From ef977a13410a993d0a7b16d790b0c3f8407a2c25 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Chris Miles <akkadius1@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2018 03:00:46 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Created Logging System (markdown)

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+### Preface
+
+* EQEmu used to have many different logging systems in its past. They all were configured differently, all had different configuration formats. In 2015 - a much needed massive overhaul to our logging was made and it has been one of the most valuable things to our project to date.
+
+### Features
+
+* Log levels
+* Hot-Reload of log settings
+* In game, real time server logs
+* Debug levels
+* Categories (Spells, Merchants, Loot etc.)
+
+### Output formats
+
+* Console
+* File
+* In game (gmsay)
+* Can easily be extended to be implemented with other output sinks
+
+### Debug Levels
+
+**Level**||**Description**
+-----|-----|-----
+General|1|Low-Level general debugging, useful info on single line|
+Moderate|2|Informational based - used in functions|
+Detail|3|Use this for extreme detail in logging, usually in extreme debugging in the stack or interprocess communication|
+
+*   Debug levels are PER category, so if you wanted to set for example, level 3 debugging enabled to gmsay (In Game) but only 1 to your console, you put respectively 1 in your console field and 3 in gmsay for whatever category it is your enable
+
+### Settings
+
+*   All settings are managed in **logsys_categories** database table
+*   When a process boots up, such as **zone/world/ucs/queryserv/etc**. \- These settings will load and whatever applies to the server category wise is what it will use as **'rules'** to understand where to send output, as well as what level of information (high or low) to display
+    *   Please note that **log\_to\_gmsay** is only available for **Zone level debugging.**
+
+## In-Game Commands
+
+**Command**|**Description**|
+-----|-----
+#logs | Displays usage menu
+#logs reload_all | Reload all settings in world and all zone processes with what is defined in the database
+#logs list_settings | Shows current log settings and categories loaded into the current process' memory
+#logs set \[console\|file\|gmsay\] | Sets log settings during the lifetime of the zone
+
+```
+#logs set [gmsay|file|console] [category_id] [log_level]
+```
+
+## File Logs
+
+*   All **zone logs** go underneath a respective **logs/zone/**
+    *   All zones, once booted up, will have a name that actually means something to a server administrator:
+        *   nexus\_version\_0\_inst\_id\_0\_port\_7000\_20084.log
+        *   nexus\_version\_0\_inst\_id\_0\_port\_7000\_24356.log
+        *   zone_20084.log \- A zone that has been booted up as a dynamic, but not assigned to any logical zone yet
+*   Crash Logs will make their way underneath `logs/crash`
+*   All other process logs go to the top level of logs, this may change
+*   Naming Convention:
+    *   Unless a zone is using zone properties for the file name, most processes will look like the following convention
+        *   process\_name\_process_id.log
+
+## Example Output Screenshots
+
+### GM-Say
+
+![](https://i.imgur.com/FaWAgAq.gif)
+
+### Windows Console of Zone
+
+![](https://i.imgur.com/okWg2y8.png)
+
+## Linux Console
+
+ANSI Color support
+
+![](https://i.imgur.com/SC9lO4N.png)
+