command line tool to log messages into a log file

[Paul Purvis]

i could not find a simple a simple logger so here is one i created.
i was not interested in logging to windows os event log.

you can log to any file provided it is given on the command line
it does not create any directorys and it will timeout if it cannot open or create a file after so many tries.
it opens a file for exclusive use while logging then closes it after the log is written, but it will try for 200 times with 30 microseconds pauses between each try, maybe that will be enough for multi users if the demands for the log file are not too high or often.

program has a default log message and default log file name but can easily be patched to something else.

any negative comments would be welcomed now before it hits the source code section
there is always that one last change, you know what i mean!


logitnow.bas

REM logitnow.bas
REM compiled with pbcc 5.02
REM this should compile with pbcc 4.0? too
REM program is to log a message from the comamnd line
REM a file name can be placed on the command line
REM or the default file name logitnow.log is used



#COMPILE EXE
#DIM ALL
REM $SQ equate is not in powerbasic versions before pbcc 5.00 or pbwin 9.0

GLOBAL gssinglequote AS STRING
REM function to provide day of week

FUNCTION AstroDay(year AS LONG, month AS LONG, day AS LONG) AS LONG
    DIM y AS DOUBLE
    y = year + (month - 2.85) / 12
    AstroDay = INT(INT(INT(367 * y) - 1.75 * INT(y) + day) -0.75 * INT(0.01 * y)) + 1721116
END FUNCTION

REM removes single and double quotes from a string
FUNCTION removequotes(A AS STRING) AS STRING
removethemquotes:
a=TRIM$(a)
REPLACE $DQ WITH "" IN a
REPLACE gssinglequote WITH "" IN a
IF INSTR(a,$DQ) THEN GOTO removethemquotes
IF INSTR(a,gssinglequote) THEN GOTO removethemquotes
a=TRIM$(a)
FUNCTION=a
END FUNCTION

REM removes double spaces from a string
FUNCTION removedoublespaces(A AS STRING) AS STRING
removethemdoublespaces:
a=TRIM$(a)
REPLACE "  " WITH " " IN a
REPLACE gssinglequote WITH "" IN a
IF INSTR(a,"  ") THEN GOTO removethemdoublespaces
a=TRIM$(a)
FUNCTION=a
END FUNCTION

REM writes to a log file placed on the command line or the default file name "logitnow.log"
REM writes date,time,computername,domainname,username, then a note if placed on the command line
REM if no note is placed on the command line, the note of "no msg" is used
REM program will try to open log file up to 200 times with 30 microseconds waits between tries then abort

FUNCTION logit(smessage AS STRING,slogfilename AS STRING) AS LONG
DIM scomputername AS STRING
DIM susername AS STRING
DIM suserdomain AS STRING
DIM stime AS STRING
DIM sdate AS STRING
DIM sdayofweek AS STRING
DIM idate AS STRING
DIM slogline AS STRING
DIM i AS LONG

sdate=DATE$
stime=TIME$
scomputername=ENVIRON$("COMPUTERNAME")
susername=ENVIRON$("USERNAME")
suserdomain=ENVIRON$("USERDOMAIN")

SELECT CASE (AstroDay(VAL(MID$(DATE$,7,4)),VAL(MID$(DATE$,1,2)),VAL(MID$(DATE$,4,2))) MOD 7)
         CASE 0: sdayofweek="Sun"
         CASE 1: sdayofweek="Mon"
         CASE 2: sdayofweek="Tue"
         CASE 3: sdayofweek="Wed"
         CASE 4: sdayofweek="Thu"
         CASE 5: sdayofweek="Fri"
         CASE 6: sdayofweek="Sat"
END SELECT


smessage=TRIM$(smessage)
IF LEN(smessage)=0 THEN
    smessage=TRIM$("no msg                                                                                                           ")
    ELSE
    smessage=removedoublespaces(smessage)
END IF

