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README

1######################################################################
2    Log::Log4perl 1.40
3######################################################################
4
5NAME
6    Log::Log4perl - Log4j implementation for Perl
7
8SYNOPSIS
9            # Easy mode if you like it simple ...
10
11        use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);
12        Log::Log4perl->easy_init($ERROR);
13
14        DEBUG "This doesn't go anywhere";
15        ERROR "This gets logged";
16
17            # ... or standard mode for more features:
18
19        Log::Log4perl::init('/etc/log4perl.conf');
20    
21        --or--
22    
23            # Check config every 10 secs
24        Log::Log4perl::init_and_watch('/etc/log4perl.conf',10);
25
26        --then--
27    
28        $logger = Log::Log4perl->get_logger('house.bedrm.desk.topdrwr');
29    
30        $logger->debug('this is a debug message');
31        $logger->info('this is an info message');
32        $logger->warn('etc');
33        $logger->error('..');
34        $logger->fatal('..');
35    
36        #####/etc/log4perl.conf###############################
37        log4perl.logger.house              = WARN,  FileAppndr1
38        log4perl.logger.house.bedroom.desk = DEBUG, FileAppndr1
39    
40        log4perl.appender.FileAppndr1      = Log::Log4perl::Appender::File
41        log4perl.appender.FileAppndr1.filename = desk.log 
42        log4perl.appender.FileAppndr1.layout   = \
43                                Log::Log4perl::Layout::SimpleLayout
44        ######################################################
45
46ABSTRACT
47        Log::Log4perl provides a powerful logging API for your application
48
49DESCRIPTION
50    Log::Log4perl lets you remote-control and fine-tune the logging
51    behaviour of your system from the outside. It implements the widely
52    popular (Java-based) Log4j logging package in pure Perl.
53
54    For a detailed tutorial on Log::Log4perl usage, please read
55
56        http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2002/09/11/log4perl.html
57
58    Logging beats a debugger if you want to know what's going on in your
59    code during runtime. However, traditional logging packages are too
60    static and generate a flood of log messages in your log files that won't
61    help you.
62
63    "Log::Log4perl" is different. It allows you to control the number of
64    logging messages generated at three different levels:
65
66    *   At a central location in your system (either in a configuration file
67        or in the startup code) you specify *which components* (classes,
68        functions) of your system should generate logs.
69
70    *   You specify how detailed the logging of these components should be
71        by specifying logging *levels*.
72
73    *   You also specify which so-called *appenders* you want to feed your
74        log messages to ("Print it to the screen and also append it to
75        /tmp/my.log") and which format ("Write the date first, then the file
76        name and line number, and then the log message") they should be in.
77
78    This is a very powerful and flexible mechanism. You can turn on and off
79    your logs at any time, specify the level of detail and make that
80    dependent on the subsystem that's currently executed.
81
82    Let me give you an example: You might find out that your system has a
83    problem in the "MySystem::Helpers::ScanDir" component. Turning on
84    detailed debugging logs all over the system would generate a flood of
85    useless log messages and bog your system down beyond recognition. With
86    "Log::Log4perl", however, you can tell the system: "Continue to log only
87    severe errors to the log file. Open a second log file, turn on full
88    debug logs in the "MySystem::Helpers::ScanDir" component and dump all
89    messages originating from there into the new log file". And all this is
90    possible by just changing the parameters in a configuration file, which
91    your system can re-read even while it's running!
92
93How to use it
94    The "Log::Log4perl" package can be initialized in two ways: Either via
95    Perl commands or via a "log4j"-style configuration file.
96
97  Initialize via a configuration file
98    This is the easiest way to prepare your system for using
99    "Log::Log4perl". Use a configuration file like this:
100
101        ############################################################
102        # A simple root logger with a Log::Log4perl::Appender::File 
103        # file appender in Perl.
104        ############################################################
105        log4perl.rootLogger=ERROR, LOGFILE
106    
107        log4perl.appender.LOGFILE=Log::Log4perl::Appender::File
108        log4perl.appender.LOGFILE.filename=/var/log/myerrs.log
109        log4perl.appender.LOGFILE.mode=append
110    
111        log4perl.appender.LOGFILE.layout=PatternLayout
112        log4perl.appender.LOGFILE.layout.ConversionPattern=[%r] %F %L %c - %m%n
113
114    These lines define your standard logger that's appending severe errors
115    to "/var/log/myerrs.log", using the format
116
117        [millisecs] source-filename line-number class - message newline
118
119    Assuming that this configuration file is saved as "log.conf", you need
120    to read it in in the startup section of your code, using the following
121    commands:
122
123      use Log::Log4perl;
124      Log::Log4perl->init("log.conf");
125
126    After that's done *somewhere* in the code, you can retrieve logger
127    objects *anywhere* in the code. Note that there's no need to carry any
128    logger references around with your functions and methods. You can get a
129    logger anytime via a singleton mechanism:
130
131        package My::MegaPackage;
132        use  Log::Log4perl;
133
134        sub some_method {
135            my($param) = @_;
136
137            my $log = Log::Log4perl->get_logger("My::MegaPackage");
138
139            $log->debug("Debug message");
140            $log->info("Info message");
141            $log->error("Error message");
142
143            ...
144        }
145
146    With the configuration file above, "Log::Log4perl" will write "Error
147    message" to the specified log file, but won't do anything for the
148    "debug()" and "info()" calls, because the log level has been set to
149    "ERROR" for all components in the first line of configuration file shown
150    above.
151
152    Why "Log::Log4perl->get_logger" and not "Log::Log4perl->new"? We don't
153    want to create a new object every time. Usually in OO-Programming, you
154    create an object once and use the reference to it to call its methods.
155    However, this requires that you pass around the object to all functions
156    and the last thing we want is pollute each and every function/method
157    we're using with a handle to the "Logger":
158
159        sub function {  # Brrrr!!
160            my($logger, $some, $other, $parameters) = @_;
161        }
162
163    Instead, if a function/method wants a reference to the logger, it just
164    calls the Logger's static "get_logger($category)" method to obtain a
165    reference to the *one and only* possible logger object of a certain
166    category. That's called a *singleton* if you're a Gamma fan.
167
168    How does the logger know which messages it is supposed to log and which
169    ones to suppress? "Log::Log4perl" works with inheritance: The config
170    file above didn't specify anything about "My::MegaPackage". And yet,
171    we've defined a logger of the category "My::MegaPackage". In this case,
172    "Log::Log4perl" will walk up the namespace hierarchy ("My" and then
173    we're at the root) to figure out if a log level is defined somewhere. In
174    the case above, the log level at the root (root *always* defines a log
175    level, but not necessarily an appender) defines that the log level is
176    supposed to be "ERROR" -- meaning that *DEBUG* and *INFO* messages are
177    suppressed. Note that this 'inheritance' is unrelated to Perl's class
178    inheritance, it is merely related to the logger namespace. By the way,
179    if you're ever in doubt about what a logger's category is, use
180    "$logger-"category()> to retrieve it.
181
182  Log Levels
183    There are six predefined log levels: "FATAL", "ERROR", "WARN", "INFO",
184    "DEBUG", and "TRACE" (in descending priority). Your configured logging
185    level has to at least match the priority of the logging message.
186
187    If your configured logging level is "WARN", then messages logged with
188    "info()", "debug()", and "trace()" will be suppressed. "fatal()",
189    "error()" and "warn()" will make their way through, because their
190    priority is higher or equal than the configured setting.
191
192    Instead of calling the methods
193
194        $logger->trace("...");  # Log a trace message
195        $logger->debug("...");  # Log a debug message
196        $logger->info("...");   # Log a info message
197        $logger->warn("...");   # Log a warn message
198        $logger->error("...");  # Log a error message
199        $logger->fatal("...");  # Log a fatal message
200
201    you could also call the "log()" method with the appropriate level using
202    the constants defined in "Log::Log4perl::Level":
203
204        use Log::Log4perl::Level;
205
206        $logger->log($TRACE, "...");
207        $logger->log($DEBUG, "...");
208        $logger->log($INFO, "...");
209        $logger->log($WARN, "...");
210        $logger->log($ERROR, "...");
211        $logger->log($FATAL, "...");
212
213    This form is rarely used, but it comes in handy if you want to log at
214    different levels depending on an exit code of a function:
215
216        $logger->log( $exit_level{ $rc }, "...");
217
218    As for needing more logging levels than these predefined ones: It's
219    usually best to steer your logging behaviour via the category mechanism
220    instead.
221
222    If you need to find out if the currently configured logging level would
223    allow a logger's logging statement to go through, use the logger's
224    "is_*level*()" methods:
225
226        $logger->is_trace()    # True if trace messages would go through
227        $logger->is_debug()    # True if debug messages would go through
228        $logger->is_info()     # True if info messages would go through
229        $logger->is_warn()     # True if warn messages would go through
230        $logger->is_error()    # True if error messages would go through
231        $logger->is_fatal()    # True if fatal messages would go through
232
233    Example: "$logger->is_warn()" returns true if the logger's current
234    level, as derived from either the logger's category (or, in absence of
235    that, one of the logger's parent's level setting) is $WARN, $ERROR or
236    $FATAL.
237
238    Also available are a series of more Java-esque functions which return
239    the same values. These are of the format "is*Level*Enabled()", so
240    "$logger->isDebugEnabled()" is synonymous to "$logger->is_debug()".
241
242    These level checking functions will come in handy later, when we want to
243    block unnecessary expensive parameter construction in case the logging
244    level is too low to log the statement anyway, like in:
245
246        if($logger->is_error()) {
247            $logger->error("Erroneous array: @super_long_array");
248        }
249
250    If we had just written
251
252        $logger->error("Erroneous array: @super_long_array");
253
254    then Perl would have interpolated @super_long_array into the string via
255    an expensive operation only to figure out shortly after that the string
256    can be ignored entirely because the configured logging level is lower
257    than $ERROR.
258
259    The to-be-logged message passed to all of the functions described above
260    can consist of an arbitrary number of arguments, which the logging
261    functions just chain together to a single string. Therefore
262
263        $logger->debug("Hello ", "World", "!");  # and
264        $logger->debug("Hello World!");
265
266    are identical.
267
268    Note that even if one of the methods above returns true, it doesn't
269    necessarily mean that the message will actually get logged. What
270    is_debug() checks is that the logger used is configured to let a message
271    of the given priority (DEBUG) through. But after this check, Log4perl
272    will eventually apply custom filters and forward the message to one or
273    more appenders. None of this gets checked by is_xxx(), for the simple
274    reason that it's impossible to know what a custom filter does with a
275    message without having the actual message or what an appender does to a
276    message without actually having it log it.
