1.3. Logging System

In a distributed environment unified error logging and reporting is a crucial capability for debugging and monitoring. SAGA has a configurable logging system that captures debug, info, warning and error messages across all of its middelware adaptors. The logging system can be controlled in two different ways: via Environment Variables variables, which should be sufficient in most scenarios, and via the log_api, which provides programmatic access to the logging system for advanced use-cases.

1.3.1. Environment Variables

Several environment variables can be used to control SAGA’s logging behavior from the command line. Obviously, this can come in handy when debugging a problem with an existing SAGA application. Environment variables are set in the executing shell and evaluated by SAGA at program startup.

RADICAL_SAGA_LOG_LVL

Controls the log level. This controls the amount of output generated by the logging system. RADICAL_LOG_LVL expects either a numeric (0-4) value or a string (case insensitive) representing the log level:

Numeric Value	Log Level	Type of Messages Displayed
0 (default)	CRITICAL	Only fatal events that will cause SAGA to abort.
1	ERROR	Errors that will not necessarily cause SAGA to abort.
2	WARNING	Warnings that are generated by SAGA and its middleware adaptors.
3	INFO	Useful (?) runtime information that is generated by SAGA and its middleware adaptors.
4	DEBUG	Debug message added to the code by the developers. (Lots of output)

For example, if you want to see the debug messages that SAGA generates during program execution, you would set RADICAL_LOG_LVL to DEBUG before you run your program:

RADICAL_SAGA_LOG_LVL=DEBUG python mysagaprog.py

RADICAL_LOG_LVL

Controls the message sources displayed. RCT use an hierarchal structure for its log sources. Starting with the root logger RADICAL, sub loggers are defined for internal logging events (RADICAL_SAGA, RADICAL_SAGA_ENGINE etc.) and individual middleware adaptors, e.g., RADICAL_SAGA_ADAPTORS_NAME. LOG_LVL and LOG_TGT can be set individually for those loggers.

For example, if you want to see only the debug messages generated by saga.engine and a specific middleware adaptor called xyz you would set the following environment variables:

RADICAL_LOG_LVL=ERROR \                       # mute everything
RADICAL_SAGA_ENGINNE_LOG_LVL=DEBUG \          # enable engine logger
RADICAL_SAGA_ADAPTORS_XYZ_LOG_LVL=DEBUG \     # enable XYZ logger
python mysagaprog.py

RADICAL_SAGA_LOG_TGT

Controls where the log messages go. Multiple concurrent locations are supported. RADICAL_LOG_TGT expects either a single location or a comma-separated list of locations, where a location can either be a path/filename or the stdout/stderr keyword (case sensitive) for logging to the console.

For example, if you want to see debug messages on the console but also want to log them in a file for further analysis, you would set the the following environment variables:

RADICAL_SAGA_LOG_LVL=DEBUG RADICAL_SAGA_LOG_TGT=stdout,./rs.log \
python mysagaprog.py