CIMA Log Formats
CIMA log formats
During Your observing session, CIMA will write a log for You and some
of the log messages will also be displayed in the CIMA observation log
display window. In fact, CIMA will create two logs: a project log which is written in Your project
directory and a system log which is written
in the /share/cima/Logs/Obs_logs directory.
The log shown in the CIMA observation log display window
During Your observations, all sorts of messages about what is going on
is shown in the log display window which is opened in the lower right
corner when You start up CIMA. The messages shown in the log display
window is a subset of the messages written to the log files. Starting
with CIMA version 2.3, You can now select how much of the information
going to the log file You want displayed in the log display
window. With the newer versions You can also select the format for the
displayed messages and how much colors You want in the display
window. In version 2.2 and older, everything is hard-coded and there
are no user-selectable options.
CIMA 1.2.03 and earlier
The log display window uses the following format:
- 10/04/07 19:28:34 found a baboon
Note that the time specified is in UTC.
CIMA 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2
The log display window uses the following format:
The difference from the previous versions is the removal of the date
and the change of the time from being UTC to AST.
CIMA 2.3 and later
You have the option to specify which of the following four formats You
want in Your project log file with 'Old' being identical to the old
format:
- Short: 15:28:34 found a baboon
- Long: 15:28:34 monkey: found a
baboon
- Full: 15:28:34 INFO1 monkey: found a
baboon
- Total: 15:28:34 10135:10142 INFO1 monkey:
found a baboon
The error log display window
The error log display window was introduced in CIMA version 2.3 and
can be launched either from the 'Utilities' menu or from the 'Filter'
menu in the log display window. It will show You a list of all
important messages (typically errors and warnings) generated since the
beginning of the CIMA session. You can use it to check for problems
without having to scroll through the entire log display window. You
can select which type of messages should be displayed by selecting the
'lowest' message level to be included from the following list: errors,
warning, problems, alerts, notes and commands. New messages will be
added automatically if the window is left open. The log format can be
selected independently from the format used for the log display
window. Note that You need to press the 'Rescan session log' button
for any change in settings to take effect.
Colors in logs
Colors are used to make it easier to spot different kind of messages.
The color scheme was extended with the introduction of CIMA version 2.3.
CIMA 2.2 and earlier
The color scheme used is based on the existence of certain keywrods
anywhere in the message:
| Keyword anywhere in message |
Color |
| ERROR |
red |
| WARN |
orange |
| DONE |
blue |
| Everything else |
black |
CIMA 2.3 and later
The color scheme is based on the message level and whether the full or
reduced color scheme option has been selected. The following table
shows all message levels and their corresponding colors. It also shows
which levels will be included in the different log windows and log
files.
| Message level |
Full color scheme |
Reduced color scheme |
Display log |
Error log |
Project log file |
System log file |
| ERROR |
white on red |
white on red |
Always |
Always |
Always |
Always |
| WARNING |
white on orange |
white on orange |
Always |
Selectable |
Always |
Always |
| PROBLEM |
red on grey |
red on grey |
Always |
Selectable |
Always |
Always |
| ALERT |
yellow on dark brown |
yellow on dark brown |
Always |
Selectable |
Always |
Always |
| NOTE |
black on green |
black on green |
Always |
Selectable |
Always |
Always |
| COMMAND |
blue on light yellow |
blue on light yellow |
Always |
Selectable |
Always |
Always |
| BEGIN |
brown on pale pink |
black |
Always |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| END |
brown on pale pink |
black |
Always |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| DONE |
violet on cyan |
violet on cyan |
Always |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| TEST |
yellow on magenta |
yellow on magenta |
Always |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| INFO1 |
black |
black |
Always |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| INFO2 |
dark dark grey |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| INFO3 |
dark grey |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| INFO4 |
medium grey |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| INFO5 |
light grey |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| START |
brown |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| STOP |
reddish brown |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| LOG1 |
dark blue |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| LOG2 |
medium blue |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| LOG3 |
blue |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| LOG4 |
dark cyan |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| LOG5 |
cyan |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Always |
Always |
| DEBUG1 |
dark dark green |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Selectable |
Selectable |
| DEBUG2 |
dark green |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Selectable |
Selectable |
| DEBUG3 |
medium green |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Selectable |
Selectable |
| DEBUG4 |
light green |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Selectable |
Selectable |
| DEBUG5 |
pale green |
black |
Selectable |
Never |
Selectable |
Selectable |
The log files written by CIMA during observations
CIMA writes two log files during an observation: a project log which is written in Your project
directory and a system log which is written
in the /share/cima/Logs/Obs_logs directory. Both log
files contain the same messages but the format is different. There is
more messages written to the log file than is shown in the log display
window, since there are a lot of messages that are tagged to not be
shown in the display window.
