NAME

       Log::Handler::Output::File - Log messages to a file.

SYNOPSIS

           use Log::Handler::Output::File;

           my $log = Log::Handler::Output::File->new(
               filename    => "file.log",
               filelock    => 1,
               fileopen    => 1,
               reopen      => 1,
               mode        => "append",
               autoflush   => 1,
               permissions => "0664",
               utf8        => 0,
           );

           $log->log(message => $message);

DESCRIPTION

       Log messages to a file.

METHODS

   new()
       Call "new()" to create a new Log::Handler::Output::File object.

       The following options are possible:

       filename
           With "filename" you can set a file name as a string or as a array reference.  If you
           set a array reference then the parts will be concat with "catfile" from "File::Spec".

           Set a file name:

               my $log = Log::Handler::Output::File->new( filename => "file.log"  );

           Set a array reference:

               my $log = Log::Handler::Output::File->new(

                   # foo/bar/baz.log
                   filename => [ "foo", "bar", "baz.log" ],

                   # /foo/bar/baz.log
                   filename => [ "", "foo", "bar", "baz.log" ],

               );

       filelock
           Maybe it's desirable to lock the log file by each write operation because a lot of
           processes write at the same time to the log file. You can set the option "filelock" to
           0 or 1.

               0 - no file lock
               1 - exclusive lock (LOCK_EX) and unlock (LOCK_UN) by each write operation (default)

       fileopen
           Open a log file transient or permanent.

               0 - open and close the logfile by each write operation
               1 - open the logfile if C<new()> called and try to reopen the
                   file if C<reopen> is set to 1 and the inode of the file has changed (default)

       reopen
           This option works only if option "fileopen" is set to 1.

               0 - deactivated
               1 - try to reopen the log file if the inode changed (default)

       How to use fileopen and reopen
           Please note that it's better to set "reopen" and "fileopen" to 0 on Windows because
           Windows unfortunately haven't the faintest idea of inodes.

           To write your code independent you should control it:

               my $os_is_win = $^O =~ /win/i ? 0 : 1;

               my $log = Log::Handler::Output::File->new(
                  filename => "file.log",
                  mode     => "append",
                  fileopen => $os_is_win
               );

           If you set "fileopen" to 0 then it implies that "reopen" has no importance.

       mode
           There are three possible modes to open a log file.

               append - O_WRONLY | O_APPEND | O_CREAT (default)
               excl   - O_WRONLY | O_EXCL   | O_CREAT
               trunc  - O_WRONLY | O_TRUNC  | O_CREAT

           "append" would open the log file in any case and appends the messages at the end of
           the log file.

           "excl" would fail by open the log file if the log file already exists.

           "trunc" would truncate the complete log file if it exists. Please take care to use
           this option.

           Take a look to the documentation of "sysopen()" to get more information.

       autoflush
               0 - autoflush off
               1 - autoflush on (default)

       permissions
           The option "permissions" sets the permission of the file if it creates and must be set
           as a octal value. The permission need to be in octal and are modified by your
           process's current "umask".

           That means that you have to use the unix style permissions such as "chmod".  0640 is
           the default permission for this option. That means that the owner got read and write
           permissions and users in the same group got only read permissions. All other users got
           no access.

           Take a look to the documentation of "sysopen()" to get more information.

       utf8, utf-8
               utf8   =  binmode, $fh, ":utf8";
               utf-8  =  binmode, $fh, "encoding(utf-8)";

           Yes, there is a difference.

           <http://perldoc.perl.org/perldiag.html#Malformed-UTF-8-character-(%25s)>

           <http://perldoc.perl.org/Encode.html#UTF-8-vs.-utf8-vs.-UTF8>

   log()
       Call "log()" if you want to log messages to the log file.

       Example:

           $log->log(message => "this message goes to the logfile");

   flush()
       Call "flush()" if you want to re-open the log file.

       This is useful if you don't want to use option "reopen". As example if a rotate mechanism
       moves the logfile and you want to re-open a new one.

   validate()
       Validate a configuration.

   reload()
       Reload with a new configuration.

   errstr()
       Call "errstr()" to get the last error message.

   close()
       Call "close()" to close the log file yourself - normally you don't need to use it, because
       the log file will be opened and closed automatically.

PREREQUISITES

           Carp
           Fcntl
           File::Spec
           Params::Validate

EXPORTS

       No exports.

REPORT BUGS

       Please report all bugs to <jschulz.cpan(at)bloonix.de>.

       If you send me a mail then add Log::Handler into the subject.

AUTHOR

       Jonny Schulz <jschulz.cpan(at)bloonix.de>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2007-2009 by Jonny Schulz. All rights reserved.

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