Provided by: libfile-write-rotate-perl_0.14-1_all 
NAME
File::Write::Rotate - Write to files that archive/rotate themselves
VERSION
version 0.14
SYNOPSIS
use File::Write::Rotate;
my $fwr = File::Write::Rotate->new(
dir => '/var/log', # required
prefix => 'myapp', # required
#suffix => '.log', # default is ''
size => 25*1024*1024, # default is 10MB, unless period is set
histories => 12, # default is 10
#buffer_size => 100, # default is none
);
# write, will write to /var/log/myapp.log, automatically rotate old log files
# to myapp.log.1 when myapp.log reaches 25MB. will keep old log files up to
# myapp.log.12.
$fwr->write("This is a line\n");
$fwr->write("This is", " another line\n");
# compress old log files
$fwr->compress;
DESCRIPTION
This module can be used to write to file, usually for logging, that can rotate itself.
File will be opened in append mode. Locking will be done to avoid conflict when there are
multiple writers. Rotation can be done by size (after a certain size is reached), by time
(daily/monthly/yearly), or both.
I first wrote this module for logging script STDERR output to files (see
Tie::Handle::FileWriteRotate).
ATTRIBUTES
buffer_size => INT
Get or set buffer size. If set to a value larger than 0, then when a write() failed,
instead of dying, the message will be stored in an internal buffer first. When the number
of buffer exceeds this size, then write() will die upon failure. Otherwise, every write()
will try to flush the buffer.
Can be used for example when a program runs as superuser/root then temporarily drops
privilege to a normal user. During this period, logging can fail because the program
cannot lock the lock file or write to the logging directory. Before dropping privilege,
the program can set buffer_size to some larger-than-zero value to hold the messages
emitted during dropping privilege. The next write() as the superuser/root will succeed and
flush the buffer to disk (provided there is no other error condition, of course).
METHODS
$obj = File::Write::Rotate->new(%args)
Create new object. Known arguments:
• dir => STR (required)
Directory to put the files in.
• prefix => STR (required)
Name of files. The files will be named like the following:
<prefix><period><suffix><rotate_suffix>
"<period>" will only be given if the "period" argument is set. If "period" is set to
"yearly", "<period>" will be "YYYY" (4-digit year). If "period" is "monthly",
"<period>" will be "YYYY-MM" (4-digit year and 2-digit month). If "period" is "daily",
"<period>" will be "YYYY-MM-DD" (4-digit year, 2-digit month, and 2-digit day).
"<rotate_suffix>" is either empty string for current file; or .1, .2 and so on for
rotated files. .1 is the most recent rotated file, .2 is the next most recent, and so
on.
An example, with "prefix" set to "myapp":
myapp # current file
myapp.1 # most recently rotated
myapp.2 # the next most recently rotated
With "prefix" set to "myapp", "period" set to "monthly", "suffix" set to ".log":
myapp.2012-12.log # file name for december 2012
myapp.2013-01.log # file name for january 2013
Like previous, but additionally with "size" also set (which will also rotate each
period file if it exceeds specified size):
myapp.2012-12.log # file(s) for december 2012
myapp.2012-12.log.1
myapp.2012-12.log.2
myapp.2013-01.log # file(s) for january 2013
All times will use local time, so you probably want to set "TZ" environment variable
or equivalent methods to set time zone.
• suffix => STR (default: '')
Suffix to give to file names, usually file extension like ".log". See "prefix" for
more details.
If you use a yearly period, setting suffix is advised to avoid ambiguity with rotate
suffix (for example, is "myapp.2012" the current file for year 2012 or file with 2012
rotate suffix?)
• size => INT (default: 10*1024*1024)
Maximum file size, in bytes, before rotation is triggered. The default is 10MB
(10*1024*1024) if "period" is not set. If "period" is set, no default for "size" is
provided, which means files will not be rotated for size (only for period).
• period => STR
Can be set to either "daily", "monthly", or "yearly". If set, will automatically
rotate after period change. See "prefix" for more details.
• histories => INT (default: 10)
Number of rotated files to keep. After the number of files exceeds this, the oldest
one will be deleted. 0 means not to keep any history, 1 means to only keep .1 file,
and so on.
• buffer_size => INT (default: 0)
Set initial value of buffer. See the "buffer_size" attribute for more information.
$fwr->write(@args)
Write to file. Will automatically rotate file if period changes or file size exceeds
specified limit. When rotating, will only keep a specified number of histories and delete
the older ones. Uses locking, so multiple writers do not clobber one another. Lock file is
named "<prefix>"".lck". Will wait for up to 1 minute to acquire lock, will die if failed
to acquire lock.
Does not append newline so you'll have to do it yourself.
$fwr->compress
Compress old rotated files. Currently uses pigz or gzip program to do the compression.
Extension given to compressed file is ".gz".
Normally, should be done using a separate process so as to avoid blocking the writers.
Will not lock writers, but will create "<prefix>""-compress.pid" PID file to prevent
multiple compression processes running and to signal the writers to postpone rotation.
After compression is finished, will remove the PID file, so rotation can be done again on
the next "write()" if necessary.
SEE ALSO
Log::Dispatch::FileRotate, which inspires this module. Differences between
File::Write::Rotate (FWR) and Log::Dispatch::FileRotate (LDFR) are as follows:
• FWR is not part of the Log::Dispatch family.
This makes FWR more general to use.
For using together with Log::Dispatch/Log4perl, I have also written
Log::Dispatch::FileWriteRotate which is a direct (although not a perfect drop-in)
replacement for Log::Dispatch::FileRotate.
• Secondly, FWR does not use Date::Manip.
Date::Manip is relatively large (loading Date::Manip 6.37 equals to loading 34 files
and ~ 22k lines; while FWR itself is only < 1k lines!)
As a consequence of this, FWR does not support DatePattern; instead, FWR replaces it
with a simple daily/monthly/yearly period.
• And lastly, FWR supports compressing and rotating compressed old files.
Using separate processes like the Unix logrotate utility means having to deal with yet
another race condition. FWR takes care of that for you (see the compress() method).
You also have the option to do log compression in the same script/process if you want,
which is convenient.
There is no significant overhead difference between FWR and LDFR (FWR is slightly faster
than LDFR on my testing).
Tie::Handle::FileWriteRotate and Log::Dispatch::FileWriteRotate, which use this module.
FAQ
Why use autorotating log?
Mainly convenience and low maintenance. You no longer need a separate rotator like the
Unix logrotate utility (which when accidentally disabled or misconfigured will cause your
logs to stop being rotated and grow indefinitely).
What is the downside of using FWR (and LDFR)?
Mainly performance overhead, as every write() involves locking to make it safe to use with
multiple processes. Tested on my Core i5 3.1 GHz desktop, writing log lines in the size of
~ 200 bytes, raw writing to disk (SSD) has the speed of around 3.4mil/s, while using FWR
it comes down to around 19.5k/s.
However, this is not something you'll notice or need to worry about unless you're logging
near that speed.
AUTHOR
Steven Haryanto <stevenharyanto@gmail.com>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2013 by Steven Haryanto.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as
the Perl 5 programming language system itself.