Smart Logging With Log4perl

Slides for this talk are available here.

Do you know what your Perl scripts did last night at 3am? Log4perl, an open and extendable logging system for both simple Perl scripts and complex module architectures provides various data output mechanisms (files, databases, sockets, GUIs), and an unmatched, highly scalable way of changing logging granularity in running systems.

This talk by Yahoo Engineer and Log4perl author Mike Schilli addresses common logging challenges, from small test scripts to systems performing well under high load.

Traditional logging systems, when activated under load, are typically generating a flood of log messages, slowing down production systems to a crawl. The increasingly popular Log::Log4perl module allows for remote- controlling the logging behaviour of different parts of large systems at granular levels at runtime without changing code or restarting.

Log::Log4perl strives to be a slam-dunk solution for all use cases, from small test scripts to full-scale software architectures running at high load. Starting logging with simple scripts is easy, even for beginners, and as systems grow, experts appreciate to know what is going on in which parts of the system without sacrificing much performance.