[EROS-Arch] Error logging

[Ben Laurie]

"Jonathan S. Shapiro" wrote:
> 
> > The problem with bounded circular logs is that they lend themselves to
> > track-covering. I presume what you would usually want is a bounded
> > non-circular log - once full, attempts to access it would fail or block,
> > depending on your choice, I guess.
> >
> > Circular logs should only be used for non-critical information.
> 
> So should we stop the machine because gcc can't write an assertion()?

Not the machine, the process.

> A diagnostic log is not a guarantee that you can figure out what happened.
> It is merely a potentially useful tool. Viewed in that light, a bounded
> circular log is acceptable for this application.
> 
> This is decidedly *not* true of an audit log, which must indeed last a long
> time. I think we may be talking about two different cases here.

Right, I was considering audit logs (and what you were saying suggested
you were, too).

> The questions, which I had not considered, would then seem to be:
> 
>     1. Should these logs be distinct?

Yes.

>     2. How should the audit log be handled?

See above :-)

>     3. In a decomposed system, how useful is an audit log?

_An_ audit log, probably not much. A collection of them, plenty.

OTOH, surely, components can share an audit log without risk (assuming
they share a set of mutually trusting developers, that is)?

Cheers,

Ben.

--
http://www.apache-ssl.org/ben.html

"There is no limit to what a man can do or how far he can go if he
doesn't mind who gets the credit." - Robert Woodruff