mirror of
https://github.com/ceph/ceph-csi.git
synced 2024-12-23 13:30:23 +00:00
182 lines
7.3 KiB
Markdown
182 lines
7.3 KiB
Markdown
|
# A more minimal logging API for Go
|
||
|
|
||
|
Before you consider this package, please read [this blog post by the
|
||
|
inimitable Dave Cheney][warning-makes-no-sense]. I really appreciate what
|
||
|
he has to say, and it largely aligns with my own experiences. Too many
|
||
|
choices of levels means inconsistent logs.
|
||
|
|
||
|
This package offers a purely abstract interface, based on these ideas but with
|
||
|
a few twists. Code can depend on just this interface and have the actual
|
||
|
logging implementation be injected from callers. Ideally only `main()` knows
|
||
|
what logging implementation is being used.
|
||
|
|
||
|
# Differences from Dave's ideas
|
||
|
|
||
|
The main differences are:
|
||
|
|
||
|
1) Dave basically proposes doing away with the notion of a logging API in favor
|
||
|
of `fmt.Printf()`. I disagree, especially when you consider things like output
|
||
|
locations, timestamps, file and line decorations, and structured logging. I
|
||
|
restrict the API to just 2 types of logs: info and error.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Info logs are things you want to tell the user which are not errors. Error
|
||
|
logs are, well, errors. If your code receives an `error` from a subordinate
|
||
|
function call and is logging that `error` *and not returning it*, use error
|
||
|
logs.
|
||
|
|
||
|
2) Verbosity-levels on info logs. This gives developers a chance to indicate
|
||
|
arbitrary grades of importance for info logs, without assigning names with
|
||
|
semantic meaning such as "warning", "trace", and "debug". Superficially this
|
||
|
may feel very similar, but the primary difference is the lack of semantics.
|
||
|
Because verbosity is a numerical value, it's safe to assume that an app running
|
||
|
with higher verbosity means more (and less important) logs will be generated.
|
||
|
|
||
|
This is a BETA grade API.
|
||
|
|
||
|
There are implementations for the following logging libraries:
|
||
|
|
||
|
- **github.com/google/glog**: [glogr](https://github.com/go-logr/glogr)
|
||
|
- **k8s.io/klog**: [klogr](https://git.k8s.io/klog/klogr)
|
||
|
- **go.uber.org/zap**: [zapr](https://github.com/go-logr/zapr)
|
||
|
- **log** (the Go standard library logger):
|
||
|
[stdr](https://github.com/go-logr/stdr)
|
||
|
- **github.com/sirupsen/logrus**: [logrusr](https://github.com/bombsimon/logrusr)
|
||
|
|
||
|
# FAQ
|
||
|
|
||
|
## Conceptual
|
||
|
|
||
|
## Why structured logging?
|
||
|
|
||
|
- **Structured logs are more easily queriable**: Since you've got
|
||
|
key-value pairs, it's much easier to query your structured logs for
|
||
|
particular values by filtering on the contents of a particular key --
|
||
|
think searching request logs for error codes, Kubernetes reconcilers for
|
||
|
the name and namespace of the reconciled object, etc
|
||
|
|
||
|
- **Structured logging makes it easier to have cross-referencable logs**:
|
||
|
Similarly to searchability, if you maintain conventions around your
|
||
|
keys, it becomes easy to gather all log lines related to a particular
|
||
|
concept.
|
||
|
|
||
|
- **Structured logs allow better dimensions of filtering**: if you have
|
||
|
structure to your logs, you've got more precise control over how much
|
||
|
information is logged -- you might choose in a particular configuration
|
||
|
to log certain keys but not others, only log lines where a certain key
|
||
|
matches a certain value, etc, instead of just having v-levels and names
|
||
|
to key off of.
|
||
|
|
||
|
- **Structured logs better represent structured data**: sometimes, the
|
||
|
data that you want to log is inherently structured (think tuple-link
|
||
|
objects). Structured logs allow you to preserve that structure when
|
||
|
outputting.
|
||
|
|
||
|
## Why V-levels?
|
||
|
|
||
|
**V-levels give operators an easy way to control the chattiness of log
|
||
|
operations**. V-levels provide a way for a given package to distinguish
|
||
|
the relative importance or verbosity of a given log message. Then, if
|
||
|
a particular logger or package is logging too many messages, the user
|
||
|
of the package can simply change the v-levels for that library.
|
||
|
|
||
|
## Why not more named levels, like Warning?
|
||
|
|
||
|
Read [Dave Cheney's post][warning-makes-no-sense]. Then read [Differences
|
||
|
from Dave's ideas](#differences-from-daves-ideas).
