--
Tatsuhiko Miyagawa
miyagawa@cpan.org

package mylog;
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;
open LOGFILE, ">log.txt";
sub log {
 print LOGFILE, Dumper @_;
}

sub END {
 close LOGFILE;
}


#now in your main proggie
&mylog::log("This is a logged message");
[download]

There are many better variations, but this is a good first module.

____________________
Jeremy
I didn't believe in evil until I dated it.

One small error: there shouldn't be a comma after print LOGFILE. The line should read:

print LOGFILE Dumper @_;
[download]

if (`uname` =~ /Linux/) {
  # do Sys::Syslog stuff here
} elseif (`set os` =~ /windows/i) {
  # do Win32::EventLog stuff here
} else { die "hmmm, where do I log\n" }
[download]

I've never really considered adding to the system logs because they tend to fill up rapidly, get aged, and deleted. Many times system logs are also located on partitions that are relatively short on space, so I don't want to aggravate that problem either.

I prefer creating application specific log files that are human readable at all times, so I try to use messages that are visually distinctive for the various types of logged messages. As I'm debugging I comment out debug statements from areas as I complete them so the amount of information logged decreases greatly as I near the end of a project. The parts left are usually checkpoints that indicate success or failure of a given task.

When debugging some web applications sometimes I find it more helpful to bypass file logging and generate simple javascript alerts:

print "<script language='javascript'>alert('Exiting sub XXXXXXXXXX.')<
+/script>";
[download]

sub Notify {
   my ($Text, $continue, $green) = @ARG;
   my $bgcolor = '#FC8C8C';
   if ($green) {
      $bgcolor = '#BBFFBB';
   }
   print <<"-100-";
   <br><br><br><br>
   <table align=center BGCOLOR="$bgcolor" cellpadding=15 border=3>
       <tr><td align=center><font size=5 face=Arial>
       <b>$Text</b></font></td></tr>
   </table><br><br><br><br><br>
-100-
   if (!$continue) { ## fatal message
      print <<"-200-";
   <table border=0 width=100%>
       <tr><td align=center><font size=4 face=Arial color="blue">
           <b>Contact Whomever Necessary at 999-9999 (Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm
+)
           for questions regarding use of the this application.</b>
           </font></td></tr>
   </table>
   </center>
   </body>
   </html>
-200-
      exit;
   }
   print <<"-300-";
   </center>
   </body>
   </html>
-300-
}
[download]

--Jim