Logging

One of the most frequent decisions to make while writing code for FRR is what to log, what level to log it at, and when to log it. Here is a list of recommendations for these decisions.

printfrr()

printfrr() is FRR’s modified version of printf(), designed to make life easier when printing nontrivial datastructures. The following variants are available:

ssize_t snprintfrr(char *buf, size_t len, const char *fmt, ...)
ssize_t vsnprintfrr(char *buf, size_t len, const char *fmt, va_list)

These correspond to snprintf/vsnprintf. If you pass NULL for buf or 0 for len, no output is written but the return value is still calculated.

The return value is always the full length of the output, unconstrained by len. It does not include the terminating \0 character. A malformed format string can result in a -1 return value.

ssize_t csnprintfrr(char *buf, size_t len, const char *fmt, ...)
ssize_t vcsnprintfrr(char *buf, size_t len, const char *fmt, va_list)

Same as above, but the c stands for “continue” or “concatenate”. The output is appended to the string instead of overwriting it.

char *asprintfrr(struct memtype *mt, const char *fmt, ...)
char *vasprintfrr(struct memtype *mt, const char *fmt, va_list)

These functions allocate a dynamic buffer (using MTYPE mt) and print to that. If the format string is malformed, they return a copy of the format string, so the return value is always non-NULL and always dynamically allocated with mt.

char *asnprintfrr(struct memtype *mt, char *buf, size_t len, const char *fmt, ...)
char *vasnprintfrr(struct memtype *mt, char *buf, size_t len, const char *fmt, va_list)

This variant tries to use the static buffer provided, but falls back to dynamic allocation if it is insufficient.

The return value can be either buf or a newly allocated string using mt. You MUST free it like this:

char *ret = asnprintfrr(MTYPE_FOO, buf, sizeof(buf), ...);
if (ret != buf)
   XFREE(MTYPE_FOO, ret);
ssize_t bprintfrr(struct fbuf *fb, const char *fmt, ...)
ssize_t vbprintfrr(struct fbuf *fb, const char *fmt, va_list)

These are the “lowest level” functions, which the other variants listed above use to implement their functionality on top. Mainly useful for implementing printfrr extensions since those get a struct fbuf * to write their output to.

FMT_NSTD(expr)

This macro turns off/on format warnings as needed when non-ISO-C compatible printfrr extensions are used (e.g. %.*p or %Ld.):

vty_out(vty, "standard compatible %pI4\n", &addr);
FMT_NSTD(vty_out(vty, "non-standard %-47.*pHX\n", (int)len, buf));

When the frr-format plugin is in use, this macro is a no-op since the frr-format plugin supports all printfrr extensions. Since the FRR CI includes a system with the plugin enabled, this means format errors will not slip by undetected even with FMT_NSTD.

Note

printfrr() does not support the %n format. It does support ISO C23 %b, %w99d and %wf99d additions, but the latter two are not supported by the frr-format plugin yet, and all 3 aren’t supported by the older compilers still in use on some supported platforms.

%b can be used with FMT_NSTD, but %w99d and %wf99d require work in the frr-format plugin before they are really usable.

AS-Safety

printfrr() are AS-Safe under the following conditions:

  • the [v]as[n]printfrr variants are not AS-Safe (allocating memory)

  • floating point specifiers are not AS-Safe (system printf is used for these)

  • the positional %1$d syntax should not be used (8 arguments are supported while AS-Safe)

  • extensions are only AS-Safe if their printer is AS-Safe

printfrr Extensions

printfrr() format strings can be extended with suffixes after %p or %d. Printf features like field lengths can be used normally with these extensions, e.g. %-15pI4 works correctly, except if the extension consumes the width or precision. Extensions that do so are listed below as %*pXX rather than %pXX.

The extension specifier after %p or %d is always an uppercase letter; by means of established pattern uppercase letters and numbers form the type identifier which may be followed by lowercase flags.

You can grep the FRR source for printfrr_ext_autoreg to see all extended printers and what exactly they do. More printers are likely to be added as needed/useful, so the list here may be outdated.

Note

The zlog_*/flog_* and vty_out functions all use printfrr internally, so these extensions are available there. However, they are not available when calling snprintf directly. You need to call snprintfrr instead.

