Logging

SimpleW provides a minimal and extremely lightweight logging system.

The logging system is intentionally simple and is designed to use directly from server code and modules :

• No external dependencies
• No complex configuration
• No formatting pipeline
• Very low overhead

Create a Logger

A logger is typically declared as a static readonly property in a class.

private static readonly ILogger _log = new Logger("MyClass");
// or
private static readonly ILogger _log = new Logger<MyClass>();

Log Levels

SimpleW defines several log levels :

• Trace : You're desperately tracking something you can't debug, good luck
• Debug : It smells shit, I want maximum informations
• Info : Normal Operation, foods my social media infinite scroll
• Warning : It's like a compiler warning, nobody take care but it should
• Error : Prod can continue but fix that error quickly, seriously
• Fatal : Rest In Peace

Minimum Log Level

SimpleW allows configuring a minimum log level. Any log entry below this level will be ignored and will not be sent to sinks.

The minimum level can be configured globally using :

Log.MinimumLevel = LogLevel.Debug;

The default level is Information.

Lazy Logging

Expensive log messages should use the lazy overload.

Instead of :

_log.Debug($"Parsed {headers.Count} headers");

Prefer :

_log.Debug(() => $"Parsed {headers.Count} headers");

This avoids constructing the string when the log level is disabled.

Sinks

SimpleW logs are emitted through sinks.

A sink is simply a function that receives a LogEntry.

Action<LogEntry>

This allows logs to be forwarded to :

• the console
• files
• external logging frameworks
• custom monitoring systems

Configuring Sinks

The Log class exposes several methods to configure sinks.

Replace all sinks

Log.SetSink(entry => {
    Console.WriteLine($"{entry.TimestampUtc:O} [{entry.Level}] {entry.Source} {entry.Message}");
});

Add an additional sink

Log.AddSink(entry => {
    File.AppendAllText("server.log", $"{entry.TimestampUtc:O} [{entry.Level}] {entry.Source} {entry.Message}\n");
});

This allows multiple sinks to receive the same log entry.

Remove a sink

Log.RemoveSink(mySink);

Integrating External Logging Systems

SimpleW logging can easily be connected to external logging frameworks or monitoring systems.

This is done by registering a sink that forwards LogEntry objects to another system, see example above.

See Addons to find all the available logging helper to integrate famous solution like Serilog or Log4net.