# ActiveRecord changes Logger formatting

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-changes-logger-formatting/168696>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 24, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-changes-logger-formatting/168696 "2009-05-24T15:19:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robredford)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-changes-logger-formatting/168696/1 "2009-05-24T15:19:32Z")

</div>

Why does my Logger formatting change after I “require  
‘active\_record’”?

irb(main):001:0\> require ‘logger’  
=\> true  
irb(main):002:0\> $logger = Logger::new STDOUT  
=\> #\<Logger:0xb7dd0a38 @formatter=nil,  
@default\_formatter=#\<Logger::Formatter:0xb7dd0a10  
@datetime\_format=nil\>, @level=0, @progname=nil,  
@logdev=#\<Logger::LogDevice:0xb7dd09e8 @shift\_age=nil, @filename=nil,  
@mutex=#\<Logger::LogDevice::LogDeviceMutex:0xb7dd09c0  
@mon\_waiting\_queue=[], @mon\_entering\_queue=[], @mon\_count=0,  
@mon\_owner=nil\>, @dev=#IO:0xb7f10574, @shift\_size=nil\>\>  
irb(main):003:0\>  
irb(main):004:0\* $logger.info{ “Expected log line style” }  
I, [2009-05-24T06:58:44.599720 #22050] INFO – : Expected log line  
style  
=\> true  
irb(main):005:0\>  
irb(main):006:0\* require ‘active\_record’  
=\> true  
irb(main):007:0\> $logger.info{ “Why did AR change my log line  
style?” }  
Why did AR change my log line style?  
=\> true  
irb(main):008:0\>

Furthermore, how does one specify a user defined Logger format style?  
I need to provide my Log lines in a format consistent with our other  
applications.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robredford)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 10:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-changes-logger-formatting/168696/2 "2009-05-30T10:46:31Z")

</div>

Does anyone have any ideas here??? I no longer have useful Logger  
messages. That’s very frustrating.

R

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robredford)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2009, 11:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-changes-logger-formatting/168696/3 "2009-05-30T11:54:20Z")

</div>

On May 30, 9:45 am, RobR [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Does anyone have any ideas here??? I no longer have useful Logger  
> messages. That’s very frustrating.

probably because activerecord requires activesupport and activesupport  
does

> <https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/669fd84910586d4c791b6f5bf4320f68ac7845aa/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/logger.rb>

(note that it defaults you to Logger::SimpleFormatter)

Fred

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/7ea924/32.png) [@robredford](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robredford)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/activerecord-changes-logger-formatting/168696/4 "2009-06-01T04:43:44Z")

</div>

Frederick C. wrote:

> probably because activerecord requires activesupport and activesupport  
> does
> 
> [rails/activesupport/lib/active\_support/core\_ext/logger.rb at 669fd84910586d4c791b6f5bf4320f68ac7845aa · rails/rails · GitHub](http://github.com/rails/rails/blob/669fd84910586d4c791b6f5bf4320f68ac7845aa/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/logger.rb)

For what it’s worth, I share the original questioners general  
unhappiness with Rails default logging format.

It’s possible to customize that without too much code, although somewhat  
more confusing and under-documented than one might wish, and also seems  
to change slightly from one Rails version to the next, for whatever  
reasons the precise hooks into Rails logging mechanisms seem to be  
somewhat unstable.

Here’s how I customize logging in a Rails 2.1.2 app, choosing to use the  
Rails2 default “BuferredLogger” for what (I assume) is better efficiency  
in disk writes, but with my own output formats. Anyone feel free to let  
me know if there’s a better way, or if this is easier in subsequent  
Rails versions. But it’s not too hard (once you figure it out, which  
took me a bit of playing around).

In my lib directory, a sub-class of the BufferedLogger that actually  
accepts a formatter, as the standard BufferedLogger (at least in 2.1.1)  
oddly does not:

[http://umlaut.rubyforge.org/svn/trunk/lib/umlaut\_logger.rb](http://umlaut.rubyforge.org/svn/trunk/lib/umlaut_logger.rb)

Then in environment.rb, set the logger and it’s formatter:

```
require_dependency 'umlaut_logger'
severity_level = 

```

ActiveSupport::BufferedLogger.const\_get(config.log\_level.to\_s.upcase)  
log\_file = File.join(RAILS\_ROOT, “log”, “#{RAILS\_ENV}.log”)

```
our_logger = UmlautLogger.new(log_file, severity_level)
our_logger.formatter = lambda do |severity_label, msg|
  time_fmtd = Time.now.strftime("%d %b %H:%M:%S")
  preface = "[#{time_fmtd}] (pid:#{$$}) #{severity_label}: "
  # stick our preface AFTER any initial newlines
  msg =~ /^(\n+)[^\n]/
  index = $1 ? $1.length : 0
  return msg.insert(index, preface)
end
config.logger = our_logger

```