277
278  Log and die or warn
279    Often, when you croak / carp / warn / die, you want to log those
280    messages. Rather than doing the following:
281
282        $logger->fatal($err) && die($err);
283
284    you can use the following:
285
286        $logger->logdie();
287
288    And if instead of using
289
290        warn($message);
291        $logger->warn($message);
292
293    to both issue a warning via Perl's warn() mechanism and make sure you
294    have the same message in the log file as well, use:
295
296        $logger->logwarn();
297
298    Since there is an ERROR level between WARN and FATAL, there are two
299    additional helper functions in case you'd like to use ERROR for either
300    warn() or die():
301
302        $logger->error_warn();
303        $logger->error_die();
304
305    Finally, there's the Carp functions that, in addition to logging, also
306    pass the stringified message to their companions in the Carp package:
307
308        $logger->logcarp();        # warn w/ 1-level stack trace
309        $logger->logcluck();       # warn w/ full stack trace
310        $logger->logcroak();       # die w/ 1-level stack trace
311        $logger->logconfess();     # die w/ full stack trace
312
313  Appenders
314    If you don't define any appenders, nothing will happen. Appenders will
315    be triggered whenever the configured logging level requires a message to
316    be logged and not suppressed.
317
318    "Log::Log4perl" doesn't define any appenders by default, not even the
319    root logger has one.
320
321    "Log::Log4perl" already comes with a standard set of appenders:
322
323        Log::Log4perl::Appender::Screen
324        Log::Log4perl::Appender::ScreenColoredLevels
325        Log::Log4perl::Appender::File
326        Log::Log4perl::Appender::Socket
327        Log::Log4perl::Appender::DBI
328        Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized
329        Log::Log4perl::Appender::RRDs
330
331    to log to the screen, to files and to databases.
332
333    On CPAN, you can find additional appenders like
334
335        Log::Log4perl::Layout::XMLLayout
336
337    by Guido Carls <gcarls@cpan.org>. It allows for hooking up Log::Log4perl
338    with the graphical Log Analyzer Chainsaw (see "Can I use Log::Log4perl
339    with log4j's Chainsaw?" in Log::Log4perl::FAQ).
340
341  Additional Appenders via Log::Dispatch
342    "Log::Log4perl" also supports *Dave Rolskys* excellent "Log::Dispatch"
343    framework which implements a wide variety of different appenders.
344
345    Here's the list of appender modules currently available via
346    "Log::Dispatch":
347
348           Log::Dispatch::ApacheLog
349           Log::Dispatch::DBI (by Tatsuhiko Miyagawa)
350           Log::Dispatch::Email,
351           Log::Dispatch::Email::MailSend,
352           Log::Dispatch::Email::MailSendmail,
353           Log::Dispatch::Email::MIMELite
354           Log::Dispatch::File
355           Log::Dispatch::FileRotate (by Mark Pfeiffer)
356           Log::Dispatch::Handle
357           Log::Dispatch::Screen
358           Log::Dispatch::Syslog
359           Log::Dispatch::Tk (by Dominique Dumont)
360
361    Please note that in order to use any of these additional appenders, you
362    have to fetch Log::Dispatch from CPAN and install it. Also the
363    particular appender you're using might require installing the particular
364    module.
365
366    For additional information on appenders, please check the
367    Log::Log4perl::Appender manual page.
368
369  Appender Example
370    Now let's assume that we want to log "info()" or higher prioritized
371    messages in the "Foo::Bar" category to both STDOUT and to a log file,
372    say "test.log". In the initialization section of your system, just
373    define two appenders using the readily available
374    "Log::Log4perl::Appender::File" and "Log::Log4perl::Appender::Screen"
375    modules:
376
377      use Log::Log4perl;
378
379         # Configuration in a string ...
380      my $conf = q(
381        log4perl.category.Foo.Bar          = INFO, Logfile, Screen
382
383        log4perl.appender.Logfile          = Log::Log4perl::Appender::File
384        log4perl.appender.Logfile.filename = test.log
385        log4perl.appender.Logfile.layout   = Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout
386        log4perl.appender.Logfile.layout.ConversionPattern = [%r] %F %L %m%n
387
388        log4perl.appender.Screen         = Log::Log4perl::Appender::Screen
389        log4perl.appender.Screen.stderr  = 0
390        log4perl.appender.Screen.layout = Log::Log4perl::Layout::SimpleLayout
391      );
392
393         # ... passed as a reference to init()
394      Log::Log4perl::init( \$conf );
395
396    Once the initialization shown above has happened once, typically in the
397    startup code of your system, just use the defined logger anywhere in
398    your system:
399
400      ##########################
401      # ... in some function ...
402      ##########################
403      my $log = Log::Log4perl::get_logger("Foo::Bar");
404
405        # Logs both to STDOUT and to the file test.log
406      $log->info("Important Info!");
407
408    The "layout" settings specified in the configuration section define the
409    format in which the message is going to be logged by the specified
410    appender. The format shown for the file appender is logging not only the
411    message but also the number of milliseconds since the program has
412    started (%r), the name of the file the call to the logger has happened
413    and the line number there (%F and %L), the message itself (%m) and a
414    OS-specific newline character (%n):
415
416        [187] ./myscript.pl 27 Important Info!
417
418    The screen appender above, on the other hand, uses a "SimpleLayout",
419    which logs the debug level, a hyphen (-) and the log message:
420
421        INFO - Important Info!
422
423    For more detailed info on layout formats, see "Log Layouts".
424
425    In the configuration sample above, we chose to define a *category*
426    logger ("Foo::Bar"). This will cause only messages originating from this
427    specific category logger to be logged in the defined format and
428    locations.
429
430  Logging newlines
431    There's some controversy between different logging systems as to when
432    and where newlines are supposed to be added to logged messages.
433
434    The Log4perl way is that a logging statement *should not* contain a
435    newline:
436
437        $logger->info("Some message");
438        $logger->info("Another message");
439
440    If this is supposed to end up in a log file like
441
442        Some message
443        Another message
444
445    then an appropriate appender layout like "%m%n" will take care of adding
446    a newline at the end of each message to make sure every message is
447    printed on its own line.
448
449    Other logging systems, Log::Dispatch in particular, recommend adding the
450    newline to the log statement. This doesn't work well, however, if you,
451    say, replace your file appender by a database appender, and all of a
452    sudden those newlines scattered around the code don't make sense
453    anymore.
454
455    Assigning matching layouts to different appenders and leaving newlines
456    out of the code solves this problem. If you inherited code that has
457    logging statements with newlines and want to make it work with Log4perl,
458    read the Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout documentation on how to
459    accomplish that.
460
461  Configuration files
462    As shown above, you can define "Log::Log4perl" loggers both from within
463    your Perl code or from configuration files. The latter have the
464    unbeatable advantage that you can modify your system's logging behaviour
465    without interfering with the code at all. So even if your code is being
466    run by somebody who's totally oblivious to Perl, they still can adapt
467    the module's logging behaviour to their needs.
468
469    "Log::Log4perl" has been designed to understand "Log4j" configuration
470    files -- as used by the original Java implementation. Instead of
471    reiterating the format description in [2], let me just list three
472    examples (also derived from [2]), which should also illustrate how it
473    works:
474
475        log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG, A1
476        log4j.appender.A1=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
477        log4j.appender.A1.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
478        log4j.appender.A1.layout.ConversionPattern=%-4r %-5p %c %x - %m%n
479
480    This enables messages of priority "DEBUG" or higher in the root
481    hierarchy and has the system write them to the console.
482    "ConsoleAppender" is a Java appender, but "Log::Log4perl" jumps through
483    a significant number of hoops internally to map these to their
484    corresponding Perl classes, "Log::Log4perl::Appender::Screen" in this
485    case.
486
487    Second example:
488
489        log4perl.rootLogger=DEBUG, A1
490        log4perl.appender.A1=Log::Log4perl::Appender::Screen
491        log4perl.appender.A1.layout=PatternLayout
492        log4perl.appender.A1.layout.ConversionPattern=%d %-5p %c - %m%n
493        log4perl.logger.com.foo=WARN
494
495    This defines two loggers: The root logger and the "com.foo" logger. The
496    root logger is easily triggered by debug-messages, but the "com.foo"
497    logger makes sure that messages issued within the "Com::Foo" component
498    and below are only forwarded to the appender if they're of priority
499    *warning* or higher.
500
501    Note that the "com.foo" logger doesn't define an appender. Therefore, it
502    will just propagate the message up the hierarchy until the root logger
503    picks it up and forwards it to the one and only appender of the root
504    category, using the format defined for it.
505
506    Third example:
507
508        log4j.rootLogger=DEBUG, stdout, R
509        log4j.appender.stdout=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
510        log4j.appender.stdout.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
511        log4j.appender.stdout.layout.ConversionPattern=%5p (%F:%L) - %m%n
512        log4j.appender.R=org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender
513        log4j.appender.R.File=example.log
514        log4j.appender.R.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
515        log4j.appender.R.layout.ConversionPattern=%p %c - %m%n
516
517    The root logger defines two appenders here: "stdout", which uses
518    "org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender" (ultimately mapped by "Log::Log4perl"
519    to "Log::Log4perl::Appender::Screen") to write to the screen. And "R", a
520    "org.apache.log4j.RollingFileAppender" (mapped by "Log::Log4perl" to
521    "Log::Dispatch::FileRotate" with the "File" attribute specifying the log
522    file.
523
524    See Log::Log4perl::Config for more examples and syntax explanations.
525
526  Log Layouts
527    If the logging engine passes a message to an appender, because it thinks
528    it should be logged, the appender doesn't just write it out haphazardly.
529    There's ways to tell the appender how to format the message and add all
530    sorts of interesting data to it: The date and time when the event
531    happened, the file, the line number, the debug level of the logger and
532    others.
533
534    There's currently two layouts defined in "Log::Log4perl":
535    "Log::Log4perl::Layout::SimpleLayout" and
536    "Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout":
537
538    "Log::Log4perl::SimpleLayout"
539        formats a message in a simple way and just prepends it by the debug
540        level and a hyphen: ""$level - $message", for example "FATAL - Can't
541        open password file".
542
543    "Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout"
544        on the other hand is very powerful and allows for a very flexible
545        format in "printf"-style. The format string can contain a number of
546        placeholders which will be replaced by the logging engine when it's
547        time to log the message:
548
549            %c Category of the logging event.
550            %C Fully qualified package (or class) name of the caller
551            %d Current date in yyyy/MM/dd hh:mm:ss format
552            %F File where the logging event occurred
553            %H Hostname (if Sys::Hostname is available)
554            %l Fully qualified name of the calling method followed by the
555               callers source the file name and line number between 
556               parentheses.