Networking data types

%pI4 (struct in_addr *, in_addr_t *)

1.2.3.4

%pI4s: * — print star instead of 0.0.0.0 (for multicast)

%pI6 (struct in6_addr *)

fe80::1234

%pI6s: * — print star instead of :: (for multicast)

%pEA (struct ethaddr *)

01:23:45:67:89:ab

%pIA (struct ipaddr *)

1.2.3.4 / fe80::1234

%pIAs: — print star instead of zero address (for multicast)

%pFX (struct prefix *)

1.2.3.0/24 / fe80::1234/64

This accepts the following types:

  • prefix

  • prefix_ipv4

  • prefix_ipv6

  • prefix_eth

  • prefix_evpn

  • prefix_fs

It does not accept the following types:

  • prefix_ls

  • prefix_rd

  • prefix_sg (use %pPSG4)

  • prefixptr (dereference to get prefix)

  • prefixconstptr (dereference to get prefix)

Options:

%pFXh: (address only) 1.2.3.0 / fe80::1234

%pPSG4 (struct prefix_sg *)

(*,1.2.3.4)

This is (S,G) output for use in zebra. (Note prefix_sg is not a prefix “subclass” like the other prefix_* structs.)

%pSU (union sockunion *)

%pSU: 1.2.3.4 / fe80::1234

%pSUs: 1.2.3.4 / fe80::1234%89 (adds IPv6 scope ID as integer)

%pSUp: 1.2.3.4:567 / [fe80::1234]:567 (adds port)

%pSUps: 1.2.3.4:567 / [fe80::1234%89]:567 (adds port and scope ID)

%pRN (struct route_node *, struct bgp_node *, struct agg_node *)

192.168.1.0/24 (dst-only node)

2001:db8::/32 from fe80::/64 (SADR node)

%pNH (struct nexthop *)

%pNHvv: via 1.2.3.4, eth0 — verbose zebra format

%pNHv: 1.2.3.4, via eth0 — slightly less verbose zebra format

%pNHs: 1.2.3.4 if 15 — same as nexthop2str()

%pNHcg: 1.2.3.4 — compact gateway only

%pNHci: eth0 — compact interface only

%dPF (int)

AF_INET

Prints an AF_* / PF_* constant. PF is used here to avoid confusion with AFI constants, even though the FRR codebase prefers AF_INET over PF_INET & co.

%dSO (int)

SOCK_STREAM

Time/interval formats

%pTS (struct timespec *)
%pTV (struct timeval *)
%pTT (time_t *)

Above 3 options internally result in the same code being called, support the same flags and produce equal output with one exception: %pTT has no sub-second precision and the formatter will never print a (nonsensical) .000.

Exactly one of I, M or R must immediately follow after TS/TV/TT to specify whether the input is an interval, monotonic timestamp or realtime timestamp:

%pTVI: input is an interval, not a timestamp. Print interval.

%pTVIs: input is an interval, convert to wallclock by subtracting it from current time (i.e. interval has passed since.)

%pTVIu: input is an interval, convert to wallclock by adding it to current time (i.e. until interval has passed.)

%pTVM - input is a timestamp on CLOCK_MONOTONIC, convert to wallclock time (by grabbing current CLOCK_MONOTONIC and CLOCK_REALTIME and doing the math) and print calendaric date.

%pTVMs - input is a timestamp on CLOCK_MONOTONIC, print interval since that timestamp (elapsed.)

%pTVMu - input is a timestamp on CLOCK_MONOTONIC, print interval until that timestamp (deadline.)

%pTVR - input is a timestamp on CLOCK_REALTIME, print calendaric date.

%pTVRs - input is a timestamp on CLOCK_REALTIME, print interval since that timestamp.

%pTVRu - input is a timestamp on CLOCK_REALTIME, print interval until that timestamp.

%pTVA - reserved for CLOCK_TAI in case a PTP implementation is interfaced to FRR. Not currently implemented.

Note

If %pTVRs or %pTVRu are used, this is generally an indication that a CLOCK_MONOTONIC timestamp should be used instead (or added in parallel.) CLOCK_REALTIME might be adjusted by NTP, PTP or similar procedures, causing bogus intervals to be printed.

%pTVM on first look might be assumed to have the same problem, but on closer thought the assumption is always that current system time is correct. And since a CLOCK_MONOTONIC interval is also quite safe to assume to be correct, the (past) absolute timestamp to be printed from this can likely be correct even if it doesn’t match what CLOCK_REALTIME would have indicated at that point in the past. This logic does, however, not quite work for future times.

Generally speaking, almost all use cases in FRR should (and do) use CLOCK_MONOTONIC (through monotime().)

