If this file exists at the beginning of ecFlow execution, it is appended to. Otherwise it is created. The location and name of the log file can be configured using the environment variable ECF_LOG, which can be set before the ecFlow server starts.
Symbol | Meaning |
MSG | Information message generated by user action, normal operation. |
LOG | Information message generated by task or ECF, normal operation.These are mostly messages generated when nodes go through status changes. |
ERR | An error message, abnormal operation the action could not be doneSome errors are ignored on client side, for example trying to send a label or an event that does not exist in ecFlow is an error on the ecFlow side but not on client side. |
WAR | Warning message, not an error but corrective action was taken. For example using an old version of client may cause a warning message to be printed. |
DBG | Debugging message, by default these are not visible they must be turned on by a privileged user. |
others | There could be a keyboard echo in the log file if ecFlow is running interactively; these lines should be ignored by programs processing the log file. |
The log file contains all the actions of the ecFlow server and shows information such as the halt, shutdown etc. It is a pure text file and can easily be processed by other programs. For example ecflowview uses this file to show the timeline window.
The syntax of the log file is fairly simple. For each action in ecFlow a line is output. The format is as follows:
XXX:[HH:MM:SS D.M.YYYY] command:fullname [+additional information]
Where XXX is one of the symbols in the above table. The timestamp inside [] is the system time, not the suite time, which may differ.
Note: that user commands often generate both MSG and LOG level messages. MSG is the command executed and LOG is the effect it had on the node or nodes.
Note: The log file is not removed so it needs to be managed. We tend to compress and archive our log files each day using an ecFlow controlled script.