|
||
|
|
||
|
## Why not allow format strings, too?
|
||
|
|
||
|
**Format strings negate many of the benefits of structured logs**:
|
||
|
|
||
|
- They're not easily searchable without resorting to fuzzy searching,
|
||
|
regular expressions, etc
|
||
|
|
||
|
- They don't store structured data well, since contents are flattened into
|
||
|
a string
|
||
|
|
||
|
- They're not cross-referencable
|
||
|
|
||
|
- They don't compress easily, since the message is not constant
|
||
|
|
||
|
(unless you turn positional parameters into key-value pairs with numerical
|
||
|
keys, at which point you've gotten key-value logging with meaningless
|
||
|
keys)
|
||
|
|
||
|
## Practical
|
||
|
|
||
|
## Why key-value pairs, and not a map?
|
||
|
|
||
|
Key-value pairs are *much* easier to optimize, especially around
|
||
|
allocations. Zap (a structured logger that inspired logr's interface) has
|
||
|
[performance measurements](https://github.com/uber-go/zap#performance)
|
||
|
that show this quite nicely.
|
||
|
|
||
|
While the interface ends up being a little less obvious, you get
|
||
|
potentially better performance, plus avoid making users type
|
||
|
`map[string]string{}` every time they want to log.
|
||
|
|
||
|
## What if my V-levels differ between libraries?
|
||
|
|
||
|
That's fine. Control your V-levels on a per-logger basis, and use the
|
||
|
`WithName` function to pass different loggers to different libraries.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Generally, you should take care to ensure that you have relatively
|
||
|
consistent V-levels within a given logger, however, as this makes deciding
|
||
|
on what verbosity of logs to request easier.
|
||
|
|
||
|
## But I *really* want to use a format string!
|
||
|
|
||
|
That's not actually a question. Assuming your question is "how do
|
||
|
I convert my mental model of logging with format strings to logging with
|
||
|
constant messages":
|
||
|
|
||
|
1. figure out what the error actually is, as you'd write in a TL;DR style,
|
||
|
and use that as a message
|
||
|
|
||
|
2. For every place you'd write a format specifier, look to the word before
|
||
|
it, and add that as a key value pair
|
||
|
|
||
|
For instance, consider the following examples (all taken from spots in the
|
||
|
Kubernetes codebase):
|
||
|
|
||
|
- `klog.V(4).Infof("Client is returning errors: code %v, error %v",
|
||
|
responseCode, err)` becomes `logger.Error(err, "client returned an
|
||
|
error", "code", responseCode)`
|
||
|
|
||
|
- `klog.V(4).Infof("Got a Retry-After %ds response for attempt %d to %v",
|
||
|
seconds, retries, url)` becomes `logger.V(4).Info("got a retry-after
|
||
|
response when requesting url", "attempt", retries, "after
|
||
|
seconds", seconds, "url", url)`
|
||
|
|
||
|
If you *really* must use a format string, place it as a key value, and
|
||
|
call `fmt.Sprintf` yourself -- for instance, `log.Printf("unable to
|
||
|
reflect over type %T")` becomes `logger.Info("unable to reflect over
|
||
|
type", "type", fmt.Sprintf("%T"))`. In general though, the cases where
|
||
|
this is necessary should be few and far between.
|
||
|
|
||
|
## How do I choose my V-levels?
|
||
|
|
||
|
This is basically the only hard constraint: increase V-levels to denote
|
||
|
more verbose or more debug-y logs.
|
||
|
|
||
|
Otherwise, you can start out with `0` as "you always want to see this",
|
||
|
`1` as "common logging that you might *possibly* want to turn off", and
|
||
|
`10` as "I would like to performance-test your log collection stack".
|
||
|
|
||
|
Then gradually choose levels in between as you need them, working your way
|
||
|
down from 10 (for debug and trace style logs) and up from 1 (for chattier
|
||
|
info-type logs).
|
||
|
|
||
|
## How do I choose my keys
|
||
|
|
||
|
- make your keys human-readable
|
||
|
- constant keys are generally a good idea
|
||
|
- be consistent across your codebase
|
||
|
- keys should naturally match parts of the message string
|
||
|
|
||
|
While key names are mostly unrestricted (and spaces are acceptable),
|
||
|
it's generally a good idea to stick to printable ascii characters, or at
|
||
|
least match the general character set of your log lines.
|
||
|
|
||
|
[warning-makes-no-sense]: http://dave.cheney.net/2015/11/05/lets-talk-about-logging
|