The project log
The project log is a log file written in Your project directory. CIMA
version 2.2 and all earlier versions used a fixed format for the
project log which always was appended to a file that was given by Your
project ID plus the suffix '.cimalog'. Starting with CIMA
version 2.3 You are free to choose between four different
formats and You can also select if You want a single log file as
before or if You want daily log files. When using daily log files, the
suffix will be '.cimalog_YYYYMMDD' with the date being
the AST date when the observing session started. The same log file
will be used throughout Your entire observing session, if Your
observation carries on over local midnight, unless You exit and
restart CIMA.
As with the log display windows, starting with CIMA version 2.3, You
can now also select how much information You want to be written to the
log files. The choice is limited to debug messages though since all
normal messages always are logged. Logging the debug messages can be
useful when investigating a problem but is not recommended
otherwise since it will generate huge log files and thus slowing down and affecting CIMA performance!
You can ask CIMA to also produce a log file for off-line CIMA
sessions, which may be useful if You want to see what the log will
look like during observations or if You want to show a problem You
have discovered. The selection to create an off-line log is made from
the preference menu and You will only get a project log. There will
never be a system log generated by an off-line session. The off-line
project log will have the same format as You have selected for Your
on-line project log, with the exception that the filename will be Your
project ID plus the suffix '.cimaofflog'. You can't get
daily log-files in off-line mode.
CIMA 2.2 and earlier
The project log uses the following format:
- Thu Oct 4 15:28:34 AST 2007 found a baboon
CIMA 2.3 and later
You have the option to specify which of the following four formats You
want in Your project log file with 'Old' being identical to the old
format:
- Old: Thu Oct 4 15:28:34 AST 2007 found a
baboon
- Augmented: Thu Oct 4 15:28:34 AST 2007
monkey: found a baboon
- New: 2007-Oct-04 15:28:34 INFO1 monkey:
found a baboon
- Complete: 2007-Oct-04 15:28:34
<10135:10142> INFO1 monkey: found a baboon
The system log
Since You are free to do whatever You want with Your project log, the
system log is intended to keep a log of all CIMA observations in one
place for the observatory. The system log is mainly used by the CIMA
administrator when investigating problems. The format is fixed but has
changed a couple of times as more information has been added. System
logs were introduced in CIMA version 1.2.02 in April 2005. System logs
reside in /share/cima/Logs/Obs_logs and its
subdirectories, and they are called Obslog.YYYYMMDD. Each
file contains all CIMA log messages generated for that AST calendar day.
CIMA 1.2.02 and 1.2.03
The system log uses the following format:
- 2007-Oct-04 15:28:34 found a baboon
CIMA 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2
The system log uses the following format:
- 2007-Oct-04 15:28:34 a1042 found a
baboon
The difference from the previous versions is the
addition of the project name.
CIMA 2.3 and later
The system log uses the following format:
- 2007-Oct-04 15:28:34 a1042 <10135:10142> INFO1
monkey: found a baboon
The difference from the previous versions is the addition task-IDs,
the message level and the procedure.
Components in a CIMA log line
Date and time
Date and time is the AST date and time when the message was
logged. System logs have always used the format '2007-Oct-04 15:28:34', while all project logs
from CIMA up to version 2.2 have used the format 'Thu Oct 4 15:28:34 AST 2007'. Starting with
version 2.3, the observer is free to choose which of the two formats
to use in the project log.