557            %L Line number within the file where the log statement was issued
558            %m The message to be logged
559            %m{chomp} The message to be logged, stripped off a trailing newline
560            %M Method or function where the logging request was issued
561            %n Newline (OS-independent)
562            %p Priority of the logging event
563            %P pid of the current process
564            %r Number of milliseconds elapsed from program start to logging 
565               event
566            %R Number of milliseconds elapsed from last logging event to
567               current logging event 
568            %T A stack trace of functions called
569            %x The topmost NDC (see below)
570            %X{key} The entry 'key' of the MDC (see below)
571            %% A literal percent (%) sign
572
573        NDC and MDC are explained in "Nested Diagnostic Context (NDC)" and
574        "Mapped Diagnostic Context (MDC)".
575
576        Also, %d can be fine-tuned to display only certain characteristics
577        of a date, according to the SimpleDateFormat in the Java World
578        (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.ht
579        ml)
580
581        In this way, %d{HH:mm} displays only hours and minutes of the
582        current date, while %d{yy, EEEE} displays a two-digit year, followed
583        by a spelled-out (like "Wednesday").
584
585        Similar options are available for shrinking the displayed category
586        or limit file/path components, %F{1} only displays the source file
587        *name* without any path components while %F logs the full path.
588        %c{2} only logs the last two components of the current category,
589        "Foo::Bar::Baz" becomes "Bar::Baz" and saves space.
590
591        If those placeholders aren't enough, then you can define your own
592        right in the config file like this:
593
594            log4perl.PatternLayout.cspec.U = sub { return "UID $<" }
595
596        See Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout for further details on
597        customized specifiers.
598
599        Please note that the subroutines you're defining in this way are
600        going to be run in the "main" namespace, so be sure to fully qualify
601        functions and variables if they're located in different packages.
602
603        SECURITY NOTE: this feature means arbitrary perl code can be
604        embedded in the config file. In the rare case where the people who
605        have access to your config file are different from the people who
606        write your code and shouldn't have execute rights, you might want to
607        call
608
609            Log::Log4perl::Config->allow_code(0);
610
611        before you call init(). Alternatively you can supply a restricted
612        set of Perl opcodes that can be embedded in the config file as
613        described in "Restricting what Opcodes can be in a Perl Hook".
614
615    All placeholders are quantifiable, just like in *printf*. Following this
616    tradition, "%-20c" will reserve 20 chars for the category and
617    left-justify it.
618
619    For more details on logging and how to use the flexible and the simple
620    format, check out the original "log4j" website under
621
622        http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/docs/api/org/apache/log4j/SimpleLayout.html
623        http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/docs/api/org/apache/log4j/PatternLayout.html
624
625  Penalties
626    Logging comes with a price tag. "Log::Log4perl" has been optimized to
627    allow for maximum performance, both with logging enabled and disabled.
628
629    But you need to be aware that there's a small hit every time your code
630    encounters a log statement -- no matter if logging is enabled or not.
631    "Log::Log4perl" has been designed to keep this so low that it will be
632    unnoticable to most applications.
633
634    Here's a couple of tricks which help "Log::Log4perl" to avoid
635    unnecessary delays:
636
637    You can save serious time if you're logging something like
638
639            # Expensive in non-debug mode!
640        for (@super_long_array) {
641            $logger->debug("Element: $_");
642        }
643
644    and @super_long_array is fairly big, so looping through it is pretty
645    expensive. Only you, the programmer, knows that going through that "for"
646    loop can be skipped entirely if the current logging level for the actual
647    component is higher than "debug". In this case, use this instead:
648
649            # Cheap in non-debug mode!
650        if($logger->is_debug()) {
651            for (@super_long_array) {
652                $logger->debug("Element: $_");
653            }
654        }
655
656    If you're afraid that generating the parameters to the logging function
657    is fairly expensive, use closures:
658
659            # Passed as subroutine ref
660        use Data::Dumper;
661        $logger->debug(sub { Dumper($data) } );
662
663    This won't unravel $data via Dumper() unless it's actually needed
664    because it's logged.
665
666    Also, Log::Log4perl lets you specify arguments to logger functions in
667    *message output filter syntax*:
668
669        $logger->debug("Structure: ",
670                       { filter => \&Dumper,
671                         value  => $someref });
672
673    In this way, shortly before Log::Log4perl sending the message out to any
674    appenders, it will be searching all arguments for hash references and
675    treat them in a special way:
676
677    It will invoke the function given as a reference with the "filter" key
678    ("Data::Dumper::Dumper()") and pass it the value that came with the key
679    named "value" as an argument. The anonymous hash in the call above will
680    be replaced by the return value of the filter function.
681
682Categories
683    Categories are also called "Loggers" in Log4perl, both refer to the the
684    same thing and these terms are used interchangeably. "Log::Log4perl"
685    uses *categories* to determine if a log statement in a component should
686    be executed or suppressed at the current logging level. Most of the
687    time, these categories are just the classes the log statements are
688    located in:
689
690        package Candy::Twix;
691
692        sub new { 
693            my $logger = Log::Log4perl->get_logger("Candy::Twix");
694            $logger->debug("Creating a new Twix bar");
695            bless {}, shift;
696        }
697 
698        # ...
699
700        package Candy::Snickers;
701
702        sub new { 
703            my $logger = Log::Log4perl->get_logger("Candy.Snickers");
704            $logger->debug("Creating a new Snickers bar");
705            bless {}, shift;
706        }
707
708        # ...
709
710        package main;
711        Log::Log4perl->init("mylogdefs.conf");
712
713            # => "LOG> Creating a new Snickers bar"
714        my $first = Candy::Snickers->new();
715            # => "LOG> Creating a new Twix bar"
716        my $second = Candy::Twix->new();
717
718    Note that you can separate your category hierarchy levels using either
719    dots like in Java (.) or double-colons (::) like in Perl. Both notations
720    are equivalent and are handled the same way internally.
721
722    However, categories are just there to make use of inheritance: if you
723    invoke a logger in a sub-category, it will bubble up the hierarchy and
724    call the appropriate appenders. Internally, categories are not related
725    to the class hierarchy of the program at all -- they're purely virtual.
726    You can use arbitrary categories -- for example in the following
727    program, which isn't oo-style, but procedural:
728
729        sub print_portfolio {
730
731            my $log = Log::Log4perl->get_logger("user.portfolio");
732            $log->debug("Quotes requested: @_");
733
734            for(@_) {
735                print "$_: ", get_quote($_), "\n";
736            }
737        }
738
739        sub get_quote {
740
741            my $log = Log::Log4perl->get_logger("internet.quotesystem");
742            $log->debug("Fetching quote: $_[0]");
743
744            return yahoo_quote($_[0]);
745        }
746
747    The logger in first function, "print_portfolio", is assigned the
748    (virtual) "user.portfolio" category. Depending on the "Log4perl"
749    configuration, this will either call a "user.portfolio" appender, a
750    "user" appender, or an appender assigned to root -- without
751    "user.portfolio" having any relevance to the class system used in the
752    program. The logger in the second function adheres to the
753    "internet.quotesystem" category -- again, maybe because it's bundled
754    with other Internet functions, but not because there would be a class of
755    this name somewhere.
756
757    However, be careful, don't go overboard: if you're developing a system
758    in object-oriented style, using the class hierarchy is usually your best
759    choice. Think about the people taking over your code one day: The class
760    hierarchy is probably what they know right up front, so it's easy for
761    them to tune the logging to their needs.
762
763  Turn off a component
764    "Log4perl" doesn't only allow you to selectively switch *on* a category
765    of log messages, you can also use the mechanism to selectively *disable*
766    logging in certain components whereas logging is kept turned on in
767    higher-level categories. This mechanism comes in handy if you find that
768    while bumping up the logging level of a high-level (i. e. close to root)
769    category, that one component logs more than it should,
770
771    Here's how it works:
772
773        ############################################################
774        # Turn off logging in a lower-level category while keeping
775        # it active in higher-level categories.
776        ############################################################
777        log4perl.rootLogger=DEBUG, LOGFILE
778        log4perl.logger.deep.down.the.hierarchy = ERROR, LOGFILE
779
780        # ... Define appenders ...
781
782    This way, log messages issued from within "Deep::Down::The::Hierarchy"
783    and below will be logged only if they're "ERROR" or worse, while in all
784    other system components even "DEBUG" messages will be logged.
785
786  Return Values
787    All logging methods return values indicating if their message actually
788    reached one or more appenders. If the message has been suppressed
789    because of level constraints, "undef" is returned.
790
791    For example,
792
793        my $ret = $logger->info("Message");
794
795    will return "undef" if the system debug level for the current category
796    is not "INFO" or more permissive. If Log::Log4perl forwarded the message
797    to one or more appenders, the number of appenders is returned.
798
799    If appenders decide to veto on the message with an appender threshold,
800    the log method's return value will have them excluded. This means that
801    if you've got one appender holding an appender threshold and you're
802    logging a message which passes the system's log level hurdle but not the
803    appender threshold, 0 will be returned by the log function.
804
805    The bottom line is: Logging functions will return a *true* value if the
806    message made it through to one or more appenders and a *false* value if
807    it didn't. This allows for constructs like
808
809        $logger->fatal("@_") or print STDERR "@_\n";
810
811    which will ensure that the fatal message isn't lost if the current level
812    is lower than FATAL or printed twice if the level is acceptable but an
813    appender already points to STDERR.
814
815  Pitfalls with Categories
816    Be careful with just blindly reusing the system's packages as
817    categories. If you do, you'll get into trouble with inherited methods.
818    Imagine the following class setup:
819
820        use Log::Log4perl;
821
822        ###########################################
823        package Bar;
824        ###########################################
825        sub new {
826            my($class) = @_;
827            my $logger = Log::Log4perl::get_logger(__PACKAGE__);
828            $logger->debug("Creating instance");
829            bless {}, $class;
830        }
831        ###########################################
832        package Bar::Twix;
833        ###########################################
834        our @ISA = qw(Bar);
835
836        ###########################################
837        package main;
838        ###########################################
839        Log::Log4perl->init(\ qq{
840        log4perl.category.Bar.Twix = DEBUG, Screen
841        log4perl.appender.Screen = Log::Log4perl::Appender::Screen
842        log4perl.appender.Screen.layout = SimpleLayout
843        });
844
845        my $bar = Bar::Twix->new();
846
847    "Bar::Twix" just inherits everything from "Bar", including the
848    constructor "new()". Contrary to what you might be thinking at first,
849    this won't log anything. Reason for this is the "get_logger()" call in
850    package "Bar", which will always get a logger of the "Bar" category,
851    even if we call "new()" via the "Bar::Twix" package, which will make
852    perl go up the inheritance tree to actually execute "Bar::new()". Since
853    we've only defined logging behaviour for "Bar::Twix" in the
854    configuration file, nothing will happen.
