logty

A really simple streaming logger.

Install

You can install the latest version of the package in your project running the following command:

$ npm install --save logty

Or you can install the global utility to print logging messages in your console running the following command:

$ npm install --global logty

See CLI Usage for more information.

Usage

logty creates a Readable Stream that can emit logs messages.

Pipe log messages to process.stdout:

//Import logty
var logty = require('logty');
 
//Initialize the log stream
var log = new logty(null, { encoding: 'utf8' });
 
//Pipe the log messages to process.stdout 
log.pipe(process.stdout);
 
//Generate simple log messages
log.debug('This is a debug message');
log.error('This is an error message');
 
//Close the log stream 
log.end();

This will print on console the following lines:

[2017-07-12 13:01:17] [DEBUG] This is a debug message
[2017-07-12 13:01:17] [ERROR] This is an error message

You can pipe log messages to a file:

//Import dependencies
var logty = require('logty');
var fs = require('fs');
 
//Initialize the log stream
var log = new logty(null, { encoding: 'utf8' }); 
 
//Initialize the writable stream 
var writer = fs.createWriteStream('./my-logs.txt', { encoding: 'utf8', flags: 'a' });
 
//Pipe the logs stream to the writer
logs.pipe(writer);
 
//Generate logs
log.info('This is an info message');
log.error('This is an error message');
 
//Close the log stream 
log.end();

Content of the file:

$ cat my-logs.txt
[2017-07-12 13:01:17] [INFO] This is a info message
[2017-07-12 13:01:17] [ERROR] This is an error message

The default logging message has this structure:

[{{ tag }}] [YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss] [{{ label }}] {{ message }}

• tag is the tag string provided on the logty constructor. If no tag string is provided, this field will be omitted from the log string.
• label is the log label.
• message is log message.

You can change this structure using the log.setFormat method.

API

var log = new logty(options)

Returns a new Readable Stream. The options argument must be an object with the following attributes:

• tag: (optionally) a string with the log tag. If not tag is provided (null or empty string), the tag field of the log message will be removed.
• encoding: (optionally) the stream encoding. Default is utf8.

Event: 'data'

The data event will be emitted when a new log message is generated using the log.debug, log.info, log.notice, log.warning, log.error or log.fatal methods.

var log = new logty();
log.on('data', function (message) {
  //New log message generated
  // . . . 
});
 
//Emit a debug message 
log.debug('This is a debug message');

Event: 'error'

The error event is emitted if an error occurred while writing the log messages into the provided stream. an Error object will be passed to the listener callback with the error information.

Event: 'end'

The end event is emitted after the log.end() method has been called.

log.pipe(writer)

Pipe log messages to a Writable Stream.

log.setFormat(fn)

In v0.5.0 this method replaces the v0.4.x log.format(fn) method.

In v0.6.0, the day and time arguments are not passed to the format function. Use logty.timestamp to format the current timestamp.

Use this method to print your custom log messages. The fn argument must be a function that will be execute each log request with the following arguments:

• tag: the log tag string.
• label: a string with the log label.
• message: a string with the log message.

log.setFormat(function (tag, label, message) {
  //Only print the label and the message 
  return '[' + label.toUpperCase() + '] ' + message;
});
 
log.debug('A debug message'); // --> [DEBUG] A debug message
 

log.setLevel(level)

In v0.5.0, this method replaces the v0.4.x log.level(level) method.

This method accepts an integer with the maximum log level. Available levels:

• 0: fatal
• 1: error
• 2: warning
• 3: notice
• 4: info
• 5: debug

For example, if you set 2 (warning) as the maximum level, all the notice, info or debug messages will be omitted.

log.setLevel(2);
log.error('This is an error message'); // --> error <= warning, so this message will be piped
log.debug('This is a debug message'); // --> info > warning, so this message will be ignored

log.debug(message)

log.debug('This is a debug message');
// -> [2018-01-21 21:04:32] [DEBUG] This is a debug message

log.info(message)

log.info('This is an info message');
// -> [2018-01-21 21:04:32] [INFO] This is an info message

log.notice(message)

log.notice('This is a notice message');
// -> [2018-01-21 21:04:32] [NOTICE] This is a notice message

log.warning(message)

log.fatal('This is a warning message');
// -> [2018-01-21 21:04:32] [WARNING] This is a warning message

log.error(message)

log.error('This is an error message');
// -> [2018-01-21 21:04:32] [ERROR] This is an error message

log.fatal(message)

log.fatal('This is a fatal message');
// -> [2018-01-21 21:04:32] [FATAL] This is a fatal message

log.customLabeledMessage(label, message)

Added in v0.7.0.

Generate and emit a new log message with a custom label. This method accepts two arguments:

• label: a string with the custom label.
• message: a string with the log message.

log.customLabeledMessage("log", "This is a log message");
// -> [2018-01-21 21:04:32] [LOG] This is a log message
 
log.customLabeledMessage("critical", "This is a critical message");
// -> [2018-01-21 21:04:32] [CRITICAL] This is a critical message

log.end()

Closes the log stream.

Utils

logty.timestamp(pattern)

Added in v0.6.0.

A static method to generate a formatted timestamp. Valid patterns:

• YYYY: current year.
• MM: current month.
• DD: current day.
• hh: current hours.
• mm: current minutes.
• ss: current seconds.

let date = logty.timestamp("YYYY-MM-DD");
// --> "2018-03-07"
 
let time = logty.timestamp("hh:mm:ss");
// --> "15:24:04"

logty.labels

Added in v0.6.0.

A static array with the labels used in logty.

console.log(logty.labels)
// --> [ "fatal", "error", "warning", "notice", "info", "debug" ]

CLI Usage

You can use logty in your terminal or in your bash scripts by installing this module globally with npm. Simply run this command in your terminal:

$ npm install --global logty

You can print the logty usage guide running logty --help:

$ logty --help 
logty v0.7.0

Usage:
  $ logty [options] -m <message>

Options:
  -m MESSAGE    Set the message to display. This option is mandatory.
  -l LABEL      Set the label. Default is 'debug'.
  --fatal       Alias for '-l fatal'.
  --error       Alias for '-l error'.
  --warning     Alias for '-l warning'.
  --notice      Alias for '-l notice'.
  --info        Alias for '-l info'.
  --debug       Alias for '-l debug'.
  --help, -h    Display this usage guide.

Example of use in a bash script:

#!/usr/bin/env bash 
 
## Display a debug message 
logty -l debug -m "Hello world"      ## --> [2018-01-21 21:04:32] [DEBUG] Hello world 
 
## Display a error message  
logty -l error -m "An error message" ## --> [2018-01-21 21:04:32] [ERROR] An error message 
 
## Display a message with a custom label  
logty -l custom -m "Hello world"     ## --> [2018-01-21 21:04:32] [CUSTOM] Hello world 

License

MIT © Josemi Juanes.