From 3d5282c6f0edbdcb78dd2a6e8068f829fcb2882f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Tom Lane Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 15:24:52 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Emit a log message if output is about to be redirected away from stderr. We've seen multiple cases of people looking at the postmaster's original stderr output to try to diagnose problems, not realizing/remembering that their logging configuration is set up to send log messages somewhere else. This seems particularly likely to happen in prepackaged distributions, since many packagers patch the code to change the factory-standard logging configuration to something more in line with their platform conventions. In hopes of reducing confusion, emit a LOG message about this at the point in startup where we are about to switch log output away from the original stderr, providing a pointer to where to look instead. This message will appear as the last thing in the original stderr output. (We might later also try to emit such link messages when logging parameters are changed on-the-fly; but that case seems to be both noticeably harder to do nicely, and much less frequently a problem in practice.) Per discussion, back-patch to 9.3 but not further. --- src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c | 10 ++++++++++ src/backend/postmaster/syslogger.c | 16 ++++++++++++++-- src/backend/utils/error/elog.c | 1 + src/backend/utils/misc/guc.c | 4 +--- src/include/utils/elog.h | 1 + 5 files changed, 27 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c b/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c index afdb53f9b5..841b5ec61d 100644 --- a/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c +++ b/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c @@ -1164,7 +1164,17 @@ PostmasterMain(int argc, char *argv[]) * Log_destination permits. We don't do this until the postmaster is * fully launched, since startup failures may as well be reported to * stderr. + * + * If we are in fact disabling logging to stderr, first emit a log message + * saying so, to provide a breadcrumb trail for users who may not remember + * that their logging is configured to go somewhere else. */ + if (!(Log_destination & LOG_DESTINATION_STDERR)) + ereport(LOG, + (errmsg("ending log output to stderr"), + errhint("Future log output will go to log destination \"%s\".", + Log_destination_string))); + whereToSendOutput = DestNone; /* diff --git a/src/backend/postmaster/syslogger.c b/src/backend/postmaster/syslogger.c index e3b6102516..8b00aa525b 100644 --- a/src/backend/postmaster/syslogger.c +++ b/src/backend/postmaster/syslogger.c @@ -634,6 +634,20 @@ SysLogger_Start(void) /* now we redirect stderr, if not done already */ if (!redirection_done) { +#ifdef WIN32 + int fd; +#endif + + /* + * Leave a breadcrumb trail when redirecting, in case the user + * forgets that redirection is active and looks only at the + * original stderr target file. + */ + ereport(LOG, + (errmsg("redirecting log output to logging collector process"), + errhint("Future log output will appear in directory \"%s\".", + Log_directory))); + #ifndef WIN32 fflush(stdout); if (dup2(syslogPipe[1], fileno(stdout)) < 0) @@ -649,8 +663,6 @@ SysLogger_Start(void) close(syslogPipe[1]); syslogPipe[1] = -1; #else - int fd; - /* * open the pipe in binary mode and make sure stderr is binary * after it's been dup'ed into, to avoid disturbing the pipe diff --git a/src/backend/utils/error/elog.c b/src/backend/utils/error/elog.c index a812ccd1c2..a415b907b6 100644 --- a/src/backend/utils/error/elog.c +++ b/src/backend/utils/error/elog.c @@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ emit_log_hook_type emit_log_hook = NULL; int Log_error_verbosity = PGERROR_VERBOSE; char *Log_line_prefix = NULL; /* format for extra log line info */ int Log_destination = LOG_DESTINATION_STDERR; +char *Log_destination_string = NULL; #ifdef HAVE_SYSLOG diff --git a/src/backend/utils/misc/guc.c b/src/backend/utils/misc/guc.c index 047dfd1269..0b23c38adf 100644 --- a/src/backend/utils/misc/guc.c +++ b/src/backend/utils/misc/guc.c @@ -444,8 +444,6 @@ int tcp_keepalives_count; * cases provide the value for SHOW to display. The real state is elsewhere * and is kept in sync by assign_hooks. */ -static char *log_destination_string; - static char *syslog_ident_str; static bool phony_autocommit; static bool session_auth_is_superuser; @@ -2871,7 +2869,7 @@ static struct config_string ConfigureNamesString[] = "depending on the platform."), GUC_LIST_INPUT }, - &log_destination_string, + &Log_destination_string, "stderr", check_log_destination, assign_log_destination, NULL }, diff --git a/src/include/utils/elog.h b/src/include/utils/elog.h index 6df0d379f4..59d6f5e813 100644 --- a/src/include/utils/elog.h +++ b/src/include/utils/elog.h @@ -428,6 +428,7 @@ typedef enum extern int Log_error_verbosity; extern char *Log_line_prefix; extern int Log_destination; +extern char *Log_destination_string; /* Log destination bitmap */ #define LOG_DESTINATION_STDERR 1