855
856    This can be fixed by changing the "get_logger()" method in "Bar::new()"
857    to obtain a logger of the category matching the *actual* class of the
858    object, like in
859
860            # ... in Bar::new() ...
861        my $logger = Log::Log4perl::get_logger( $class );
862
863    In a method other than the constructor, the class name of the actual
864    object can be obtained by calling "ref()" on the object reference, so
865
866        package BaseClass;
867        use Log::Log4perl qw( get_logger );
868
869        sub new { 
870            bless {}, shift; 
871        }
872
873        sub method {
874            my( $self ) = @_;
875
876            get_logger( ref $self )->debug( "message" );
877        }
878
879        package SubClass;
880        our @ISA = qw(BaseClass);
881
882    is the recommended pattern to make sure that
883
884        my $sub = SubClass->new();
885        $sub->meth();
886
887    starts logging if the "SubClass" category (and not the "BaseClass"
888    category has logging enabled at the DEBUG level.
889
890  Initialize once and only once
891    It's important to realize that Log::Log4perl gets initialized once and
892    only once, typically at the start of a program or system. Calling
893    "init()" more than once will cause it to clobber the existing
894    configuration and *replace* it by the new one.
895
896    If you're in a traditional CGI environment, where every request is
897    handeled by a new process, calling "init()" every time is fine. In
898    persistent environments like "mod_perl", however, Log::Log4perl should
899    be initialized either at system startup time (Apache offers startup
900    handlers for that) or via
901
902            # Init or skip if already done
903        Log::Log4perl->init_once($conf_file);
904
905    "init_once()" is identical to "init()", just with the exception that it
906    will leave a potentially existing configuration alone and will only call
907    "init()" if Log::Log4perl hasn't been initialized yet.
908
909    If you're just curious if Log::Log4perl has been initialized yet, the
910    check
911
912        if(Log::Log4perl->initialized()) {
913            # Yes, Log::Log4perl has already been initialized
914        } else {
915            # No, not initialized yet ...
916        }
917
918    can be used.
919
920    If you're afraid that the components of your system are stepping on each
921    other's toes or if you are thinking that different components should
922    initialize Log::Log4perl seperately, try to consolidate your system to
923    use a centralized Log4perl configuration file and use Log4perl's
924    *categories* to separate your components.
925
926  Custom Filters
927    Log4perl allows the use of customized filters in its appenders to
928    control the output of messages. These filters might grep for certain
929    text chunks in a message, verify that its priority matches or exceeds a
930    certain level or that this is the 10th time the same message has been
931    submitted -- and come to a log/no log decision based upon these
932    circumstantial facts.
933
934    Check out Log::Log4perl::Filter for detailed instructions on how to use
935    them.
936
937  Performance
938    The performance of Log::Log4perl calls obviously depends on a lot of
939    things. But to give you a general idea, here's some rough numbers:
940
941    On a Pentium 4 Linux box at 2.4 GHz, you'll get through
942
943    *   500,000 suppressed log statements per second
944
945    *   30,000 logged messages per second (using an in-memory appender)
946
947    *   init_and_watch delay mode: 300,000 suppressed, 30,000 logged.
948        init_and_watch signal mode: 450,000 suppressed, 30,000 logged.
949
950    Numbers depend on the complexity of the Log::Log4perl configuration. For
951    a more detailed benchmark test, check the "docs/benchmark.results.txt"
952    document in the Log::Log4perl distribution.
953
954Cool Tricks
955    Here's a collection of useful tricks for the advanced "Log::Log4perl"
956    user. For more, check the the FAQ, either in the distribution
957    (Log::Log4perl::FAQ) or on http://log4perl.sourceforge.net.
958
959  Shortcuts
960    When getting an instance of a logger, instead of saying
961
962        use Log::Log4perl;
963        my $logger = Log::Log4perl->get_logger();
964
965    it's often more convenient to import the "get_logger" method from
966    "Log::Log4perl" into the current namespace:
967
968        use Log::Log4perl qw(get_logger);
969        my $logger = get_logger();
970
971    Please note this difference: To obtain the root logger, please use
972    "get_logger("")", call it without parameters ("get_logger()"), you'll
973    get the logger of a category named after the current package.
974    "get_logger()" is equivalent to "get_logger(__PACKAGE__)".
975
976  Alternative initialization
977    Instead of having "init()" read in a configuration file by specifying a
978    file name or passing it a reference to an open filehandle
979    ("Log::Log4perl->init( \*FILE )"), you can also pass in a reference to a
980    string, containing the content of the file:
981
982        Log::Log4perl->init( \$config_text );
983
984    Also, if you've got the "name=value" pairs of the configuration in a
985    hash, you can just as well initialize "Log::Log4perl" with a reference
986    to it:
987
988        my %key_value_pairs = (
989            "log4perl.rootLogger"       => "ERROR, LOGFILE",
990            "log4perl.appender.LOGFILE" => "Log::Log4perl::Appender::File",
991            ...
992        );
993
994        Log::Log4perl->init( \%key_value_pairs );
995
996    Or also you can use a URL, see below:
997
998  Using LWP to parse URLs
999    (This section borrowed from XML::DOM::Parser by T.J. Mather).
1000
1001    The init() function now also supports URLs, e.g.
1002    *http://www.erols.com/enno/xsa.xml*. It uses LWP to download the file
1003    and then calls parse() on the resulting string. By default it will use a
1004    LWP::UserAgent that is created as follows:
1005
1006     use LWP::UserAgent;
1007     $LWP_USER_AGENT = LWP::UserAgent->new;
1008     $LWP_USER_AGENT->env_proxy;
1009
1010    Note that env_proxy reads proxy settings from environment variables,
1011    which is what I need to do to get thru our firewall. If you want to use
1012    a different LWP::UserAgent, you can set it with
1013
1014        Log::Log4perl::Config::set_LWP_UserAgent($my_agent);
1015
1016    Currently, LWP is used when the filename (passed to parsefile) starts
1017    with one of the following URL schemes: http, https, ftp, wais, gopher,
1018    or file (followed by a colon.)
1019
1020    Don't use this feature with init_and_watch().
1021
1022  Automatic reloading of changed configuration files
1023    Instead of just statically initializing Log::Log4perl via
1024
1025        Log::Log4perl->init($conf_file);
1026
1027    there's a way to have Log::Log4perl periodically check for changes in
1028    the configuration and reload it if necessary:
1029
1030        Log::Log4perl->init_and_watch($conf_file, $delay);
1031
1032    In this mode, Log::Log4perl will examine the configuration file
1033    $conf_file every $delay seconds for changes via the file's last
1034    modification timestamp. If the file has been updated, it will be
1035    reloaded and replace the current Log::Log4perl configuration.
1036
1037    The way this works is that with every logger function called (debug(),
1038    is_debug(), etc.), Log::Log4perl will check if the delay interval has
1039    expired. If so, it will run a -M file check on the configuration file.
1040    If its timestamp has been modified, the current configuration will be
1041    dumped and new content of the file will be loaded.
1042
1043    This convenience comes at a price, though: Calling time() with every
1044    logging function call, especially the ones that are "suppressed" (!),
1045    will slow down these Log4perl calls by about 40%.
1046
1047    To alleviate this performance hit a bit, "init_and_watch()" can be
1048    configured to listen for a Unix signal to reload the configuration
1049    instead:
1050
1051        Log::Log4perl->init_and_watch($conf_file, 'HUP');
1052
1053    This will set up a signal handler for SIGHUP and reload the
1054    configuration if the application receives this signal, e.g. via the
1055    "kill" command:
1056
1057        kill -HUP pid
1058
1059    where "pid" is the process ID of the application. This will bring you
1060    back to about 85% of Log::Log4perl's normal execution speed for
1061    suppressed statements. For details, check out "Performance". For more
1062    info on the signal handler, look for "SIGNAL MODE" in
1063    Log::Log4perl::Config::Watch.
1064
1065    If you have a somewhat long delay set between physical config file
1066    checks or don't want to use the signal associated with the config file
1067    watcher, you can trigger a configuration reload at the next possible
1068    time by calling "Log::Log4perl::Config->watcher->force_next_check()".
1069
1070    One thing to watch out for: If the configuration file contains a syntax
1071    or other fatal error, a running application will stop with "die" if this
1072    damaged configuration will be loaded during runtime, triggered either by
1073    a signal or if the delay period expired and the change is detected. This
1074    behaviour might change in the future.
1075
1076    To allow the application to intercept and control a configuration reload
1077    in init_and_watch mode, a callback can be specified:
1078
1079        Log::Log4perl->init_and_watch($conf_file, 10, { 
1080                preinit_callback => \&callback });
1081
1082    If Log4perl determines that the configuration needs to be reloaded, it
1083    will call the "preinit_callback" function without parameters. If the
1084    callback returns a true value, Log4perl will proceed and reload the
1085    configuration. If the callback returns a false value, Log4perl will keep
1086    the old configuration and skip reloading it until the next time around.
1087    Inside the callback, an application can run all kinds of checks,
1088    including accessing the configuration file, which is available via
1089    "Log::Log4perl::Config->watcher()->file()".
1090
1091  Variable Substitution
1092    To avoid having to retype the same expressions over and over again,
1093    Log::Log4perl's configuration files support simple variable
1094    substitution. New variables are defined simply by adding
1095
1096        varname = value
1097
1098    lines to the configuration file before using
1099
1100        ${varname}
1101
1102    afterwards to recall the assigned values. Here's an example:
1103
1104        layout_class   = Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout
1105        layout_pattern = %d %F{1} %L> %m %n
1106    
1107        log4perl.category.Bar.Twix = WARN, Logfile, Screen
1108
1109        log4perl.appender.Logfile  = Log::Log4perl::Appender::File
1110        log4perl.appender.Logfile.filename = test.log
1111        log4perl.appender.Logfile.layout = ${layout_class}
1112        log4perl.appender.Logfile.layout.ConversionPattern = ${layout_pattern}
1113
1114        log4perl.appender.Screen  = Log::Log4perl::Appender::Screen
1115        log4perl.appender.Screen.layout = ${layout_class}
1116        log4perl.appender.Screen.layout.ConversionPattern = ${layout_pattern}
1117
1118    This is a convenient way to define two appenders with the same layout
1119    without having to retype the pattern definitions.
1120
1121    Variable substitution via "${varname}" will first try to find an
1122    explicitely defined variable. If that fails, it will check your shell's
1123    environment for a variable of that name. If that also fails, the program
1124    will "die()".
