Survey on logging classes / frameworks / writers

Question

I am curious what writers (handlers, loggers) are you using. Text file and db its quite obvious, but what are other possibilities ? Firephp maybe (as in Zend_Log), mail, jabber, url ? Is anyone using syslog() or error_log() ? Are you using streams (especially custom ones) ?

Are you using custom error levels or you limit yourself to predefined values? Are you logging common php errors / warning / notices?

And last question - is there anything new in the town, worth consideration, apart of Zend_Log ? Or are you using your homebrew class?

Answer 1

PEAR log is the extensible framework commonly used for PEAR packages and is very decent. As to the destiny of the logged messages, sometimes I use plain files, sometimes a database.

Answer 2

Most of the time I use plain text or db too. There are however some special cases in which the site doesn't have an extensive admin panel and I want to be immediately notified of some types of errors, so I send emails.

Except very few "strange" sites, I only use predefined error levels (sometimes with E_USER_ERROR / E_USER_WARNING to identify db errors). If I am the only one working on a project, I'm used to log any type of error (including notices) as I like my code to be as "valid" as I can.

I am using my homebrew class, but I agree with Artefacto about PEAR log being very decent.