Flags common to printing calendar times and intervals:

p: include spaces in appropriate places (depends on selected format.)

%p.3TV...: specify sub-second resolution (use with FMT_NSTD to suppress gcc warning.) As noted above, %pTT will never print sub-second digits since there are none. Only some formats support printing sub-second digits and the default may vary.

The following flags are available for printing calendar times/dates:

(no flag): Sat Jan  1 00:00:00 2022 - print output from ctime(), in local time zone. Since FRR does not currently use/enable locale support, this is always the C locale. (Locale support getting added is unlikely for the time being and would likely break other things worse than this.)

i: 2022-01-01T00:00:00.123 - ISO8601 timestamp in local time zone (note there is no Z or +00:00 suffix.) Defaults to millisecond precision.

ip: 2022-01-01 00:00:00.123 - use readable form of ISO8601 with space instead of T separator.

The following flags are available for printing intervals:

(no flag): 9w9d09:09:09.123 - does not match any preexisting format; added because it does not lose precision (like t) for longer intervals without printing huge numbers (like h/m). Defaults to millisecond precision. The week/day fields are left off if they’re zero, p adds a space after the respective letter.

t: 9w9d09h, 9d09h09m, 09:09:09 - this replaces frrtime_to_interval(). p adds spaces after week/day/hour letters.

d: print decimal number of seconds. Defaults to millisecond precision.

x / tx / dx: Like no flag / t / d, but print - for zero or negative intervals (for use with unset timers.)

h: 09:09:09

hx: 09:09:09, --:--:-- - this replaces pim_time_timer_to_hhmmss().

m: 09:09

mx: 09:09, --:-- - this replaces pim_time_timer_to_mmss().

FRR library helper formats

%pTH (struct event *)

Print remaining time on timer event. Interval-printing flag characters listed above for %pTV can be added, e.g. %pTHtx.

NULL pointers are printed as -.

%pTHD (struct event *)

Print debugging information for given event. Sample output:

{(thread *)NULL}
{(thread *)0x55a3b5818910 arg=0x55a3b5827c50 timer  r=7.824      mld_t_query() &mld_ifp->t_query from pimd/pim6_mld.c:1369}
{(thread *)0x55a3b5827230 arg=0x55a3b5827c50 read   fd=16        mld_t_recv() &mld_ifp->t_recv from pimd/pim6_mld.c:1186}

(The output is aligned to some degree.)

FRR daemon specific formats

The following formats are only available in specific daemons, as the code implementing them is part of the daemon, not the library.

zebra

%pZN (struct route_node *)

Print information for a RIB node, including zebra-specific data.

::/0 src fe80::/64 (MRIB) (%pZN)

1234 (%pZNt - table number)

bgpd

%pBD (struct bgp_dest *)

Print prefix for a BGP destination. When using --enable-dev-build include the pointer value for the bgp_dest.

fe80::1234/64

%pBP (struct peer *)

192.168.1.1(leaf1.frrouting.org)

Print BGP peer’s IP and hostname together.

pimd/pim6d

%pPA (pim_addr *)

Format IP address according to IP version (pimd vs. pim6d) being compiled.

fe80::1234 / 10.0.0.1

* (%pPAs - replace 0.0.0.0/:: with star)

%pSG (pim_sgaddr *)

Format S,G pair according to IP version (pimd vs. pim6d) being compiled. Braces are included.

(*,224.0.0.0)

General utility formats

%m (no argument)

Permission denied

Prints strerror(errno). Does not consume any input argument, don’t pass errno!

(This is a GNU extension not specific to FRR. FRR guarantees it is available on all systems in printfrr, though BSDs support it in printf too.)

%pSQ (char *)

([S]tring [Q]uote.) Like %s, but produce a quoted string. Options:

n - treat NULL as empty string instead.

q - include "" quotation marks. Note: NULL is printed as (null), not "(null)" unless n is used too. This is intentional.

s - use escaping suitable for RFC5424 syslog. This means ] is escaped too.

If a length is specified (%*pSQ or %.*pSQ), null bytes in the input string do not end the string and are just printed as \x00.

%pSE (char *)

([S]tring [E]scape.) Like %s, but escape special characters. Options:

n - treat NULL as empty string instead.

Unlike %pSQ, this escapes many more characters that are fine for a quoted string but not on their own.

If a length is specified (%*pSE or %.*pSE), null bytes in the input string do not end the string and are just printed as \x00.