1125
1126  Perl Hooks in the Configuration File
1127    If some of the values used in the Log4perl configuration file need to be
1128    dynamically modified by the program, use Perl hooks:
1129
1130        log4perl.appender.File.filename = \
1131            sub { return getLogfileName(); }
1132
1133    Each value starting with the string "sub {..." is interpreted as Perl
1134    code to be executed at the time the application parses the configuration
1135    via "Log::Log4perl::init()". The return value of the subroutine is used
1136    by Log::Log4perl as the configuration value.
1137
1138    The Perl code is executed in the "main" package, functions in other
1139    packages have to be called in fully-qualified notation.
1140
1141    Here's another example, utilizing an environment variable as a username
1142    for a DBI appender:
1143
1144        log4perl.appender.DB.username = \
1145            sub { $ENV{DB_USER_NAME } }
1146
1147    However, please note the difference between these code snippets and
1148    those used for user-defined conversion specifiers as discussed in
1149    Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout: While the snippets above are run
1150    *once* when "Log::Log4perl::init()" is called, the conversion specifier
1151    snippets are executed *each time* a message is rendered according to the
1152    PatternLayout.
1153
1154    SECURITY NOTE: this feature means arbitrary perl code can be embedded in
1155    the config file. In the rare case where the people who have access to
1156    your config file are different from the people who write your code and
1157    shouldn't have execute rights, you might want to set
1158
1159        Log::Log4perl::Config->allow_code(0);
1160
1161    before you call init(). Alternatively you can supply a restricted set of
1162    Perl opcodes that can be embedded in the config file as described in
1163    "Restricting what Opcodes can be in a Perl Hook".
1164
1165  Restricting what Opcodes can be in a Perl Hook
1166    The value you pass to Log::Log4perl::Config->allow_code() determines
1167    whether the code that is embedded in the config file is eval'd
1168    unrestricted, or eval'd in a Safe compartment. By default, a value of
1169    '1' is assumed, which does a normal 'eval' without any restrictions. A
1170    value of '0' however prevents any embedded code from being evaluated.
1171
1172    If you would like fine-grained control over what can and cannot be
1173    included in embedded code, then please utilize the following methods:
1174
1175     Log::Log4perl::Config->allow_code( $allow );
1176     Log::Log4perl::Config->allowed_code_ops($op1, $op2, ... );
1177     Log::Log4perl::Config->vars_shared_with_safe_compartment( [ \%vars | $package, \@vars ] );
1178     Log::Log4perl::Config->allowed_code_ops_convenience_map( [ \%map | $name, \@mask ] );
1179
1180    Log::Log4perl::Config->allowed_code_ops() takes a list of opcode masks
1181    that are allowed to run in the compartment. The opcode masks must be
1182    specified as described in Opcode:
1183
1184     Log::Log4perl::Config->allowed_code_ops(':subprocess');
1185
1186    This example would allow Perl operations like backticks, system, fork,
1187    and waitpid to be executed in the compartment. Of course, you probably
1188    don't want to use this mask -- it would allow exactly what the Safe
1189    compartment is designed to prevent.
1190
1191    Log::Log4perl::Config->vars_shared_with_safe_compartment() takes the
1192    symbols which should be exported into the Safe compartment before the
1193    code is evaluated. The keys of this hash are the package names that the
1194    symbols are in, and the values are array references to the literal
1195    symbol names. For convenience, the default settings export the '%ENV'
1196    hash from the 'main' package into the compartment:
1197
1198     Log::Log4perl::Config->vars_shared_with_safe_compartment(
1199       main => [ '%ENV' ],
1200     );
1201
1202    Log::Log4perl::Config->allowed_code_ops_convenience_map() is an accessor
1203    method to a map of convenience names to opcode masks. At present, the
1204    following convenience names are defined:
1205
1206     safe        = [ ':browse' ]
1207     restrictive = [ ':default' ]
1208
1209    For convenience, if Log::Log4perl::Config->allow_code() is called with a
1210    value which is a key of the map previously defined with
1211    Log::Log4perl::Config->allowed_code_ops_convenience_map(), then the
1212    allowed opcodes are set according to the value defined in the map. If
1213    this is confusing, consider the following:
1214
1215     use Log::Log4perl;
1216 
1217     my $config = <<'END';
1218      log4perl.logger = INFO, Main
1219      log4perl.appender.Main = Log::Log4perl::Appender::File
1220      log4perl.appender.Main.filename = \
1221          sub { "example" . getpwuid($<) . ".log" }
1222      log4perl.appender.Main.layout = Log::Log4perl::Layout::SimpleLayout
1223     END
1224 
1225     $Log::Log4perl::Config->allow_code('restrictive');
1226     Log::Log4perl->init( \$config );       # will fail
1227     $Log::Log4perl::Config->allow_code('safe');
1228     Log::Log4perl->init( \$config );       # will succeed
1229
1230    The reason that the first call to ->init() fails is because the
1231    'restrictive' name maps to an opcode mask of ':default'. getpwuid() is
1232    not part of ':default', so ->init() fails. The 'safe' name maps to an
1233    opcode mask of ':browse', which allows getpwuid() to run, so ->init()
1234    succeeds.
1235
1236    allowed_code_ops_convenience_map() can be invoked in several ways:
1237
1238    allowed_code_ops_convenience_map()
1239        Returns the entire convenience name map as a hash reference in
1240        scalar context or a hash in list context.
1241
1242    allowed_code_ops_convenience_map( \%map )
1243        Replaces the entire conveniece name map with the supplied hash
1244        reference.
1245
1246    allowed_code_ops_convenience_map( $name )
1247        Returns the opcode mask for the given convenience name, or undef if
1248        no such name is defined in the map.
1249
1250    allowed_code_ops_convenience_map( $name, \@mask )
1251        Adds the given name/mask pair to the convenience name map. If the
1252        name already exists in the map, it's value is replaced with the new
1253        mask.
1254
1255    as can vars_shared_with_safe_compartment():
1256
1257    vars_shared_with_safe_compartment()
1258        Return the entire map of packages to variables as a hash reference
1259        in scalar context or a hash in list context.
1260
1261    vars_shared_with_safe_compartment( \%packages )
1262        Replaces the entire map of packages to variables with the supplied
1263        hash reference.
1264
1265    vars_shared_with_safe_compartment( $package )
1266        Returns the arrayref of variables to be shared for a specific
1267        package.
1268
1269    vars_shared_with_safe_compartment( $package, \@vars )
1270        Adds the given package / varlist pair to the map. If the package
1271        already exists in the map, it's value is replaced with the new
1272        arrayref of variable names.
1273
1274    For more information on opcodes and Safe Compartments, see Opcode and
1275    Safe.
1276
1277  Changing the Log Level on a Logger
1278    Log4perl provides some internal functions for quickly adjusting the log
1279    level from within a running Perl program.
1280
1281    Now, some people might argue that you should adjust your levels from
1282    within an external Log4perl configuration file, but Log4perl is
1283    everybody's darling.
1284
1285    Typically run-time adjusting of levels is done at the beginning, or in
1286    response to some external input (like a "more logging" runtime command
1287    for diagnostics).
1288
1289    You get the log level from a logger object with:
1290
1291        $current_level = $logger->level();
1292
1293    and you may set it with the same method, provided you first imported the
1294    log level constants, with:
1295
1296        use Log::Log4perl::Level;
1297
1298    Then you can set the level on a logger to one of the constants,
1299
1300        $logger->level($ERROR); # one of DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL
1301
1302    To increase the level of logging currently being done, use:
1303
1304        $logger->more_logging($delta);
1305
1306    and to decrease it, use:
1307
1308        $logger->less_logging($delta);
1309
1310    $delta must be a positive integer (for now, we may fix this later ;).
1311
1312    There are also two equivalent functions:
1313
1314        $logger->inc_level($delta);
1315        $logger->dec_level($delta);
1316
1317    They're included to allow you a choice in readability. Some folks will
1318    prefer more/less_logging, as they're fairly clear in what they do, and
1319    allow the programmer not to worry too much about what a Level is and
1320    whether a higher Level means more or less logging. However, other folks
1321    who do understand and have lots of code that deals with levels will
1322    probably prefer the inc_level() and dec_level() methods as they want to
1323    work with Levels and not worry about whether that means more or less
1324    logging. :)
1325
1326    That diatribe aside, typically you'll use more_logging() or inc_level()
1327    as such:
1328
1329        my $v = 0; # default level of verbosity.
1330    
1331        GetOptions("v+" => \$v, ...);
1332
1333        $logger->more_logging($v);  # inc logging level once for each -v in ARGV
1334
1335  Custom Log Levels
1336    First off, let me tell you that creating custom levels is heavily
1337    deprecated by the log4j folks. Indeed, instead of creating additional
1338    levels on top of the predefined DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR and FATAL, you
1339    should use categories to control the amount of logging smartly, based on
1340    the location of the log-active code in the system.
1341
1342    Nevertheless, Log4perl provides a nice way to create custom levels via
1343    the create_custom_level() routine function. However, this must be done
1344    before the first call to init() or get_logger(). Say you want to create
1345    a NOTIFY logging level that comes after WARN (and thus before INFO).
1346    You'd do such as follows:
1347
1348        use Log::Log4perl;
1349        use Log::Log4perl::Level;
1350
1351        Log::Log4perl::Logger::create_custom_level("NOTIFY", "WARN");
1352
1353    And that's it! create_custom_level() creates the following functions /
1354    variables for level FOO:
1355
1356        $FOO_INT        # integer to use in L4p::Level::to_level()
1357        $logger->foo()  # log function to log if level = FOO
1358        $logger->is_foo()   # true if current level is >= FOO
1359
1360    These levels can also be used in your config file, but note that your
1361    config file probably won't be portable to another log4perl or log4j
1362    environment unless you've made the appropriate mods there too.
1363
1364    Since Log4perl translates log levels to syslog and Log::Dispatch if
1365    their appenders are used, you may add mappings for custom levels as
1366    well:
1367
1368      Log::Log4perl::Level::add_priority("NOTIFY", "WARN",
1369                                         $syslog_equiv, $log_dispatch_level);
1370
1371    For example, if your new custom "NOTIFY" level is supposed to map to
1372    syslog level 2 ("LOG_NOTICE") and Log::Dispatch level 2 ("notice"), use:
1373
1374      Log::Log4perl::Logger::create_custom_level("NOTIFY", "WARN", 2, 2);
1375
1376  System-wide log levels
1377    As a fairly drastic measure to decrease (or increase) the logging level
1378    all over the system with one single configuration option, use the
1379    "threshold" keyword in the Log4perl configuration file:
1380
1381        log4perl.threshold = ERROR
1382
1383    sets the system-wide (or hierarchy-wide according to the log4j
1384    documentation) to ERROR and therefore deprives every logger in the
1385    system of the right to log lower-prio messages.
