Event Logging

Event logging is a feature in Pervasive.SQL that is a replacement for the MicroKernel message log. It is a centralized log that stores informational, warning, and error messages from Pervasive's Btrieve interface, SQL interface, and utility components, allowing you to view one file for information on a wide variety of Pervasive.SQL issues. There is no setup requirement to activate this log; it is always enabled.

Note
Pervasive Event Logging is separate from Transaction Durability (page 4-46) logging and "Archival Logging" (see the following topic in Advanced Operations Guide: Logging, Backup, and Restore ).

The event log is named PVSW.LOG and it resides in the installation directory of the operating system for each machine running a Pervasive.SQL application. This location cannot be changed due to the fact that a variety of Pervasive.SQL components and potentially several Pervasive.SQL applications running concurrently must share the file; therefore, it must be in a well known location. The locations are specified in the following table. If you have an operating system installed on a drive other than C, substitute that drive letter in the following table.


Platform	Event log location
Windows NT	C:\WINNT
Windows 9X	C:\WINDOWS
NetWare	SYS:\SYSTEM
Linux	~psql/bin

Note
If two or more Pervasive.SQL applications are running on the same machine, they share a single event log.

The event log consists of ASCII text messages that adhere to the following syntax description.


Date	Time	Component	Process	Process Name
06/04/2003	13:15:20	ECAS_API	000000BD	_ISTMPO.DIR

Computer Name	Type	Category	Msg ID	Message
LAB_110	E			ECASAPI - DBSVCMGR/UPI Error `4083' during `ECASStartBtrieve()' a

An entry may be followed by binary data in standard ASCII hexadecimal format. There is no limit to the length of the binary data. The fields in these entries are as follows:


Field	Length (in Bytes)	Contents
Date	10	Automatic date stamp of entry.
Time	8	Automatic time stamp of entry.
Component	15	Name of component that logged the entry. This name corresponds to the file name of the component without its extension
Process	8	Instance ID of the component, which is either the process ID of the component or the thread group ID in NetWare.
Process Name	Up to 15	The name of the calling process. Due to space constraints, only the name of the executable and not the fully qualified path is displayed.
Computer Name	Up to 15	The computer name, if available. For example, on Windows NT, this would be the workstation name as defined in the Network properties dialog.
Type	1	Describes the message class: E for error, I for information, or W for warning.
Category	Up to 10	This field contains a component-specified text field of up to 10 characters that can be stored within a string resource file.
Msg ID	Up to 8	This field contains a numeric message identifier that corresponds to a message string associated with the calling component.
Message	Up to 1,024	This field contains either a string retrieved from a resource associated with the calling component, or a text string passed directly from the calling component. Depending on the component, this message may contain binary data displayed in hexadecimal text format. This message can be a maximum of 1024 bytes in length.

When a component generates a status code, there is often additional information about the cause of that status code that is recorded in the Event log. Consult the Event log when you encounter problems with your Pervasive.SQL application and have the Event log available when contacting Pervasive Software for technical support.