%pVA (struct va_format *)

Recursively invoke printfrr, with arguments passed in through:

struct va_format
const char *fmt

Format string to use for the recursive printfrr call.

va_list *va

Formatting arguments. Note this is passed as a pointer, not - as in most other places - a direct struct reference. Internally uses va_copy() so repeated calls can be made (e.g. for determining output length.)

%pFB (struct fbuf *)

Insert text from a struct fbuf *, i.e. the output of a call to bprintfrr().

%*pHX (void *, char *, unsigned char *)

%pHX: 12 34 56 78

%pHXc: 12:34:56:78 (separate with [c]olon)

%pHXn: 12345678 (separate with [n]othing)

Insert hexdump. This specifier requires a precision or width to be specified. A precision (%.*pHX) takes precedence, but generates a compiler warning since precisions are undefined for %p in ISO C. If no precision is given, the width is used instead (and normal handling of the width is suppressed).

Note that width and precision are int arguments, not size_t. Use like:

char *buf;
size_t len;

snprintfrr(out, sizeof(out), "... %*pHX ...", (int)len, buf);

/* with padding to width - would generate a warning due to %.*p */
FMT_NSTD(snprintfrr(out, sizeof(out), "... %-47.*pHX ...", (int)len, buf));
%*pHS (void *, char *, unsigned char *)

%pHS: hex.dump

This is a complementary format for %*pHX to print the text representation for a hexdump. Non-printable characters are replaced with a dot.

%pIS (struct iso_address *)

([IS]o Network address) - Format ISO Network Address

%pIS: 01.0203.04O5 ISO Network address is printed as separated byte. The number of byte of the address is embeded in the iso_net structure.

%pISl: 01.0203.04O5.0607.0809.1011.1213.14 - long format to print the long version of the ISO Network address which include the System ID and the PSEUDO-ID of the IS-IS system

Note that the ISO_ADDR_STRLEN define gives the total size of the string that could be used in conjunction to snprintfrr. Use like:

char buf[ISO_ADDR_STRLEN];
struct iso_address addr = {.addr_len = 4, .area_addr = {1, 2, 3, 4}};
snprintfrr(buf, ISO_ADDR_STRLEN, "%pIS", &addr);
%pSY (uint8_t *)

(IS-IS [SY]stem ID) - Format IS-IS System ID

%pSY: 0102.0304.0506

%pPN (uint8_t *)

(IS-IS [P]seudo [N]ode System ID) - Format IS-IS Pseudo Node System ID

%pPN: 0102.0304.0506.07

%pLS (uint8_t *)

(IS-IS [L]sp fragment [S]ystem ID) - Format IS-IS Pseudo System ID

%pLS: 0102.0304.0506.07-08

Note that the ISO_SYSID_STRLEN define gives the total size of the string that could be used in conjunction to snprintfrr. Use like:

char buf[ISO_SYSID_STRLEN];
uint8_t id[8] = {1, 2, 3, 4 , 5 , 6 , 7, 8};
snprintfrr(buf, SYS_ID_SIZE, "%pSY", id);

Integer formats

Note

These formats currently only exist for advanced type checking with the frr-format GCC plugin. They should not be used directly since they will cause compiler warnings when used without the plugin. Use with FMT_NSTD if necessary.

As anticipated, ISO C23 has introduced new modifiers for this, specifically %w64d (= %Ld) and %w64u (= %Lu). Unfortunately, these new modifiers are not supported by frr-format yet.

%Lu (uint64_t)

12345

%Ld (int64_t)

-12345

Log levels

Errors and warnings

If it is something that the user will want to look at and maybe do something, it is either an error or a warning.

We’re expecting that warnings and errors are in some way visible to the user (in the worst case by looking at the log after the network broke, but maybe by a syslog collector from all routers.) Therefore, anything that needs to get the user in the loop—and only these things—are warnings or errors.

Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean the user needs to fix something in the FRR instance. It also includes when we detect something else needs fixing, for example another router, the system we’re running on, or the configuration. The common point is that the user should probably do something.

Deciding between a warning and an error is slightly less obvious; the rule of thumb here is that an error will cause considerable fallout beyond its direct effect. Closing a BGP session due to a malformed update is an error since all routes from the peer are dropped; discarding one route because its attributes don’t make sense is a warning.

This also loosely corresponds to the kind of reaction we’re expecting from the user. An error is likely to need immediate response while a warning might be snoozed for a bit and addressed as part of general maintenance. If a problem will self-repair (e.g. by retransmits), it should be a warning—unless the impact until that self-repair is very harsh.