1386
1387  Easy Mode
1388    For teaching purposes (especially for [1]), I've put ":easy" mode into
1389    "Log::Log4perl", which just initializes a single root logger with a
1390    defined priority and a screen appender including some nice standard
1391    layout:
1392
1393        ### Initialization Section
1394        use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);
1395        Log::Log4perl->easy_init($ERROR);  # Set priority of root logger to ERROR
1396
1397        ### Application Section
1398        my $logger = get_logger();
1399        $logger->fatal("This will get logged.");
1400        $logger->debug("This won't.");
1401
1402    This will dump something like
1403
1404        2002/08/04 11:43:09 ERROR> script.pl:16 main::function - This will get logged.
1405
1406    to the screen. While this has been proven to work well familiarizing
1407    people with "Log::Logperl" slowly, effectively avoiding to clobber them
1408    over the head with a plethora of different knobs to fiddle with
1409    (categories, appenders, levels, layout), the overall mission of
1410    "Log::Log4perl" is to let people use categories right from the start to
1411    get used to the concept. So, let's keep this one fairly hidden in the
1412    man page (congrats on reading this far :).
1413
1414  Stealth loggers
1415    Sometimes, people are lazy. If you're whipping up a 50-line script and
1416    want the comfort of Log::Log4perl without having the burden of carrying
1417    a separate log4perl.conf file or a 5-liner defining that you want to
1418    append your log statements to a file, you can use the following
1419    features:
1420
1421        use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);
1422
1423        Log::Log4perl->easy_init( { level   => $DEBUG,
1424                                    file    => ">>test.log" } );
1425
1426            # Logs to test.log via stealth logger
1427        DEBUG("Debug this!");
1428        INFO("Info this!");
1429        WARN("Warn this!");
1430        ERROR("Error this!");
1431
1432        some_function();
1433
1434        sub some_function {
1435                # Same here
1436            FATAL("Fatal this!");
1437        }
1438
1439    In ":easy" mode, "Log::Log4perl" will instantiate a *stealth logger* and
1440    introduce the convenience functions "TRACE", "DEBUG()", "INFO()",
1441    "WARN()", "ERROR()", "FATAL()", and "ALWAYS" into the package namespace.
1442    These functions simply take messages as arguments and forward them to
1443    the stealth loggers methods ("debug()", "info()", and so on).
1444
1445    If a message should never be blocked, regardless of the log level, use
1446    the "ALWAYS" function which corresponds to a log level of "OFF":
1447
1448        ALWAYS "This will be printed regardless of the log level";
1449
1450    The "easy_init" method can be called with a single level value to create
1451    a STDERR appender and a root logger as in
1452
1453        Log::Log4perl->easy_init($DEBUG);
1454
1455    or, as shown below (and in the example above) with a reference to a
1456    hash, specifying values for "level" (the logger's priority), "file" (the
1457    appender's data sink), "category" (the logger's category> and "layout"
1458    for the appender's pattern layout specification. All key-value pairs are
1459    optional, they default to $DEBUG for "level", "STDERR" for "file", ""
1460    (root category) for "category" and "%d %m%n" for "layout":
1461
1462        Log::Log4perl->easy_init( { level    => $DEBUG,
1463                                    file     => ">test.log",
1464                                    utf8     => 1,
1465                                    category => "Bar::Twix",
1466                                    layout   => '%F{1}-%L-%M: %m%n' } );
1467
1468    The "file" parameter takes file names preceded by ">" (overwrite) and
1469    ">>" (append) as arguments. This will cause
1470    "Log::Log4perl::Appender::File" appenders to be created behind the
1471    scenes. Also the keywords "STDOUT" and "STDERR" (no ">" or ">>") are
1472    recognized, which will utilize and configure
1473    "Log::Log4perl::Appender::Screen" appropriately. The "utf8" flag, if set
1474    to a true value, runs a "binmode" command on the file handle to
1475    establish a utf8 line discpline on the file, otherwise you'll get a
1476    'wide character in print' warning message and probably not what you'd
1477    expect as output.
1478
1479    The stealth loggers can be used in different packages, you just need to
1480    make sure you're calling the "use" function in every package you're
1481    using "Log::Log4perl"'s easy services:
1482
1483        package Bar::Twix;
1484        use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);
1485        sub eat { DEBUG("Twix mjam"); }
1486
1487        package Bar::Mars;
1488        use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);
1489        sub eat { INFO("Mars mjam"); }
1490
1491        package main;
1492
1493        use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);
1494
1495        Log::Log4perl->easy_init( { level    => $DEBUG,
1496                                    file     => ">>test.log",
1497                                    category => "Bar::Twix",
1498                                    layout   => '%F{1}-%L-%M: %m%n' },
1499                                  { level    => $DEBUG,
1500                                    file     => "STDOUT",
1501                                    category => "Bar::Mars",
1502                                    layout   => '%m%n' },
1503                                );
1504        Bar::Twix::eat();
1505        Bar::Mars::eat();
1506
1507    As shown above, "easy_init()" will take any number of different logger
1508    definitions as hash references.
1509
1510    Also, stealth loggers feature the functions "LOGWARN()", "LOGDIE()", and
1511    "LOGEXIT()", combining a logging request with a subsequent Perl warn()
1512    or die() or exit() statement. So, for example
1513
1514        if($all_is_lost) {
1515            LOGDIE("Terrible Problem");
1516        }
1517
1518    will log the message if the package's logger is at least "FATAL" but
1519    "die()" (including the traditional output to STDERR) in any case
1520    afterwards.
1521
1522    See "Log and die or warn" for the similar "logdie()" and "logwarn()"
1523    functions of regular (i.e non-stealth) loggers.
1524
1525    Similarily, "LOGCARP()", "LOGCLUCK()", "LOGCROAK()", and "LOGCONFESS()"
1526    are provided in ":easy" mode, facilitating the use of "logcarp()",
1527    "logcluck()", "logcroak()", and "logconfess()" with stealth loggers.
1528
1529    When using Log::Log4perl in easy mode, please make sure you understand
1530    the implications of "Pitfalls with Categories".
1531
1532    By the way, these convenience functions perform exactly as fast as the
1533    standard Log::Log4perl logger methods, there's *no* performance penalty
1534    whatsoever.
1535
1536  Nested Diagnostic Context (NDC)
1537    If you find that your application could use a global (thread-specific)
1538    data stack which your loggers throughout the system have easy access to,
1539    use Nested Diagnostic Contexts (NDCs). Also check out "Mapped Diagnostic
1540    Context (MDC)", this might turn out to be even more useful.
1541
1542    For example, when handling a request of a web client, it's probably
1543    useful to have the user's IP address available in all log statements
1544    within code dealing with this particular request. Instead of passing
1545    this piece of data around between your application functions, you can
1546    just use the global (but thread-specific) NDC mechanism. It allows you
1547    to push data pieces (scalars usually) onto its stack via
1548
1549        Log::Log4perl::NDC->push("San");
1550        Log::Log4perl::NDC->push("Francisco");
1551
1552    and have your loggers retrieve them again via the "%x" placeholder in
1553    the PatternLayout. With the stack values above and a PatternLayout
1554    format like "%x %m%n", the call
1555
1556        $logger->debug("rocks");
1557
1558    will end up as
1559
1560        San Francisco rocks
1561
1562    in the log appender.
1563
1564    The stack mechanism allows for nested structures. Just make sure that at
1565    the end of the request, you either decrease the stack one by one by
1566    calling
1567
1568        Log::Log4perl::NDC->pop();
1569        Log::Log4perl::NDC->pop();
1570
1571    or clear out the entire NDC stack by calling
1572
1573        Log::Log4perl::NDC->remove();
1574
1575    Even if you should forget to do that, "Log::Log4perl" won't grow the
1576    stack indefinitely, but limit it to a maximum, defined in
1577    "Log::Log4perl::NDC" (currently 5). A call to "push()" on a full stack
1578    will just replace the topmost element by the new value.
1579
1580    Again, the stack is always available via the "%x" placeholder in the
1581    Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout class whenever a logger fires. It
1582    will replace "%x" by the blank-separated list of the values on the
1583    stack. It does that by just calling
1584
1585        Log::Log4perl::NDC->get();
1586
1587    internally. See details on how this standard log4j feature is
1588    implemented in Log::Log4perl::NDC.
1589
1590  Mapped Diagnostic Context (MDC)
1591    Just like the previously discussed NDC stores thread-specific
1592    information in a stack structure, the MDC implements a hash table to
1593    store key/value pairs in.
1594
1595    The static method
1596
1597        Log::Log4perl::MDC->put($key, $value);
1598
1599    stores $value under a key $key, with which it can be retrieved later
1600    (possibly in a totally different part of the system) by calling the
1601    "get" method:
1602
1603        my $value = Log::Log4perl::MDC->get($key);
1604
1605    If no value has been stored previously under $key, the "get" method will
1606    return "undef".
1607
1608    Typically, MDC values are retrieved later on via the "%X{...}"
1609    placeholder in "Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout". If the "get()"
1610    method returns "undef", the placeholder will expand to the string
1611    "[undef]".
1612
1613    An application taking a web request might store the remote host like
1614
1615        Log::Log4perl::MDC->put("remote_host", $r->headers("HOST"));
1616
1617    at its beginning and if the appender's layout looks something like
1618
1619        log4perl.appender.Logfile.layout.ConversionPattern = %X{remote_host}: %m%n
1620
1621    then a log statement like
1622
1623       DEBUG("Content delivered");
1624
1625    will log something like
1626
1627       adsl-63.dsl.snf.pacbell.net: Content delivered
1628
1629    later on in the program.
1630
1631    For details, please check Log::Log4perl::MDC.
1632
1633  Resurrecting hidden Log4perl Statements
1634    Sometimes scripts need to be deployed in environments without having
1635    Log::Log4perl installed yet. On the other hand, you dont't want to live
1636    without your Log4perl statements -- they're gonna come in handy later.
1637
1638    So, just deploy your script with Log4perl statements commented out with
1639    the pattern "###l4p", like in
1640
1641        ###l4p DEBUG "It works!";
1642        # ...
1643        ###l4p INFO "Really!";
1644
1645    If Log::Log4perl is available, use the ":resurrect" tag to have Log4perl
1646    resurrect those burried statements before the script starts running:
1647
1648        use Log::Log4perl qw(:resurrect :easy);
1649
1650        ###l4p Log::Log4perl->easy_init($DEBUG);
1651        ###l4p DEBUG "It works!";
1652        # ...
