[wpkg-users] [Bug 110] WPKG seems to disable /debug if "quiet" is set to "false" in config.xml

[Rainer Meier]

Hi Brian,

Brian May wrote:
> While I don't feel strongly about the issue, I can't help think the 
> above behaviour is confusing.
> 
> I am use to /quiet on other command line tools which enables/disables 
> STDOUT  output. It shouldn't control both STDOUT and the Event Handler.
> 
> The debug setting only affects the event handler, and not the log file. 
> While this suits my needs fine, it was unexpected.
> 
> The logLevel parameter only affects the log file. Again, this suits
> my needs, but was unexpected.
> 
> My solution would be to have three logLevel parameters - a loglevel for 
> STDOUT, a loglevel for the event handler, and a log level for the log 
> file. So each of the logging methods can be controlled independently, 
> and there is no confusion as to what each one days.
> 
> However, like I said, I don't feel too strongly about this.

Well this behavior is mainly due to "historical reasons". The /quiet 
parameter has always been used to suppress STDOUT messages and to direct 
them to the event log instead. Personally I would also have said that 
/quiet should suppress all messages (also no writing to event log). But 
if I change it now I will break compatibility which makes even no logs 
to appear on older installation where the clients use the /quiet flag. 
This would require updating all existing clients. By the way this is the 
reason why I recomment using the parameters in config.xml and not the 
command-line parameters. It's simply much more easy to change later on.

The current set of parameters allow you to chose:
- whether you want to have debug output or not: /debug
- where you want to have your output:
   default: STDOUT
   /quiet: event log

So the /quiet flag is historically seen a switch to chose between STDOUT 
and event logging. I think in general this is absolutely fine since it 
allows you to chose between two different kinds of _local_ logging. 
There is no need to allow local output on multiple/redundant channels. 
Either you want to read the logs from event log or from STDOUT.

It's a different story for the log files. They are usually written to a 
server - and therefore read by different people (sysadmins). So it makes 
sense to configure them completely independently.

Personally (and this is what I recommend to everybody) I never use the 
/debug flag. It is there for compatibility reasons but the new logging 
feature makes it completely obsolete.

So if the /debug switch is not used then it is just a matter of 
preference if you like to see the synchronization log on STDOUT or 
within the event log (chosen by the /quiet flag or setting).

br,
Rainer