Everything You Wanted to Know About Logging

In software the act of logging is like breathing: you simply cannot avoid it. It is also (like one's own breathing patterns) quixotically nuanced. The expressions of this nuance can be seen in the number of ways it is used: in production server programs, in CLI tools, in web browsers, in native Mobile apps, just to name a few.

Winston is the most popular logging library for node. Released in early 2011, it is almost old as node itself. Over time there have been many other libraries that co-exist in the logging space: bunyan, bole, & pino. Yet the popularity of winston persists with over 6.5M monthly downloads and over 200 community contributed packages.

This talk will explore winston@3 and contrast it with other logging solutions that exist today. Not just from the perspective of performance, but from the perspective of flexibility across platforms.

Transcript

2. TO KNOW EVERYTHING YOU WANTED ABOUT LOGGING
3. WHY, HELLO THERE CHARLIE HERE
4. WELCOME TO LOGGING. I WILL BE YOUR GUIDE
5. SENIOR DIR. UX PLATFORM @ (0%"%%: @INDEXZERO GITHUB TWITTER WELCOME TO LOGGING. I WILL BE YOUR GUIDE
6. WINSTON FOR NODE@4 MODERNIZING
   
   An EXercise in Open source, STREAMS, ES6, And KEEPING CODE ALIVE.
7. TL;DR?
8. TL;DR? LOOKING FOR THE TL;DR?
9. WINSTON IS FROM 2010
10. WINSTON IS FROM 2010 ACTUALLY JANUARY, 17 2011 BUT STARTED IN 2010
12. ...BACK THEN ...
13. ...BACK THEN ... THINGS WERE A LITTLE DIFFERENT
14. NEVER BEEN ONE OF THESE 2011 BE LIKE…
15. NO STREAMS API 2011 BE LIKE…
16. ES5 IS STILL NEW 2011 BE LIKE…
18. LIMITED CODE COVERAGE TOOLS 2011 BE LIKE…
20. NOT ALL THAT BAD THO
21. BACK TO THE FUTURE
22. BACK TO THE FUTURE BY 2015 THINGS WERE MOVING ALONG…
24. 
    
    
    WINSTON@1.0.0
    
    
    SMALL BREAKS
26. 
    
    
    WINSTON@2.0.0
    
    
    BIGGER BREAKS
28. 
    
    
    WINSTON@3.0.0
    
    
    BREAK TO NEW APIS
29. 
    
    
    OPEN SOURCE
30. 
    
    
    OPEN SOURCE
    IT CAN BE DONE!
31. in 2015 WINSTON HAD ABOUT 2.6 MILLION MONTHLY DOWNLOADS BUNYAN: ~0.56M
32. Open Source is what happens when you’re 
 busy making other plans - IF JOHN LENNON WROTE SOFTWARE
34. FAST FORWARD TO 2017
35. 2017 Downloads 2017 download comparison
36. 2017 Downloads 2017 download comparison winston continues to “win”
38. BUT JUST WHY EXACTLY?
39. CONSIDER THE API
40. 
    
    
    SHAKESPEARE’S “LOGGING”
41. 
    
    
    SHAKESPEARE’S “LOGGING”
    
    
    A PLAY IN 5 ACTS
42. ACT ONE Levels
43. ACT ONE Levels WHERE IN RFC5424 EMERGES VICTORIOUS IN THE END. ALWAYS.
44. ACT ONE Levels WHERE IN RFC5424 EMERGES VICTORIOUS IN THE END. ALWAYS.
45. ACT TWO Log Shipping
46. ACT TWO Log Shipping WINSTON TRANSPORTS BUNYAN STREAMS LOG4JS-NODE APPENDERS
47. STREAMS ALL THE THINGS
48. STREAMS ALL THE THINGS
    
    
    In winston@3 a “transport” is
    
    
    simply nothing more than a
    
    
    Node.js WritableStream
49. ACT THREE Querying & Streaming
50. ACT THREE Querying & Streaming KIBANA. OR SOME SASS YOU PAY FOR. BESPOKE ENDS TRAGICALLY – USUALLY.
51. ACT FOUR Serialization & Filtering
52. ACT FOUR Serialization & Filtering JSON, COLORING, PRETTYPRINTING, ALIGNMENT, CUSTOM FORMATTING, TIMESTAMPS & SO SO MUCH MORE
53. ACT FIVE Defaults & Mutation
54. ACT FIVE Defaults & Mutation BUNYAN SERIALIZERS MORGAN TOKENS LOG4JS-NODE PATTERNS
56. OPTIONS HELL IS
57. OPTIONS HELL IS AT LEAST THE FIFTH CIRCLE OF PROGRAMMING HELL
59. COMMON.LOG
60. COMMON.LOG
61. COMMON.LOG
62. COMMON.LOG
63. COMMON.LOG
    
    
    THIS IS OPTIONS HELL
64. INTRODUCE FORMATS
65. INTRODUCE FORMATS
66. INTRODUCE FORMATS
67. INTRODUCE FORMATS
68. INTRODUCE FORMATS A LA CARTE. PAY FOR WHAT YOU USE.
70. ON PERFORMANCE AND API DESIGN
72. IT TURNS OUT
73. IT TURNS OUT PERFORMANCE IS SIMPLY NOT EVERYTHING
75. WANT THE DEVELOPERS THE HOMER CAR
77. FORMATS YOUR OWN DEFINE
78. FORMATS YOUR OWN DEFINE
79. FORMATS YOUR OWN DEFINE
80. FORMATS YOUR OWN DEFINE
81. EASY AS IT LOOKS NOT AS
83. ES6 SYMBOLS
84. ES6 SYMBOLS SYMBOLS! EVERYWHERE
85. ES6 SYMBOLS
86. ES6 SYMBOLS LESS MEMORY OVERHEAD NON-ENUMERABLE / SEMI-PRIVATE WILL NOT APPEAR IN DEFAULT JSON.STRINGIFY
88. BACK TO HELL!
89. BACK TO HELL! COUPLING IS 
 THE NINTH CIRCLE OF PROGRAMMING HELL
91. DECOUPLED SHARED FUNCTIONALITY
92. DECOUPLED SHARED FUNCTIONALITY
    
    
    require(‘winston-transport’);
    
    
    require(‘abstract-winston-transport’);
93. DECOUPLED SHARED FUNCTIONALITY
    
    
    require(‘winston-transport’);
    
    
    require(‘abstract-winston-transport’);
94. DECOUPLED SHARED FUNCTIONALITY
    
    
    require(‘winston-transport’);
    
    
    require(‘abstract-winston-transport’);
    
    
    require(‘logform’)
95. BACKWARDS COMPATABILITY
96. BACKWARDS COMPATABILITY
    
    
    require(‘winston-compat’);
    
    
    common.log
    
    
    winston.transports.Transport
    
    
    Old vows-based test macros
97. 
    
    
    BENCHMARKS SAY UP TO…
98. 375% FASTER THAN WINSTON@2
    
    
    BENCHMARKS SAY UP TO… FASTER THAN BUNYAN
100. NEW MAINTAINERS ACTIVELY SEEKING
101. NEW MAINTAINERS ACTIVELY SEEKING
     
     
     YES! THAT MEANS YOU!
     SHOULD JOIN WINSTON
102. FIN
     
     
     npm install winston@next