Project name
Project name is the four or five letter project-ID given to the
project (for example 'a2042'). Newer
versions of CIMA always convert the project name to lowercase but
there may be old logs which have the project name in capital letters.
Task-IDs (introduced in CIMA 2.3)
The CIMA executive is doing things organized in tasks. A task can be
to run an ON/OFF-observation, to take a spectra with a backend or to
set the Doppler correction. Tasks can thus be nestled with one top
task starting another task which then starts a third task. You can
query the executive about what tasks it is executing by clicking the
'Query' button in the observation log disaply window. Each task is
assigned a sequential five-digit number that works as a task-ID. The
task-IDs reported are those of the top level task and the most recent
currently active sub-task. Messages that are generated when no task is
running get the task-ID '00000'. Task-IDs can be useful when
investigating problems or to extract all messages coming from a
certain task from a log file.
Message level (introduced in CIMA 2.3)
The message level is a single-word tag specifying the importance of
each message. The tags are ranked in order of importance from 'ERROR'
which is the most important type of message to 'DEBUG5' which is the
least important one. This ranking allows You to select how much
details You want to see in a log by specifying the 'lowest' level to
use. If You set the lowest level to 'INFO3' then only messages of type
INFO3 or more important will be shown.The message level tags are also
used to determine what color should be used for a certain message,
which is different from earlier versions of CIMA which just searched
the message itself for certain keywords. There are 27 message level
tags ordered in the following way:
ERROR WARNING PROBLEM ALERT NOTE COMMAND BEGIN END DONE TEST INFO1
INFO2 INFO3 INFO4 INFO5 START STOP LOG1 LOG2 LOG3 LOG4 LOG5 DEBUG1
DEBUG2 DEBUG3 DEBUG4 DEBUG5
For a list of the color schemes as well as the inclusion of the
different levels in various logs, see the table under the section
'Colors in logs' above.
Computer
Computer is the name of the computer that generated the message. Most
messages are generated by the CIMA executive and they do not carry any
computer name. Messages from other computers like the WAPPs, do have a
computer label to show the origin of the message.
If You use a format that also shows the procedure, then messages
coming from another computer will be shown together with the procedure
like this 'COMPUTER-procedure:'; otherwise the computer name will be
shown like 'COMPUTER:'.
The way messages from the WAPP is handled changed with CIMA version
2.3; in earlier version each WAPP produced an individual message with
the computer label looking like 'WAPP(3)' --- in version 2.3 and
later, identical messages from the WAPPs are bunched together into one
single message with a compound computer label like 'WAPP=1+2+3+4'.
Procedure (introduced in CIMA 2.3)
The procedure is the name of the computer procedure that generated the
message. This can be useful to know when trying to understand problems
since some messages like 'read failure' can be generated by many
different procedures. Since this is mostly used for analysing
problems, and problem solving is typically done using the system log,
it is not necessary to include the project field in the project log.
The procedure name will be merged with the computer name for messages
that don't come from the CIMA executive like this:
'COMPUTER-procedure:'.
Message
The message is the actual message.
Following an observation in real time
The program lastcimalog can be used to follow an
observation in real time. The program gives You a display with the
last CIMA messages displayed in the same way as in the observation log
display window. You can specify how many messages You want displayed
and if You want them to be updated automatically or just when You
press an update button. You also have the choice of selecting the
display format and how much information You want to see with the
message level option, if CIMA version 2.3 or later is used for the
observations. The operators are always running this program to see
what is going on, but it could also be useful if different members of
a project want to follow the observations or investigate some
problem. You should be aware that lastcimalog grabs the
log from the system log and may show more or less information than the
log display window depending on which message level has been selected.
Checking old log files
There is a program called cimalogview which can be used
to check old log files. It works both with project log files or with
the system log. The program is still under development, but a number
of functions work, and it can be used to search for and sort out
interesting information.
You can return to the main CIMA page by clicking here.
This page is administered by Prakash Atreya
( patreya (a) naic . edu ) and was last updated on 16 September 2008.