NAME

           Log::Log4perl::Appender::Limit - Limit message delivery via block period

SYNOPSIS

           use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);

           my $conf = qq(
             log4perl.category = WARN, Limiter

                 # Email appender
             log4perl.appender.Mailer          = Log::Dispatch::Email::MailSend
             log4perl.appender.Mailer.to       = drone\@pageme.com
             log4perl.appender.Mailer.subject  = Something's broken!
             log4perl.appender.Mailer.buffered = 0
             log4perl.appender.Mailer.layout   = PatternLayout
             log4perl.appender.Mailer.layout.ConversionPattern=%d %m %n

                 # Limiting appender, using the email appender above
             log4perl.appender.Limiter              = Log::Log4perl::Appender::Limit
             log4perl.appender.Limiter.appender     = Mailer
             log4perl.appender.Limiter.block_period = 3600
           );

           Log::Log4perl->init(\$conf);
           WARN("This message will be sent immediately.");
           WARN("This message will be delayed by one hour.");
           sleep(3601);
           WARN("This message plus the last one will be sent now, separately.");

DESCRIPTION

       "appender"
           Specifies the name of the appender used by the limiter. The appender specified must be
           defined somewhere in the configuration file, not necessarily before the definition of
           "Log::Log4perl::Appender::Limit".

       "block_period"
           Period in seconds between delivery of messages. If messages arrive in between, they
           will be either saved (if "accumulate" is set to a true value) or discarded (if
           "accumulate" isn't set).

       "persistent"
           File name in which "Log::Log4perl::Appender::Limit" persistently stores delivery
           times. If omitted, the appender will have no recollection of what happened when the
           program restarts.

       "max_until_flushed"
           Maximum number of accumulated messages. If exceeded, the appender flushes all
           messages, regardless if the interval set in "block_period" has passed or not. Don't
           mix with "max_until_discarded".

       "max_until_discarded"
           Maximum number of accumulated messages. If exceeded, the appender will simply discard
           additional messages, waiting for "block_period" to expire to flush all accumulated
           messages. Don't mix with "max_until_flushed".

       "appender_method_on_flush"
           Optional method name to be called on the appender attached to the limiter when
           messages are flushed. For example, to have the sample code in the SYNOPSIS section
           bundle buffered emails into one, change the mailer's "buffered" parameter to 1 and set
           the limiters "appender_method_on_flush" value to the string "flush":

                 log4perl.category = WARN, Limiter

                     # Email appender
                 log4perl.appender.Mailer          = Log::Dispatch::Email::MailSend
                 log4perl.appender.Mailer.to       = drone\@pageme.com
                 log4perl.appender.Mailer.subject  = Something's broken!
                 log4perl.appender.Mailer.buffered = 1
                 log4perl.appender.Mailer.layout   = PatternLayout
                 log4perl.appender.Mailer.layout.ConversionPattern=%d %m %n

                     # Limiting appender, using the email appender above
                 log4perl.appender.Limiter              = Log::Log4perl::Appender::Limit
                 log4perl.appender.Limiter.appender     = Mailer
                 log4perl.appender.Limiter.block_period = 3600
                 log4perl.appender.Limiter.appender_method_on_flush = flush

           This will cause the mailer to buffer messages and wait for "flush()" to send out the
           whole batch. The limiter will then call the appender's "flush()" method when it's own
           buffer gets flushed out.

       If the appender attached to "Limit" uses "PatternLayout" with a timestamp specifier, you
       will notice that the message timestamps are reflecting the original log event, not the
       time of the message rendering in the attached appender. Major trickery has been applied to
       accomplish this (Cough!).

DEVELOPMENT NOTES

       "Log::Log4perl::Appender::Limit" is a composite appender.  Unlike other appenders, it
       doesn't log any messages, it just passes them on to its attached sub-appender.  For this
       reason, it doesn't need a layout (contrary to regular appenders).  If it defines none,
       messages are passed on unaltered.

       Custom filters are also applied to the composite appender only.  They are not applied to
       the sub-appender. Same applies to appender thresholds. This behaviour might change in the
       future.

LICENSE

       Copyright 2002-2013 by Mike Schilli <m@perlmeister.com> and Kevin Goess <cpan@goess.org>.

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

AUTHOR

       Please contribute patches to the project on Github:

           http://github.com/mschilli/log4perl

       Send bug reports or requests for enhancements to the authors via our

       MAILING LIST (questions, bug reports, suggestions/patches):
       log4perl-devel@lists.sourceforge.net

       Authors (please contact them via the list above, not directly): Mike Schilli
       <m@perlmeister.com>, Kevin Goess <cpan@goess.org>

       Contributors (in alphabetical order): Ateeq Altaf, Cory Bennett, Jens Berthold, Jeremy
       Bopp, Hutton Davidson, Chris R. Donnelly, Matisse Enzer, Hugh Esco, Anthony Foiani, James
       FitzGibbon, Carl Franks, Dennis Gregorovic, Andy Grundman, Paul Harrington, Alexander
       Hartmaier  David Hull, Robert Jacobson, Jason Kohles, Jeff Macdonald, Markus Peter, Brett
       Rann, Peter Rabbitson, Erik Selberg, Aaron Straup Cope, Lars Thegler, David Viner, Mac
       Yang.