Opened 5 years ago
Last modified 5 years ago
#19137 new enhancement
Change log rotation scheme from VBox.log[.<number>] to VBox[.<number>].log
| Reported by: | Socratis | Owned by: | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Component: | other | Version: | VirtualBox 6.0.14 |
| Keywords: | Cc: | ||
| Guest type: | all | Host type: | all |
Description
Current situation
Not sure why it first got implemented as is, but when there's a log rotation, the rotation algorithm calls for the ".<number>" to be appended to the "VBox.log" name, resulting in "VBox.log.1", "VBox.log.2", "VBox.log.3", or more, depending on your rotation settings:
VBoxManage setproperty loghistorycount
That naming scheme is not very helpful when trying to open/display the logs, because they have a ".<number>" extension, which could be anything, with the most common use that the file is a part of a multi-part archive (ZIP and RAR come to mind).
Proposed solution
- Change the naming scheme/logic/altorithm from "
VBox.log.<number>" to "VBox.<number>.log".
That way there are always "VBox[.<number>].log" files, which can be associated and opened with your favorite application.
NOTE
The same logic applies to the PNG screen-capture files in case of a Guru Meditation, should be addressed there as well.


Fwiw, I am also not a huge fan of the current log file naming schema. For the zones framework in Solaris we decided to use this schema:
zoneadm.<timestamp>.<zone>.<subcommand>
which could be translated to:
vbox.<timestamp>.<vm-name>[.<vm-operation>]
where timestamp is:
and log rotation would add a rotational number to the very end.
Also typically, log ration is done by a system service, ie. logrotate(8) and a respective system service and not hand crafted by the shelscripts as in this case of VBOX.
adding a timestamp in would make sure we can match log files only to events.
getting rid of CamelCase would be a bonus too.
Just some immediate thoughts.