1653        ###l4p INFO "Really!";
1654
1655    This will have a source filter kick in and indeed print
1656
1657        2004/11/18 22:08:46 It works!
1658        2004/11/18 22:08:46 Really!
1659
1660    In environments lacking Log::Log4perl, just comment out the first line
1661    and the script will run nevertheless (but of course without logging):
1662
1663        # use Log::Log4perl qw(:resurrect :easy);
1664
1665        ###l4p Log::Log4perl->easy_init($DEBUG);
1666        ###l4p DEBUG "It works!";
1667        # ...
1668        ###l4p INFO "Really!";
1669
1670    because everything's a regular comment now. Alternatively, put the magic
1671    Log::Log4perl comment resurrection line into your shell's PERL5OPT
1672    environment variable, e.g. for bash:
1673
1674        set PERL5OPT=-MLog::Log4perl=:resurrect,:easy
1675        export PERL5OPT
1676
1677    This will awaken the giant within an otherwise silent script like the
1678    following:
1679
1680        #!/usr/bin/perl
1681
1682        ###l4p Log::Log4perl->easy_init($DEBUG);
1683        ###l4p DEBUG "It works!";
1684
1685    As of "Log::Log4perl" 1.12, you can even force *all* modules loaded by a
1686    script to have their hidden Log4perl statements resurrected. For this to
1687    happen, load "Log::Log4perl::Resurrector" *before* loading any modules:
1688
1689        use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);
1690        use Log::Log4perl::Resurrector;
1691
1692        use Foobar; # All hidden Log4perl statements in here will
1693                    # be uncommented before Foobar gets loaded.
1694
1695        Log::Log4perl->easy_init($DEBUG);
1696        ...
1697
1698    Check the "Log::Log4perl::Resurrector" manpage for more details.
1699
1700  Access defined appenders
1701    All appenders defined in the configuration file or via Perl code can be
1702    retrieved by the "appender_by_name()" class method. This comes in handy
1703    if you want to manipulate or query appender properties after the
1704    Log4perl configuration has been loaded via "init()".
1705
1706    Note that internally, Log::Log4perl uses the "Log::Log4perl::Appender"
1707    wrapper class to control the real appenders (like
1708    "Log::Log4perl::Appender::File" or "Log::Dispatch::FileRotate"). The
1709    "Log::Log4perl::Appender" class has an "appender" attribute, pointing to
1710    the real appender.
1711
1712    The reason for this is that external appenders like
1713    "Log::Dispatch::FileRotate" don't support all of Log::Log4perl's
1714    appender control mechanisms (like appender thresholds).
1715
1716    The previously mentioned method "appender_by_name()" returns a reference
1717    to the *real* appender object. If you want access to the wrapper class
1718    (e.g. if you want to modify the appender's threshold), use the hash
1719    $Log::Log4perl::Logger::APPENDER_BY_NAME{...} instead, which holds
1720    references to all appender wrapper objects.
1721
1722  Modify appender thresholds
1723    To conveniently adjust appender thresholds (e.g. because a script uses
1724    more_logging()), use
1725
1726           # decrease thresholds of all appenders
1727        Log::Log4perl->appender_thresholds_adjust(-1);
1728
1729    This will decrease the thresholds of all appenders in the system by one
1730    level, i.e. WARN becomes INFO, INFO becomes DEBUG, etc. To only modify
1731    selected ones, use
1732
1733           # decrease thresholds of all appenders
1734        Log::Log4perl->appender_thresholds_adjust(-1, ['AppName1', ...]);
1735
1736    and pass the names of affected appenders in a ref to an array.
1737
1738Advanced configuration within Perl
1739    Initializing Log::Log4perl can certainly also be done from within Perl.
1740    At last, this is what "Log::Log4perl::Config" does behind the scenes.
1741    Log::Log4perl's configuration file parsers are using a publically
1742    available API to set up Log::Log4perl's categories, appenders and
1743    layouts.
1744
1745    Here's an example on how to configure two appenders with the same layout
1746    in Perl, without using a configuration file at all:
1747
1748      ########################
1749      # Initialization section
1750      ########################
1751      use Log::Log4perl;
1752      use Log::Log4perl::Layout;
1753      use Log::Log4perl::Level;
1754
1755         # Define a category logger
1756      my $log = Log::Log4perl->get_logger("Foo::Bar");
1757
1758         # Define a layout
1759      my $layout = Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout->new("[%r] %F %L %m%n");
1760
1761         # Define a file appender
1762      my $file_appender = Log::Log4perl::Appender->new(
1763                              "Log::Log4perl::Appender::File",
1764                              name      => "filelog",
1765                              filename  => "/tmp/my.log");
1766
1767         # Define a stdout appender
1768      my $stdout_appender =  Log::Log4perl::Appender->new(
1769                              "Log::Log4perl::Appender::Screen",
1770                              name      => "screenlog",
1771                              stderr    => 0);
1772
1773         # Have both appenders use the same layout (could be different)
1774      $stdout_appender->layout($layout);
1775      $file_appender->layout($layout);
1776
1777      $log->add_appender($stdout_appender);
1778      $log->add_appender($file_appender);
1779      $log->level($INFO);
1780
1781    Please note the class of the appender object is passed as a *string* to
1782    "Log::Log4perl::Appender" in the *first* argument. Behind the scenes,
1783    "Log::Log4perl::Appender" will create the necessary
1784    "Log::Log4perl::Appender::*" (or "Log::Dispatch::*") object and pass
1785    along the name value pairs we provided to
1786    "Log::Log4perl::Appender->new()" after the first argument.
1787
1788    The "name" value is optional and if you don't provide one,
1789    "Log::Log4perl::Appender->new()" will create a unique one for you. The
1790    names and values of additional parameters are dependent on the
1791    requirements of the particular appender class and can be looked up in
1792    their manual pages.
1793
1794    A side note: In case you're wondering if
1795    "Log::Log4perl::Appender->new()" will also take care of the "min_level"
1796    argument to the "Log::Dispatch::*" constructors called behind the scenes
1797    -- yes, it does. This is because we want the "Log::Dispatch" objects to
1798    blindly log everything we send them ("debug" is their lowest setting)
1799    because *we* in "Log::Log4perl" want to call the shots and decide on
1800    when and what to log.
1801
1802    The call to the appender's *layout()* method specifies the format (as a
1803    previously created "Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout" object) in
1804    which the message is being logged in the specified appender. If you
1805    don't specify a layout, the logger will fall back to
1806    "Log::Log4perl::SimpleLayout", which logs the debug level, a hyphen (-)
1807    and the log message.
1808
1809    Layouts are objects, here's how you create them:
1810
1811            # Create a simple layout
1812        my $simple = Log::Log4perl::SimpleLayout();
1813
1814            # create a flexible layout:
1815            # ("yyyy/MM/dd hh:mm:ss (file:lineno)> message\n")
1816        my $pattern = Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout("%d (%F:%L)> %m%n");
1817
1818    Every appender has exactly one layout assigned to it. You assign the
1819    layout to the appender using the appender's "layout()" object:
1820
1821        my $app =  Log::Log4perl::Appender->new(
1822                      "Log::Log4perl::Appender::Screen",
1823                      name      => "screenlog",
1824                      stderr    => 0);
1825
1826            # Assign the previously defined flexible layout
1827        $app->layout($pattern);
1828
1829            # Add the appender to a previously defined logger
1830        $logger->add_appender($app);
1831
1832            # ... and you're good to go!
1833        $logger->debug("Blah");
1834            # => "2002/07/10 23:55:35 (test.pl:207)> Blah\n"
1835
1836    It's also possible to remove appenders from a logger:
1837
1838        $logger->remove_appender($appender_name);
1839
1840    will remove an appender, specified by name, from a given logger. Please
1841    note that this does *not* remove an appender from the system.
1842
1843    To eradicate an appender from the system, you need to call
1844    "Log::Log4perl->eradicate_appender($appender_name)" which will first
1845    remove the appender from every logger in the system and then will delete
1846    all references Log4perl holds to it.
1847
1848    To remove a logger from the system, use
1849    "Log::Log4perl->remove_logger($logger)". After the remaining reference
1850    $logger goes away, the logger will self-destruct. If the logger in
1851    question is a stealth logger, all of its convenience shortcuts (DEBUG,
1852    INFO, etc) will turn into no-ops.
1853
1854How about Log::Dispatch::Config?
1855    Tatsuhiko Miyagawa's "Log::Dispatch::Config" is a very clever simplified
1856    logger implementation, covering some of the *log4j* functionality. Among
1857    the things that "Log::Log4perl" can but "Log::Dispatch::Config" can't
1858    are:
1859
1860    *   You can't assign categories to loggers. For small systems that's
1861        fine, but if you can't turn off and on detailed logging in only a
1862        tiny subsystem of your environment, you're missing out on a majorly
1863        useful log4j feature.
1864
1865    *   Defining appender thresholds. Important if you want to solve
1866        problems like "log all messages of level FATAL to STDERR, plus log
1867        all DEBUG messages in "Foo::Bar" to a log file". If you don't have
1868        appenders thresholds, there's no way to prevent cluttering STDERR
1869        with DEBUG messages.
1870
1871    *   PatternLayout specifications in accordance with the standard (e.g.
1872        "%d{HH:mm}").
1873
1874    Bottom line: Log::Dispatch::Config is fine for small systems with simple
1875    logging requirements. However, if you're designing a system with lots of
1876    subsystems which you need to control independantly, you'll love the
1877    features of "Log::Log4perl", which is equally easy to use.
1878
1879Using Log::Log4perl with wrapper functions and classes
1880    If you don't use "Log::Log4perl" as described above, but from a wrapper
1881    function, the pattern layout will generate wrong data for %F, %C, %L,
1882    and the like. Reason for this is that "Log::Log4perl"'s loggers assume a
1883    static caller depth to the application that's using them.
1884
1885    If you're using one (or more) wrapper functions, "Log::Log4perl" will
1886    indicate where your logger function called the loggers, not where your
1887    application called your wrapper:
1888
1889        use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);
1890        Log::Log4perl->easy_init({ level => $DEBUG, 
1891                                   layout => "%M %m%n" });
1892
1893        sub mylog {
1894            my($message) = @_;
1895
1896            DEBUG $message;
1897        }
1898
1899        sub func {
1900            mylog "Hello";
1901        }
1902
1903        func();
1904
1905    prints
1906
1907        main::mylog Hello
1908
1909    but that's probably not what your application expects. Rather, you'd
1910    want
1911
1912        main::func Hello
1913
1914    because the "func" function called your logging function.
1915
1916    But don't dispair, there's a solution: Just register your wrapper
1917    package with Log4perl beforehand. If Log4perl then finds that it's being
1918    called from a registered wrapper, it will automatically step up to the
1919    next call frame.
