[cbuild] It is unclear what cbuild --log does (clarified)

[ReinhardKeil]

I was using this command with csolution-examples but did not see any additional log file that is created.

>cbuild Hello.csolution.yml -q -c .Release --log ./out/AVH -r

Could someone explain?

[brondani]

--log arg            Save output messages in a log file

You should give the full name for the log file not only the directory, for example:

cbuild Hello.csolution.yml -c .Release --log myLog.txt

[jkrech]

It is perfectly valid to specify a log filename without extension, however in the above example AVH is the name of the directory where the build artifacts will be stored in out/AVH/.

It seems that if you specify a directory that does not exist (./log) as part of the log file cbuild gives this error:
open ./log/AVH: The system cannot find the path specified.

[soumeh01]

--log option takes the name of the file (with/without extn), provided that the parent path should be existing. If the path doesn't exist or is a path of a directory. cbuild throws a warning and continue the execution.

$ cbuild .Hello.csolution.yml -r --log unknown/test.log
warning cbuild: error creating log file
open unknown/test.log: The system cannot find the path specified.
...

or

$ cbuild ./Hello.csolution.yml -r --log ./out/AVH
warning cbuild: error creating log file
open ./out/AVH: is a directory
...

In my opinion, The behavior should be in line with the redirect > operator. Which redirects all this output to a file and throws an ERROR when the path doesn't exist

$ cbuild ./Hello.csolution.yml -r > unknown/test_redirect.log
bash: unknown/test_redirect.log: No such file or directory

or

$ cbuild ./csolution-examples/Hello/Hello.csolution.yml -r > ./out/AVH
bash: ./out/AVH: Is a directory

Proposal

I would propose to have a behavior the same as the > operator. which is

• Parent path to the logfile should be existing
• Throw error instead of warning. When the path doesn't exist or the path specified is the path to a directory.
• Stop the execution when cbuild is unable to create a logfile

[soumeh01]

@ReinhardKeil @jkrech
Do you have any comments/feedback/suggestions on the above proposal?

[jkrech]

a) throwing an error and stopping the execution is the right approach in case the log file cannot be written (e.g. also due to lack of access permission)
b) why do we implement --log if it does exactly the same as redirecting the output using the > operator in the first place?
The benefit I was expecting for this dedicated option is that the user does not need to ensure that the directory exists, just like with the --output option. I think this would simplify the scripting and avoid the user stumbling.

[soumeh01]

In reference to the point b mentioned, The difference when having --log and > operator is,

cbuild ./Hello.csolution.yml -r > test_redirect.log only captures in the log file (NO logs on STDOUT). If user wants to see the logs on stdout and capture them in the file as well. He/she will have to use different extended command based on the operating system (tee or type or 'Tee-Object') for e.g.

• In UNIX based bash : cbuild ./Hello.csolution.yml -r 2>&1 | tee test_redirect.log
• In Windows cmd or powershell : cbuild ./Hello.csolution.yml -r > test_redirect.log 2>&1 & type test_redirect.log

but with --log options, The command is always the same irrespective of the operating system
cbuild ./Hello.csolution.yml -r --log test.log