Performance tips

NAME

    Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized - Synchronizing other appenders

SYNOPSIS

    use Log::Log4perl qw(:easy);

    my $conf = qq(
    log4perl.category                   = WARN, Syncer
    
        # File appender (unsynchronized)
    log4perl.appender.Logfile           = Log::Log4perl::Appender::File
    log4perl.appender.Logfile.autoflush = 1
    log4perl.appender.Logfile.filename  = test.log
    log4perl.appender.Logfile.mode      = truncate
    log4perl.appender.Logfile.layout    = SimpleLayout
    
        # Synchronizing appender, using the file appender above
    log4perl.appender.Syncer            = Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized
    log4perl.appender.Syncer.appender   = Logfile
);

    Log::Log4perl->init(\$conf);
    WARN("This message is guaranteed to be complete.");

DESCRIPTION

If multiple processes are using the same Log::Log4perl appender without synchronization, overwrites might happen. A typical scenario for this would be a process spawning children, each of which inherits the parent's Log::Log4perl configuration.

Usually, you should avoid this scenario and have each child have its own Log::Log4perl configuration, ensuring that each e.g. writes to a different logfile.

In cases where you need additional synchronization, however, use Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized as a gateway between your loggers and your appenders. An appender itself, Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized just takes two additional arguments:

appender: Specifies the name of the appender it synchronizes access to. The appender specified must be defined somewhere in the configuration file, not necessarily before the definition of Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized.
key: This optional argument specifies the key for the semaphore that Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized uses internally to ensure atomic operations. It defaults to _l4p. If you define more than one Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized appender, it is important to specify different keys for them, as otherwise every new Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized appender will nuke previously defined semaphores. The maximum key length is four characters, longer keys will be truncated to 4 characters -- mylongkey1 and mylongkey2 are interpreted to be the same: mylo (thanks to David Viner <dviner@yahoo-inc.com> for pointing this out).

Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized uses IPC::Shareable internally to perform locking with semaphores provided by the operating system used.

Performance tips

The Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized serializes access to a protected resource globally, slowing down actions otherwise performed in parallel.

Unless specified otherwise, all instances of Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized objects in the system will use the same global IPC key _l4p.

To control access to different appender instances, it often makes sense to define different keys for different synchronizing appenders. In this way, Log::Log4perl serializes access to each appender instance separately:

    log4perl.category                   = WARN, Syncer1, Syncer2
    
        # File appender 1 (unsynchronized)
    log4perl.appender.Logfile1           = Log::Log4perl::Appender::File
    log4perl.appender.Logfile1.filename  = test1.log
    log4perl.appender.Logfile1.layout    = SimpleLayout
    
        # File appender 2 (unsynchronized)
    log4perl.appender.Logfile2           = Log::Log4perl::Appender::File
    log4perl.appender.Logfile2.filename  = test2.log
    log4perl.appender.Logfile2.layout    = SimpleLayout
    
        # Synchronizing appender, using the file appender above
    log4perl.appender.Syncer1            = Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized
    log4perl.appender.Syncer1.appender   = Logfile1
    log4perl.appender.Syncer1.key        = l4p1

        # Synchronizing appender, using the file appender above
    log4perl.appender.Syncer2            = Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized
    log4perl.appender.Syncer2.appender   = Logfile2
    log4perl.appender.Syncer2.key        = l4p2

Without the .key = l4p1 and .key = l4p2 lines, both Synchronized appenders would be using the default _l4p key, causing unnecessary serialization of output written to different files.

DEVELOPMENT NOTES

Log::Log4perl::Appender::Synchronized is a composite appender. Unlike other appenders, it doesn't log any messages, it just passes them on to its attached sub-appender. For this reason, it doesn't need a layout (contrary to regular appenders). If it defines none, messages are passed on unaltered.

Custom filters are also applied to the composite appender only. They are not applied to the sub-appender. Same applies to appender thresholds. This behaviour might change in the future.

LEGALESE

AUTHOR

2003, Mike Schilli <m@perlmeister.com>