Time to change the system for Logs

The current system is not serving FL well e.g. a current thread with a wonderful description of what the notification icon is doing/not doing, and another thread regarding yet another index malfunction...but not a single log to establish the behaviour!

The practice of requesting logs is often protracted by misunderstandings of what is involved and/or possible, whether on Mac or Windows. And user reactions (e.g. reindexing, reinstalling) to serious issues precludes gathering of useful information.

So I think it is time to have:

permanent logging by default

set by the application
have Commands to enable/disable logging (Java scripts in Windows become redundant)
Note that the overhead is negligible, and I've been doing it for over 5 years.

concatenate logs for events that require a restart.

logs are currently overwritten after a restart

archive/compress logs (say 5 versions)

this will provide invaluable history whilst saving space

streamline log contents for efficiency

some output relates to performance, but what's the point when it is never used!

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

Francis

Dave, do you think that the way Microsoft products do it would work well? When they crash, there is automatically an attempt to send an error report. The user can turn it down (i.e., cancel the sending of the report) but at least no gymnastic is required to log an error.

Jack Caviness

another thread regarding yet another index malfunction...but not a single log to establish the behaviour!

My thread on that subject did contain logs. Were there others on this subject?

JimTowler

Dave,

I understand your point but I for one for object if there was a move to auto-collect and send logs etc. But I know that's not what you are suggesting.

In the Icons event, someone has confirmed that their install appears to do the same on startup: a "1" with no tool tip.

Regards,

Jim

JimTowler

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738294#Comment_738294

Under Help there is a menu option for "Report a Problem" that directs to a web page. Maybe one to send logs might be a good solution in some cases. I guess it would need to somehow prompt for details so it could be linked to whatever the user was attempting to report.

- Jim

Graham Criddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738297#Comment_738297

One of the points Dave is making is that currently logs get overwritten before they are sent and this ought to change.

Personally I think Dave's suggestions are excellent and would really improve things

JimTowler

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738310#Comment_738310

Graham,

Yes I think the overwrite issue seems valid and leaves room for something better when there are issues around restarts and what happened.

Doc B

Amen. Hallelujah. And all that.

May I add one suggestion? All the help I've ever received on loggable issues has come from Dave and one or two others here in the forums. Uploading logs isn't intuitive (it's not difficult, but still, not intuitive).

My suggestion is to add an icon next to the paperclip (maybe an icon of a log? [;)] ) that will attach the log to the forum post, rather than having to go through the 'whatever-the-heck-this-thing-is-called-below' process.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738243#Comment_738243

Dave, do you think that the way Microsoft products do it would work well? When they crash, there is automatically an attempt to send an error report.

I'm not talking about crash logs, nor error logs, as these are produced automatically at present. Permanent logging is a detailed log of what is happening whenever the application is running. Starting Logos with CMD or CTRL key held produces these logs for one session only.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738334#Comment_738334

My suggestion is to add an icon next to the paperclip (maybe an icon of a log? ) that will attach the log to the forum post

Having a dedicated icon to upload logs is an excellent suggestion.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/738451#Comment_738451

Bump for FL

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/740807#Comment_740807

Thanks for the suggestions. We don't plan to implement permanent or archived logs (other than what has already been done with LogosError.log).

In my experience, the number of problems that could only have been solved by reading the previous session's log is incredibly small (other than crashes, which are already archived), so this is not worth implementing.

Adding a button in the forums to automatically upload logs is a good idea, but I'm not sure that it's technically feasible.

NB.Mick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/741113#Comment_741113

In my experience, the number of problems that could only have been solved by reading the previous session's log is incredibly small (other than crashes, which are already archived), so this is not worth implementing.

Somehow this doesn't really square with your other post https://community.logos.com/forums/p/107104/741118.aspx#741118 in my head.

Bradley Grainger (Logos)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/741125#Comment_741125

In my experience, the number of problems that could only have been solved by reading the previous session's log is incredibly small (other than crashes, which are already archived), so this is not worth implementing.

Somehow this doesn't really square with your other post https://community.logos.com/forums/p/107104/741118.aspx#741118 in my head.

I don't understand. That's a problem that can't be solved by reading the previous session's log, which is exactly what I'm saying here. (The extra log collection proposed by the OP would provide no assistance to us in solving that problem. I'd rather add diagnostics that do help solve the problem.)

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/741249#Comment_741249

I'd rather add diagnostics that do help solve the problem.)

These are automatically sent to FL or still require users to submit logs?

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/741113#Comment_741113

Adding a button in the forums to automatically upload logs is a good idea, but I'm not sure that it's technically feasible.

A dedicated button that avoids the paper clip's image dimensions and defaults to viewing the Documents folder would be a big improvement.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/741113#Comment_741113

We don't plan to implement permanent or archived logs (other than what has already been done with LogosError.log).

You seem to disregard the convenience of requesting permanent logging from users and the need to keep logs after a restart has been requested...

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/741290#Comment_741290

defaults to viewing the Documents folder would be a big improvement.

...but mac users don't use the "documents folder" to keep logs. They are placed on the desktop.

Dave Hooton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/741331#Comment_741331

..but mac users don't use the "documents folder" to keep logs. They are placed on the desktop.

Thanks .. I was hoping you'd chime in!