Re: RFC: "set logging"

[Daniel Jacobowitz <drow@mvista.com>]

On Sun, Jun 22, 2003 at 04:57:33PM -0700, Doug Evans wrote:
> Daniel Jacobowitz writes:
>  > As discussed earlier:
>  >   set logging on [FILE]
>  >   set logging off
>  >   set logging overwrite [I changed the default to append]
>  >   set logging redirect
>  >   set logging file
>  >   show logging
>  > 
>  > I decided that one-off command logging was really a different class of thing
>  > from this patch, which is straight output logging, not really script-useful
>  > redirection.  So that's gone.
> 
> For my own education, what's the difference?
> 
> If one amends the definition of logging to include the
> tracing of commands, then I'd agree: they are different.
> Suppose you have a complex set of macros for driving a testsuite
> and you want to see who's calling what, etc.; or when something
> fails you want to know what was the last gdb command executed.
> And suppose typically these scripts are run in batch mode, on a server
> farm via cron jobs or some such.
> Tracing of gdb commands as they execute is very useful here.
> Not just the output of the commands but _the actual commands themselves_.
> 
> I gather this patch isn't that though (or did I miss something?).

That's what we called a "transcript" in the last conversation about
this, something I deliberately did not implement.  It's much more work
to get right.

> If one separates this from command output redirection for the purposes
> of doing something further with the output (akin to pipes in shell-speak),
> then I'd agree they are different.

And this is what I was calling "script-useful redirection", i.e.
formatted output.

> Any opinions on whether the tracing of the commands
> themselves, in addition to their output, would be a useful addition
> to "set logging"?
> "logging" suggests to me logging for debug/informational purposes,
> as opposed to redirection for subsequent processing.
> Adding tracing of the commands themselves seems like a useful addition
> to me.

Sure it is.  I just don't have demand for it, so I didn't do it.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz
MontaVista Software                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer