Logging to a file on the iPhone

Question

What would be the best way to write log statements to a file or database in an iPhone application?

Ideally, NSLog() output could be redirected to a file using freopen(), but I've seen several reports that it doesn't work. Does anyone have this going already or have any ideas how this might best be done?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I've successfully used freopen(...) on the phone to re-direct output to my own file.

Answer 2

If you want to use Cocoa, NSString and NSData have methods for reading/writing to file and NSFileManager gives you file operations. Here's an example (should work on iPhone):

NSData *dataToWrite = [[NSString stringWithString:@"String to write"] dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

NSString *docsDirectory = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *path = [docsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"fileName.txt"];

// Write the file
[dataToWrite writeToFile:path atomically:YES];

// Read the file
NSString *stringFromFile = [[NSString alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:path];  

// Check if file exists
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];
[fileManager fileExistsAtPath:path]; // Returns a BOOL    

// Remove the file
[fileManager removeItemAtPath:path error:NULL];

// Cleanup
[stringFromFile release];
[fileManager release];

Answer 3

Hi Mike

Had any luck? I tried what ben wrote but nothing was written to the file. If you have any conclusions please post them.

Thanks

Gidon

Answer 4

This code works for me:

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {
#if TARGET_IPHONE_SIMULATOR == 0
    freopen([@"/tmp/my_logs.txt" fileSystemRepresentation], "w", stderr);
#endif
}

Answer 5

how to limit the log size?

Answer 6

hi all. This code works great for me..

#if TARGET_IPHONE_SIMULATOR == 0
    NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
    NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];
    NSString *logPath = [documentsDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"console.log"];
    freopen([logPath cStringUsingEncoding:NSASCIIStringEncoding],"a+",stderr);
#endif

You can then get the log file off the iphone using the method outlined here http://blog.coriolis.ch/2009/01/09/redirect-nslog-to-a-file-on-the-iphone/#more-85

Note that using freopen will STOP THE CONSOLE IN XCODE working.. however, for some reason the console you can view in xcode's organiser still works great.

Answer 7

[[NSString stringWithString:@"String to write"] works well. Tried to put a "£" in, and you get the "£" but with a symbol infront of it. Can anyone suggest how to get rid of this symbol?