Preserve Logs Between Runs

I'm currently doing a lot of beta testing, and I am frequently using output logs from my beta testers to diagnose issues. Sometimes the tester will re-run the program before copying over the output log, which causes the original output log to be overwritten.

Is it possible to make the output log use a new filename between runs? This way I could compare the logs between different runs without risk of the original issue being overwritten.

 

You have a few options.

1) Subscribe to the

Application.logMessageReceived

event. Unity will still create the output.log file with no changes, but now you can also do something additional with each log entry, such as output it to another file you create using System.IO.

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Application-logMessageReceived.html
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Application-logMessageReceivedThreaded.html
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Application.LogCallback.html


2) Create a class that implements the ILogHandler interface. You can then set

Debug.unityLogger.logHandler = <yourLogger>

, or you can call

<yourLogger>.Log("Log Message")

when you would normally call

Debug.Log("Log Message")

. I ran into issues with this and found method 1 to be more resistant to bugs messing up your logging.

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/ILogHandler.html


You will still have to make sure you create a new log file with a unique filename for each run. I recommend using a timestamp in the filename.

Best of luck!

 

I think that'll work, thanks for the help!

 

You could also create a launcher for your game that first copies the old log to a new location (or even uploads it to a server of yours) before launching the game.

Alternatively the launcher app could launch your game with a custom logfile parameter so log files don't overwrite.

 

A custom launcher with the command line option to name the file works but it's extra baggage that needs to be packaged and ultimately the user could still click on the main executable directly (especially if that's what they're already used to doing with an existing app). It would be great if there could be an option in the player settings to allow control over the naming and allow for text substitutions so for example you could put in an "YYYYMMDDHHSS" type of date format so the logs would never be overwritten.

 

You can set a listener for the event

Application.logMessageReceivedThreaded

. I have a logging script that runs on a program that runs for weeks at a time. Every 24 hours or 10k log entries, I end the current file and start a new one using System.IO, and I output any log entries I get from the

Application.logMessageReceivedThreaded

event into the newest log file.

 

@Gambit-MSplitz possible for you to share the script, so we don't have to reinvent the wheel? Would be greatly appreciated.

 

I would if I could, but I'm afraid it's property of the company I work for, and it hooks into some of our other proprietary systems anyway. Sorry =(