There have been some discussions on github PRs about the subject of proper logging and I want to use this to start a discussion and come to some guidelines that hopefully everybody can agree to.
My idea is the following Fatal: - include a reason why the system can not function anymore, - be followed by a System.exit() call, - include a stack trace if it is reasonable to expect this would give properly helpful information. I did a quick search and we have 2 fatal calls in the system. Neither is followed by a System.exit() and I think they can be replaced by error()/debug() combinations Error: - include a reason why the system can not execute a user request or why part of the system is degraded. - should *not* include a stack trace Warn: - include a reason why the system might not behave as the user is expecting. (configuration or integration missing for example,) - should *not* include a stack trace Info: - is for informationals to the operator like resource lifecycle messages or deployment planning considderations - should *not* include a stack trace Debug: - information to be turned on when trouble shooting or developing. This information should not be needed for normal operation - if a thrown exception is caught and not rethrown, the stack trace of such exception Trace: - whatever you feel helps you during development of a feature/enhancement/fix/improvement that is not needed in any kind of operational way. As I think the two fatal()s we have are not genuine, I think stack traces are only for Debug and Trace level, where Debug can be temporarily turned on in production and Trace is fro developers exclusively, I realise the current state of the system is far from this behaviour, but i like to think we can grow in the direction as I describe and I hope we can refine this to a generic guideline to be used in reviews. -- Daan
