Guide to the Logging API
************************

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The logging API enables your plugin to log entries in a custom text log
file that you create with the call ``TSTextLogObjectCreate``. This log
file is part of Traffic Server's logging system; by default, it is
stored in the logging directory. Once you have created the log object,
you can set log properties.

The logging API enables you to:

-  Establish a custom text log for your plugin: see
   :c:func:`TSTextLogObjectCreate`

-  Set the log header for your custom text log: see
   :c:func:`TSTextLogObjectHeaderSet`

-  Enable or disable rolling your custom text log: see
   :c:func:`TSTextLogObjectRollingEnabledSet`

-  Set the rolling interval (in seconds) for your custom text log: see
   :c:func:`TSTextLogObjectRollingIntervalSecSet`

-  Set the rolling offset for your custom text log: see
   :c:func:`TSTextLogObjectRollingOffsetHrSet`

-  Set the rolling size for your custom text log: see
   :c:func:`TSTextLogObjectRollingSizeMbSet`

-  Write text entries to the custom text log: see
   :c:func:`TSTextLogObjectWrite`

-  Flush the contents of the custom text log's write buffer to disk: see
   :c:func:`TSTextLogObjectFlush`

-  Destroy custom text logs when you are done with them: see
   :c:func:`TSTextLogObjectDestroy`

The steps below show how the logging API is used in the
``blacklist-1.c`` sample plugin. For the complete source code, see the
`*Sample Source Code* <App_SampleSourceCode.html>`__ appendix.

1. A new log file is defined as a global variable.

   .. code-block:: c

         static TSTextLogObject log;

2. In ``TSPluginInit``, a new log object is allocated:

   .. code-block:: c

           log = TSTextLogObjectCreate("blacklist", TS_LOG_MODE_ADD_TIMESTAMP, NULL, &error);

   The new log is named ``blacklist.log``. Each entry written to the log
   will have a timestamp. The ``NULL`` argument specifies that the new
   log does not have a log header. The error argument stores the result
   of the log creation; if the log is created successfully, then an
   error will be equal to ``TS_LOG_ERROR_NO_ERROR``.

3. After creating the log, the plugin makes sure that the log was
   created successfully:

   .. code-block:: c

       if (!log) {
           printf("Blacklist plugin: error %d while creating log\n", error);
       }

4. The ``blacklist-1`` plugin matches the host portion of the URL (in
   each client request) with a list of blacklisted sites (stored in the
   array ``sites[``]):

   .. code-block:: c

       for (i = 0; i < nsites; i++) { if (strncmp (host, sites[i],
       host\_length) == 0) {

   If the host matches one of the blacklisted
   sites (such as ``sites[i]``), then the plugin writes a blacklist
   entry to ``blacklist.log``:

   .. code-block:: c

       if (log) { TSTextLogObjectWrite(log, "blacklisting site: %s",
       sites[i]);

   The format of the log entry is as follows:

   ::

       blacklisting site: sites[i]

   The log is not flushed or
   destroyed in the ``blacklist-1`` plugin - it lives for the life of
   the plugin.


