Re: End of hypocrisy ?
On Fri, 08 Aug 2014 13:38:55 -0400
Jerry Stuckle <jstuckle@attglobal.net> wrote:
>
> Nope. First of all, messages are NOT relational, unless you are
> calling the source of the message and the text of the message
> relational.
>
> Second, there is significant additional overhead when inserting into a
> SQL database vs. adding to the end of a text file.
>
> Third, to insert or retrieve data from the SQL database, you need the
> SQL engine running. What if there is a problem with the engine?
> With a text file, all you need is the file system up to add to the
> file, and a command line prompt plus grep, head, tail, etc. to search
> the file (vim is also a possibility but not necessary). It is also
> faster to grep a text file than a SQL database unless the log file is
> huge.
>
> Fourth, the same data in a SQL file takes up more space than in a
> text file.
>
> Fifth, log files can easily be rotated in a text file; it is much
> harder with a SQL database.
Sixth, people don't move to Unix (and therefore Linux) to eschew text
files. Unix and Linux were optimized to work on file systems.
Seventh, there's 40 years of experience with text logs. Are they
perfect? No. Could there be an API to write consistent logs from all
apps? Of course: I could write it myself. I'd just need to get a
specification.
SteveT
Steve Litt * http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training * Human Performance
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