Contents of the logs
The following example contains a LOG EVENT message that happened on Aug 07, 2012, at 11:22:14 A.M. with a severity level of CONFIG from an InstallationTask source class:
(Click the image to expand it.)
The general format of all the log messages in the text file format is:
(<timeOfEvent>),<severityOfEvent>,<sourceOfEvent>,<eventMessageContent>
The severity levels from highest to lowest value are:
- SEVERE (appears in red)
- WARNING (appears in yellow)
- INFO
- CONFIG
- FINE
- FINER
- FINEST
The following table describes the main log message types:
Message type | Description |
|---|---|
LOG EVENT | Describes the following types of information:
|
PROGRESS EVENT | Describes how much of a task is completed. These messages correspond to progress bar updates and the localized resource keys that are used to determine messages on the progress bar. |
THROWABLE EVENT | Describes failures with stack traces |
Summary section | Provides a summary at the end of the log that contains the same type of data shown on the installation summary panel (for example, whether the installation was successful or unsuccessful, and if unsuccessful, what features failed to install) |
Example LOG EVENT messages
Following are example LOG EVENT messages.
- The start and end of installation tasks (installer logic and behavior) and installation panels
(Click the image to expand it.)
This type of message tells you which tasks ran and when they ran. For example, suppose an installation contains several features that you can select to install. Each task encapsulates logic about one feature, so you can see one or multiple tasks that hold all of the logic related to each feature.
- The setting of installation properties
(Click the image to expand it.)
This type of message supplies the user inputs and variables from the properties that control the infrastructure of the overall installer. A subset of the properties relate to the user inputs entered during the installation. You can use that subset to create a silent installation options file.
- General informative data
(Click the image to expand it.)
This type of message describes significant actions that occurred during the installation (for example, important executables that were invoked, significant changes that occurred, and the starting or stopping of Windows services).
Example PROGRESS EVENT message
Following is an example PROGRESS EVENT message:
(Click the image to expand it.)
This type of message identifies the progress of tasks. A task encapsulates a chunk of related logic. Some tasks execute logic that can run for hours. Progress messages give a relative measure of how much of a task has been done. If no progress messages occur for a long period of time, it might indicate that an installation has stopped responding.
Example THROWABLE EVENT message
Following is an example THROWABLE EVENT message:
(Click the image to expand it.)
This type of message records exception stack traces. For example, suppose an installation runs 100 SQL commands against a database and halfway through the installation, the database goes down. These messages are useful when commands fail when they are expected to succeed; the messages give runtime information about the exception scenario that occurred.
Example summary section
Following is an example summary:
(Click the image to expand it.)
This type of message appears at the end of an installation, upgrade, or uninstallation. It gives a log-file equivalent of the final summary panel, indicating whether the overall installation succeeded, failed, or finished with warnings. It provides a quick summary of whether the installed product is in a working or broken state.
Comments
Log in or register to comment.