1920
1921        Log::Log4perl->wrapper_register(__PACKAGE__);
1922
1923        sub mylog {
1924            my($message) = @_;
1925
1926            DEBUG $message;
1927        }
1928
1929    Alternatively, you can increase the value of the global variable
1930    $Log::Log4perl::caller_depth (defaults to 0) by one for every wrapper
1931    that's in between your application and "Log::Log4perl", then
1932    "Log::Log4perl" will compensate for the difference:
1933
1934        sub mylog {
1935            my($message) = @_;
1936
1937            local $Log::Log4perl::caller_depth =
1938                  $Log::Log4perl::caller_depth + 1;
1939            DEBUG $message;
1940        }
1941
1942    Also, note that if you're writing a subclass of Log4perl, like
1943
1944        package MyL4pWrapper;
1945        use Log::Log4perl;
1946        our @ISA = qw(Log::Log4perl);
1947
1948    and you want to call get_logger() in your code, like
1949
1950        use MyL4pWrapper;
1951
1952        sub get_logger {
1953            my $logger = Log::Log4perl->get_logger();
1954        }
1955
1956    then the get_logger() call will get a logger for the "MyL4pWrapper"
1957    category, not for the package calling the wrapper class as in
1958
1959        package UserPackage;
1960        my $logger = MyL4pWrapper->get_logger();
1961
1962    To have the above call to get_logger return a logger for the
1963    "UserPackage" category, you need to tell Log4perl that "MyL4pWrapper" is
1964    a Log4perl wrapper class:
1965
1966        use MyL4pWrapper;
1967        Log::Log4perl->wrapper_register(__PACKAGE__);
1968
1969        sub get_logger {
1970              # Now gets a logger for the category of the calling package
1971            my $logger = Log::Log4perl->get_logger();
1972        }
1973
1974    This feature works both for Log4perl-relaying classes like the wrapper
1975    described above, and for wrappers that inherit from Log4perl use
1976    Log4perl's get_logger function via inheritance, alike.
1977
1978Access to Internals
1979    The following methods are only of use if you want to peek/poke in the
1980    internals of Log::Log4perl. Be careful not to disrupt its inner
1981    workings.
1982
1983    "Log::Log4perl->appenders()"
1984        To find out which appenders are currently defined (not only for a
1985        particular logger, but overall), a "appenders()" method is available
1986        to return a reference to a hash mapping appender names to their
1987        Log::Log4perl::Appender object references.
1988
1989Dirty Tricks
1990    infiltrate_lwp()
1991        The famous LWP::UserAgent module isn't Log::Log4perl-enabled. Often,
1992        though, especially when tracing Web-related problems, it would be
1993        helpful to get some insight on what's happening inside
1994        LWP::UserAgent. Ideally, LWP::UserAgent would even play along in the
1995        Log::Log4perl framework.
1996
1997        A call to "Log::Log4perl->infiltrate_lwp()" does exactly this. In a
1998        very rude way, it pulls the rug from under LWP::UserAgent and
1999        transforms its "debug/conn" messages into "debug()" calls of loggers
2000        of the category "LWP::UserAgent". Similarily, "LWP::UserAgent"'s
2001        "trace" messages are turned into "Log::Log4perl"'s "info()" method
2002        calls. Note that this only works for LWP::UserAgent versions <
2003        5.822, because this (and probably later) versions miss debugging
2004        functions entirely.
2005
2006    Suppressing 'duplicate' LOGDIE messages
2007        If a script with a simple Log4perl configuration uses logdie() to
2008        catch errors and stop processing, as in
2009
2010            use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy) ;
2011            Log::Log4perl->easy_init($DEBUG);
2012    
2013            shaky_function() or LOGDIE "It failed!";
2014
2015        there's a cosmetic problem: The message gets printed twice:
2016
2017            2005/07/10 18:37:14 It failed!
2018            It failed! at ./t line 12
2019
2020        The obvious solution is to use LOGEXIT() instead of LOGDIE(), but
2021        there's also a special tag for Log4perl that suppresses the second
2022        message:
2023
2024            use Log::Log4perl qw(:no_extra_logdie_message);
2025
2026        This causes logdie() and logcroak() to call exit() instead of die().
2027        To modify the script exit code in these occasions, set the variable
2028        $Log::Log4perl::LOGEXIT_CODE to the desired value, the default is 1.
2029
2030    Redefine values without causing errors
2031        Log4perl's configuration file parser has a few basic safety
2032        mechanisms to make sure configurations are more or less sane.
2033
2034        One of these safety measures is catching redefined values. For
2035        example, if you first write
2036
2037            log4perl.category = WARN, Logfile
2038
2039        and then a couple of lines later
2040
2041            log4perl.category = TRACE, Logfile
2042
2043        then you might have unintentionally overwritten the first value and
2044        Log4perl will die on this with an error (suspicious configurations
2045        always throw an error). Now, there's a chance that this is
2046        intentional, for example when you're lumping together several
2047        configuration files and actually *want* the first value to overwrite
2048        the second. In this case use
2049
2050            use Log::Log4perl qw(:nostrict);
2051
2052        to put Log4perl in a more permissive mode.
2053
2054    Prevent croak/confess from stringifying
2055        The logcroak/logconfess functions stringify their arguments before
2056        they pass them to Carp's croak/confess functions. This can get in
2057        the way if you want to throw an object or a hashref as an exception,
2058        in this case use:
2059
2060            $Log::Log4perl::STRINGIFY_DIE_MESSAGE = 0;
2061
2062            eval {
2063                  # throws { foo => "bar" }
2064                  # without stringification
2065                $logger->logcroak( { foo => "bar" } );
2066            };
2067
2068EXAMPLE
2069    A simple example to cut-and-paste and get started:
2070
2071        use Log::Log4perl qw(get_logger);
2072    
2073        my $conf = q(
2074        log4perl.category.Bar.Twix         = WARN, Logfile
2075        log4perl.appender.Logfile          = Log::Log4perl::Appender::File
2076        log4perl.appender.Logfile.filename = test.log
2077        log4perl.appender.Logfile.layout = \
2078            Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout
2079        log4perl.appender.Logfile.layout.ConversionPattern = %d %F{1} %L> %m %n
2080        );
2081    
2082        Log::Log4perl::init(\$conf);
2083    
2084        my $logger = get_logger("Bar::Twix");
2085        $logger->error("Blah");
2086
2087    This will log something like
2088
2089        2002/09/19 23:48:15 t1 25> Blah
2090
2091    to the log file "test.log", which Log4perl will append to or create it
2092    if it doesn't exist already.
2093
2094INSTALLATION
2095    If you want to use external appenders provided with "Log::Dispatch", you
2096    need to install "Log::Dispatch" (2.00 or better) from CPAN, which itself
2097    depends on "Attribute-Handlers" and "Params-Validate". And a lot of
2098    other modules, that's the reason why we're now shipping Log::Log4perl
2099    with its own standard appenders and only if you wish to use additional
2100    ones, you'll have to go through the "Log::Dispatch" installation
2101    process.
2102
2103    Log::Log4perl needs "Test::More", "Test::Harness" and "File::Spec", but
2104    they already come with fairly recent versions of perl. If not,
2105    everything's automatically fetched from CPAN if you're using the CPAN
2106    shell (CPAN.pm), because they're listed as dependencies.
2107
2108    "Time::HiRes" (1.20 or better) is required only if you need the
2109    fine-grained time stamps of the %r parameter in
2110    "Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout".
2111
2112    Manual installation works as usual with
2113
2114        perl Makefile.PL
2115        make
2116        make test
2117        make install
2118
2119    If you're running Windows (98, 2000, NT, XP etc.), and you're too lazy
2120    to rummage through all of Log-Log4perl's dependencies, don't despair:
2121    We're providing a PPM package which installs easily with your
2122    Activestate Perl. Check
2123    "how_can_i_install_log__log4perl_on_microsoft_windows" in
2124    Log::Log4perl::FAQ for details.
2125
2126DEVELOPMENT
2127    Log::Log4perl is still being actively developed. We will always make
2128    sure the test suite (approx. 500 cases) will pass, but there might still
2129    be bugs. please check http://github.com/mschilli/log4perl for the latest
2130    release. The api has reached a mature state, we will not change it
2131    unless for a good reason.
2132
2133    Bug reports and feedback are always welcome, just email them to our
2134    mailing list shown in the AUTHORS section. We're usually addressing them
2135    immediately.
2136
2137REFERENCES
2138    [1] Michael Schilli, "Retire your debugger, log smartly with
2139        Log::Log4perl!", Tutorial on perl.com, 09/2002,
2140        http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2002/09/11/log4perl.html
2141
2142    [2] Cekilcü, "Short introduction to log4j",
2143        http://jakarta.apache.org/log4j/docs/manual.html
2144
2145    [3] Vipan Singla, "Don't Use System.out.println! Use Log4j.",
2146        http://www.vipan.com/htdocs/log4jhelp.html
2147
2148    [4] The Log::Log4perl project home page: http://log4perl.com
2149
2150SEE ALSO
2151    Log::Log4perl::Config, Log::Log4perl::Appender,
2152    Log::Log4perl::Layout::PatternLayout,
2153    Log::Log4perl::Layout::SimpleLayout, Log::Log4perl::Level,
2154    Log::Log4perl::JavaMap Log::Log4perl::NDC,
2155
2156AUTHORS
2157    Please contribute patches to the project on Github:
2158
2159        http://github.com/mschilli/log4perl
2160
2161    Send bug reports or requests for enhancements to the authors via our
2162
2163    MAILING LIST (questions, bug reports, suggestions/patches):
2164    log4perl-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
2165
2166    Authors (please contact them via the list above, not directly): Mike
2167    Schilli <m@perlmeister.com>, Kevin Goess <cpan@goess.org>
2168
2169    Contributors (in alphabetical order): Ateeq Altaf, Cory Bennett, Jens
2170    Berthold, Jeremy Bopp, Hutton Davidson, Chris R. Donnelly, Matisse
2171    Enzer, Hugh Esco, Anthony Foiani, James FitzGibbon, Carl Franks, Dennis
2172    Gregorovic, Andy Grundman, Paul Harrington, David Hull, Robert Jacobson,
2173    Jason Kohles, Jeff Macdonald, Markus Peter, Brett Rann, Peter Rabbitson,
2174    Erik Selberg, Aaron Straup Cope, Lars Thegler, David Viner, Mac Yang.
2175
2176LICENSE
2177    Copyright 2002-2012 by Mike Schilli <m@perlmeister.com> and Kevin Goess
2178    <cpan@goess.org>.
2179
2180    This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
2181    under the same terms as Perl itself.
2182
2183