What to write into log file?

Question

My question is simple: what to write into a log. Are there any conventions? What do I have to put in?

Since my app has to be released, I\'d like to have friendly log

Answer 1

timeStamp i.e. DateTime YYYY/MM/DD:HH:mm:ss:ms User Thread ID Function Name Message/Error Message/Success Message/Function Trace

Have this in XML format and you can then easily write a parser for it.

<log>
  <logEntry DebugLevel="0|1|2|3|4|5....">
    <TimeStamp format="YYYY/MM/DD:HH:mm:ss:ms" value="2009/04/22:14:12:33:120" />
    <ThreadId value="" />
    <FunctionName value="" />
    <Message type="Error|Success|Failure|Status|Trace">
      Your message goes here
    </Message> 
  </logEntry>
</log>