Examples for warnings:

  • a BGP update, LSA or LSP could not be processed, but operation is proceeding and the broken pieces are likely to self-fix later

  • some kind of controller cannot be reached, but we can work without it

  • another router is using some unknown or unsupported capability

Examples for errors:

  • dropping a BGP session due to malformed data

  • a socket for routing protocol operation cannot be opened

  • desynchronization from network state because something went wrong

  • everything that we as developers would really like to be notified about, i.e. some assumption in the code isn’t holding up

Informational messages

Anything that provides introspection to the user during normal operation is an info message.

This includes all kinds of operational state transitions and events, especially if they might be interesting to the user during the course of figuring out a warning or an error.

By itself, these messages should mostly be statements of fact. They might indicate the order and relationship in which things happened. Also covered are conditions that might be “operational issues” like a link failure due to an unplugged cable. If it’s pretty much the point of running a routing daemon for, it’s not a warning or an error, just business as usual.

The user should be able to see the state of these bits from operational state output, i.e. show interface or show foobar neighbors. The log message indicating the change may have been printed weeks ago, but the state can always be viewed. (If some state change has an info message but no “show” command, maybe that command needs to be added.)

Examples:

  • all kinds of up/down state changes

    • interface coming up or going down

    • addresses being added or deleted

    • peers and neighbors coming up or going down

  • rejection of some routes due to user-configured route maps

  • backwards compatibility handling because another system on the network has a different or smaller feature set

Note

The previously used notify priority is replaced with info in all cases. We don’t currently have a well-defined use case for it.

Debug messages and asserts

Everything that is only interesting on-demand, or only while developing, is a debug message. It might be interesting to the user for a particularly evasive issue, but in general these are details that an average user might not even be able to make sense of.

Most (or all?) debug messages should be behind a debug foobar category switch that controls which subset of these messages is currently interesting and thus printed. If a debug message doesn’t have such a guard, there should be a good explanation as to why.

Conversely, debug messages are the only thing that should be guarded by these switches. Neither info nor warning or error messages should be hidden in this way.

Asserts should only be used as pretty crashes. We are expecting that asserts remain enabled in production builds, but please try to not use asserts in a way that would cause a security problem if the assert wasn’t there (i.e. don’t use them for length checks.)

The purpose of asserts is mainly to help development and bug hunting. If the daemon crashes, then having some more information is nice, and the assert can provide crucial hints that cut down on the time needed to track an issue. That said, if the issue can be reasonably handled and/or isn’t going to crash the daemon, it shouldn’t be an assert.

For anything else where internal constraints are violated but we’re not breaking due to it, it’s an error instead (not a debug.) These require “user action” of notifying the developers.

Examples:

  • mismatched prev/next pointers in lists

  • some field that is absolutely needed is NULL

  • any other kind of data structure corruption that will cause the daemon to crash sooner or later, one way or another

Thread-local buffering

The core logging code in lib/zlog.c allows setting up per-thread log message buffers in order to improve logging performance. The following rules apply for this buffering:

  • Only messages of priority DEBUG or INFO are buffered.

  • Any higher-priority message causes the thread’s entire buffer to be flushed, thus message ordering is preserved on a per-thread level.

  • There is no guarantee on ordering between different threads; in most cases this is arbitrary to begin with since the threads essentially race each other in printing log messages. If an order is established with some synchronization primitive, add calls to zlog_tls_buffer_flush().

  • The buffers are only ever accessed by the thread they are created by. This means no locking is necessary.

Both the main/default thread and additional threads created by frr_pthread_new() with the default frr_run() handler will initialize thread-local buffering and call zlog_tls_buffer_flush() when idle.

If some piece of code runs for an extended period, it may be useful to insert calls to zlog_tls_buffer_flush() in appropriate places:

void zlog_tls_buffer_flush(void)

Write out any pending log messages that the calling thread may have in its buffer. This function is safe to call regardless of the per-thread log buffer being set up / in use or not.

When working with threads that do not use the thread_master event loop, per-thread buffers can be managed with:

void zlog_tls_buffer_init(void)

Set up thread-local buffering for log messages. This function may be called repeatedly without adverse effects, but remember to call zlog_tls_buffer_fini() at thread exit.

Warning

If this function is called, but zlog_tls_buffer_flush() is not used, log message output will lag behind since messages will only be written out when the buffer is full.

