Re: svlogd -tt

[Henrik Heil <hhml@zweipol.net>]

>>i read the thread about the svlogd -t switches some weeks ago and though 
>> i am using -tt (UTC) happily i am missing the feature to have the 
>>rotated logfiles with UTC-names instead of @TAI-names.
>>
>>Is there a drawback to make this an option?
>>The order of the logfiles would be preserved, selecting logfiles with 
>>wildcards would be easy.
>>
>>I cannot comment on pro/contra TAI itsself but i think one who decides 
>>not to have TAI-timestamps in the logfiles would prefer UTC-filenames 
>>for the rotated files too.
>>
>>What do you think?
> 
> 
> When making it a runtime option, there must be a decision whether svlogd
> shall maintain two different sets of files in the log directory, or
> filename conversion should be done.

Thinking about these alternatives i must admit that both seem to have a 
drawback -- and that i underestimated the complexity of switching the 
formats.

Different sets (if i understood that right) means that it is not 
intuitive what the maximum number of old log files from the config 
means. It cannot mean num=TAI+UTC because in this case svlogd could not 
rotate if the log directory would contain num logfiles of the other 
format. If it means num*TAI + num*UTF the straightforward method to 
calculate the maximum size of the log directory no longer works and 
changing the format without moving the old files leads to a log 
directory that occupies twice the disk space.

With filename conversion i am not shure if you mean renaming the 
existing logfiles or properly calculating the oldest file from both 
formats before deleting it. Unfortunatly i have no idea how complex any 
of these two would be -- probably it's not worth the effort.

What do you think about a runtime option for UTC-filenames that only 
comes into effect if there are no TAI-filenames in the log directory and 
vice versa?
I guess this would require a small patch and almost no overhead when 
rotating the logfiles. I think there is nothing to gain by leaving the 
old files in the log directory when switching the format.

Best regards,
Henrik

-- 
Henrik Heil, zweipol Coy & Heil GbR
http://www.zweipol.net/