NAME

       Log::Fmt - a little parser and emitter of structured log lines

VERSION

       version 3.007

OVERVIEW

       This library primarily exists to service Log::Dispatchouli's "log_event" methods.  It
       converts an arrayref of key/value pairs to a string that a human can scan tolerably well,
       and which a machine can parse about as well.  It can also do that tolerably-okay parsing
       for you.

PERL VERSION

       This library should run on perls released even a long time ago.  It should work on any
       version of perl released in the last five years.

       Although it may work on older versions of perl, no guarantee is made that the minimum
       required version will not be increased.  The version may be increased for any reason, and
       there is no promise that patches will be accepted to lower the minimum required perl.

METHODS

   format_event_string
         my $string = Log::Fmt->format_event_string([
           key1 => $value1,
           key2 => $value2,
         ]);

       Note especially that if any value to encode is a reference to a reference, then
       String::Flogger is used to encode the referenced value.  This means you can embed, in your
       logfmt, a JSON dump of a structure by passing a reference to the structure, instead of
       passing the structure itself.

   parse_event_string
         my $kv_pairs = Log::Fmt->parse_event_string($string);

       Given the kind of string emitted by "format_event_string", this method returns a reference
       to an array of key/value pairs.

       This isn't exactly a round trip.  First off, the formatting can change illegal keys by
       replacing characters with question marks, or replacing empty strings with tildes.
       Secondly, the formatter will expand some values like arrayrefs and hashrefs into multiple
       keys, but the parser will not recombined those keys into structures.  Also, there might be
       other asymmetric conversions.  That said, the string escaping done by the formatter should
       correctly reverse.

       If the input string is badly formed, hunks that don't appear to be value key/value pairs
       will be presented as values for the key "junk".

   parse_event_string_as_hash
           my $hashref = Log::Fmt->parse_event_string_as_hash($line);

       This parses the given line as logfmt, then puts the key/value pairs into a hash and
       returns a reference to it.

       Because nothing prevents a single key from appearing more than once, you should use this
       with the understanding that data could be lost.  No guarantee is made of which value will
       be preserved.

AUTHOR

       Ricardo SIGNES <cpan@semiotic.systems>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       This software is copyright (c) 2023 by Ricardo SIGNES.

       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as
       the Perl 5 programming language system itself.