A small ring-buffer logger for keeping diagnostic logging under control (specifically in space-constrained Docker containers).
To build the software, just run make:
make
This will result in a binary, named rlog in the current working
directory.
If you are on Linux, and want a static binary, try make static
instead; the resulting binary will be called rlog-static, and
not link in any libraries -- perfect for using in a Docker image!
rlog reads every line on standard input, datestamp it,
shove it in a ring buffer (possibly shoving out older messages in
the process) and send it to connected clients. To pull off that
last bit, it binds a TCP socket, usually localhost:1040, to await
client connections.
Usage:
rlog [127.0.0.1:1040]
When a client connects, they will immediately be sent the entire
contents of the ring buffer, to "catch up". nc makes a great
client to rlog, and it's fairly ubiquitous.
Once stdin is closed, and all messages have been sent to all
connected clients, rlog will shut down.
Fork it and submit a pull request.
But what about syslog? Look, I love logs as much as the next sysad, but they tend to get in the way. Always sitting there taking up disk space. I usually want debug logs while I'm troubleshooting an uncooperative server, and I rarely look at them otherwise. Nothing like this existed in the wild, so I wrote it.