FORMAT

The FORMAT element specifies the line output of a log message.

Syntax

<FORMAT [ Type="TEXT" ]> field-id[ ...]</FORMAT>
  1. Type is an optional attribute whose value can only be "TEXT". When set, log messages are formatted in a single line of text, without line breaks. New line characters are escaped.
  2. The field-id specifies a field identifier. You can include multiple field identifiers by listing multiple field identifiers, separated by spaces. The order of the field identifiers determines the order of the fields in each line of the log output. Table 1 lists the valid field identifier names.
Table 1. Log message field identifiers
Field Identifier Name Description
category Name of the category of the messages.
Tip:

By including the category, you enable the person reading the logs to scan and filter messages based on their category type.
component Name of the component that generates the event.
date Date of the event.
time Time of the event.
relative-time Time elapsed since the dispatcher started.
process-id Process identifier.
thread-id Thread identifier.
location The filename and line number where the event occurred. Replaces line and file Type attributes from earlier versions.
contexts Internal data representing the successive context the process went through to reach the logged event. These data is formatted as type=value pairs separated by semicolons.
event-type Event name.
event-params Event details. XML fragment representing the structured information attached to the event. This XML fragment will be on a single line. If used this field should be the last one as it can contain data with spaces.
When parsing the content of log files:
  • A log message ends with a LF/CR character.
  • event-type values are enclosed in double quotes (").
  • event-params values may contain any characters. This field should be put at the end of the log format string.
  • All other field values do not contain spaces.
  • A missing value is replaced by a hyphen (-).
  • Within event-params values, well-known non-printable characters are replaced by standard C escape sequences; other non-printable characters use a hexadecimal encoding.
  • Single event-params values, such as raw text, have the following structure: Data Size=size Content=value, where size is the size of the value.
  • event-params contains the escaped log message.

Child elements

There are no child elements.

Usage

You use this element to specify the format and content of the line output of a log message.
Important:

If the CATEGORIES_FILTER is set to ALL, FORMAT is ignored.

Examples

<FORMAT Type="TEXT">time event-type event-params</FORMAT>
<FORMAT>date time relative-time process-id thread-id contexts event-type event-params</FORMAT>

Parent elements

This element is a child of the LOG element.