levels in an existing logger: Here is the API for querying and changing levels on an existing logger.
Recall that a logger instance has an array of output "streams":
```js ```js
log.level() -> INFO // gets current level (lowest level of all streams) log.level() -> INFO // gets current level (lowest level of all streams)
@ -390,6 +392,21 @@ log.levels(0, "info") // can use "info" et al aliases
log.levels("foo", WARN) // set stream named "foo" to WARN log.levels("foo", WARN) // set stream named "foo" to WARN
``` ```
## Level suggestions
Trent's biased suggestions for server apps: Use "debug" sparingly. Information
that will be useful to debug errors *post mortem* should usually be included in
"info" messages if it's generally relevant or else with the corresponding
"error" event. Don't rely on spewing mostly irrelevant debug messages all the
time and sifting through them when an error occurs.
Trent's biased suggestions for node.js libraries: IMHO, libraries should only
ever log at `trace`-level. Fine control over log output should be up to the
app using a library. Having a library that spews log output at higher levels
gets in the way of the a clear story in the *app* logs.
# Log Record Fields # Log Record Fields
This section will describe *rules* for the Bunyan log format: field names, This section will describe *rules* for the Bunyan log format: field names,