Exiting the thread without calling zlog_tls_buffer_fini() will cause buffered log messages to be lost.

void zlog_tls_buffer_fini(void)

Flush pending messages and tear down thread-local log message buffering. This function may be called repeatedly regardless of whether zlog_tls_buffer_init() was ever called.

Log targets

The actual logging subsystem (in lib/zlog.c) is heavily separated from the actual log writers. It uses an atomic linked-list (zlog_targets) with RCU to maintain the log targets to be called. This list is intended to function as “backend” only, it is not used for configuration.

Logging targets provide their configuration layer on top of this and maintain their own capability to enumerate and store their configuration. Some targets (e.g. syslog) are inherently single instance and just stuff their config in global variables. Others (e.g. file/fd output) are multi-instance capable. There is another layer boundary here between these and the VTY configuration that they use.

Basic internals

struct zlog_target

This struct needs to be filled in by any log target and then passed to zlog_target_replace(). After it has been registered, RCU semantics apply. Most changes to associated data should make a copy, change that, and then replace the entire struct.

Additional per-target data should be “appended” by embedding this struct into a larger one, for use with containerof(), and zlog_target_clone() and zlog_target_free() should be used to allocate/free the entire container struct.

Do not use this structure to maintain configuration. It should only contain (a copy of) the data needed to perform the actual logging. For example, the syslog target uses this:

struct zlt_syslog {
    struct zlog_target zt;
    int syslog_facility;
};

static void zlog_syslog(struct zlog_target *zt, struct zlog_msg *msgs[], size_t nmsgs)
{
    struct zlt_syslog *zte = container_of(zt, struct zlt_syslog, zt);
    size_t i;

    for (i = 0; i < nmsgs; i++)
        if (zlog_msg_prio(msgs[i]) <= zt->prio_min)
            syslog(zlog_msg_prio(msgs[i]) | zte->syslog_facility, "%s",
                   zlog_msg_text(msgs[i], NULL));
}
struct zlog_target *zlog_target_clone(struct memtype *mt, struct zlog_target *oldzt, size_t size)

Allocates a logging target struct. Note that the oldzt argument may be NULL to allocate a “from scratch”. If oldzt is not NULL, the generic bits in zlog_target are copied. Target specific bits are not copied.

struct zlog_target *zlog_target_replace(struct zlog_target *oldzt, struct zlog_target *newzt)

Adds, replaces or deletes a logging target (either oldzt or newzt may be NULL.)

Returns oldzt for freeing. The target remains possibly in use by other threads until the RCU cycle ends. This implies you cannot release resources (e.g. memory, file descriptors) immediately.

The replace operation is not atomic; for a brief period it is possible that messages are delivered on both oldzt and newzt.

Warning

oldzt must remain functional until the RCU cycle ends.

void zlog_target_free(struct memtype *mt, struct zlog_target *zt)

Counterpart to zlog_target_clone(), frees a target (using RCU.)

void (*zlog_target.logfn)(struct zlog_target *zt, struct zlog_msg *msgs[], size_t nmsg)

Called on a target to deliver “normal” logging messages. msgs is an array of opaque structs containing the actual message. Use zlog_msg_* functions to access message data (this is done to allow some optimizations, e.g. lazy formatting the message text and timestamp as needed.)

Note

logfn() must check each individual message’s priority value against the configured prio_min. While the prio_min field is common to all targets and used by the core logging code to early-drop unneeded log messages, the array is not filtered for each logfn() call.

void (*zlog_target.logfn_sigsafe)(struct zlog_target *zt, const char *text, size_t len)

Called to deliver “exception” logging messages (i.e. SEGV messages.) Must be Async-Signal-Safe (may not allocate memory or call “complicated” libc functions.) May be NULL if the log target cannot handle this.

Standard targets

lib/zlog_targets.c provides the standard file / fd / syslog targets. The syslog target is single-instance while file / fd targets can be instantiated as needed. There are 3 built-in targets that are fully autonomous without any config:

  • startup logging to stderr, until either zlog_startup_end() or zlog_aux_init() is called.

  • stdout logging for non-daemon programs using zlog_aux_init()

  • crashlogs written to /var/tmp/frr.daemon.crashlog

The regular CLI/command-line logging setup is handled by lib/log_vty.c which makes the appropriate instantiations of syslog / file / fd targets.

Todo

zlog_startup_end() should do an explicit switchover from startup stderr logging to configured logging. Currently, configured logging starts in parallel as soon as the respective setup is executed. This results in some duplicate logging.