slogline=MID$(DATE$,7,4)+"-"+ MID$(DATE$,1,2)+"-"+MID$(DATE$,4,2)+" "+stime+" "+sdayofweek+" ["+scomputername+":"+suserdomain+":"+susername+"] "+smessage

slogfilename=TRIM$(slogfilename)
IF LEN(slogfilename)=0 THEN
    slogfilename=TRIM$("logitnow.log                                                                                                                           ")
END IF

i=0&
recordinlogfile:
INCR i
TRY
OPEN slogfilename FOR APPEND AS #1
CATCH
IF i=200 THEN EXIT FUNCTION
SLEEP 30
GOTO recordinlogfile
END TRY
PRINT #1,USING$("&",slogline)
CLOSE #1
END FUNCTION





FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG
DIM i AS LONG,j AS LONG
DIM scommand AS STRING
DIM sdefaultfilename AS STRING
DIM sfilename AS STRING
DIM sendoffilenamemarker AS STRING

scommand=TRIM$(COMMAND$)

REM assign the global string variable gssinglequote to asc 39 the ' single quote character
REM $DQ is a global string variable preassigned  to asc 34 the " double quote character
gssinglequote=CHR$(39)

IF LEN(scommand)=0 THEN
    logit(scommand,sfilename)
    GOTO exittheprogram
END IF
scommand=" "+scommand+" "

IF INSTR(scommand,"?") THEN
    STDOUT "This prgram was created to log messages to a file"
    STDOUT "It logs date,time,computername,domain,username"
    STDOUT "and a message given on the command line."
    STDOUT "IF no message is given, then -no msg- is placed in the log file."
    STDOUT "To change the default log file name from logitlog.log, use"
    STDOUT "/F immediately before a filename on the command line, quotes are permitted."
    STDOUT "If this program cannot create or open the log file within 200 tries"
    STDOUT "with a 30 microseconds pause in between each try, it will timeout."
    STDOUT "This program can be patched to change the default log name."
    STDOUT "examples:"
    STDOUT "logitnow booting up the computer"
    STDOUT "logitnow /f"+$DQ+"c:\program files\logdirectory\bootup.log"+$DQ+"  booting up the computer"
    STDOUT "logitnow /fc:\logdirectory\bootup.log  booting up the computer"
    STDOUT "This program will not create any directory that does not already exist."
    GOTO exittheprogram
END IF


REM if a filename was placed on the command line, parse it out of the command line
REM then remove the filename with the /F from from the command line
REM the parameter on the comamd line is "/F"
REM the filename can be in double or single quotes
REM the filename must immediately follow the /f

i=INSTR(UCASE$(scommand),"/F")
IF I THEN
   sendoffilenamemarker=" "
   IF MID$(scommand,i+2,1)=$DQ THEN sendoffilenamemarker=$DQ
   IF MID$(scommand,i+2,1)=gssinglequote THEN sendoffilenamemarker=gssinglequote
   IF sendoffilenamemarker<>" " THEN
      j=INSTR(i+3,scommand,sendoffilenamemarker)
     ELSE
      j=INSTR(i+2,scommand,sendoffilenamemarker)
   END IF
sfilename=MID$(scommand,i,j-i+1)
REPLACE sfilename WITH " " IN scommand
sfilename=removequotes(sfilename)+" "
IF LEFT$(UCASE$(sfilename),2)="/F" THEN sfilename=RIGHT$(sfilename,(LEN(sfilename)-2))
sfilename=TRIM$(sfilename)
END IF


scommand=TRIM$(scommand)

IF LEN(scommand)=0 THEN
    logit(scommand,sfilename)
    GOTO exittheprogram
END IF

scommand=removequotes(scommand)
logit(scommand,sfilename)

exittheprogram:
END FUNCTION

[Paul Purvis]

program is now compiled with pbcc 5.0 in case pbcc 4.0 version has problems with vista or windows 7
but the program still compiles with pbcc 4.0

also added the day of week stamp in the log file so you do not have look at a calendar.