Text Logging
Text logging is a software development practice that involves recording events, errors, and other runtime information as human-readable text messages, typically stored in files or streams. It provides a chronological record of application behavior for debugging, monitoring, and auditing purposes. This foundational technique is essential for understanding system performance, troubleshooting issues, and maintaining operational visibility in production environments.
Developers should implement text logging to enable effective debugging during development and post-deployment, as it captures detailed context when errors occur, such as stack traces and variable states. It is crucial for monitoring application health in production, allowing teams to track usage patterns, detect anomalies, and comply with regulatory requirements through audit trails. Common use cases include web servers logging HTTP requests, financial systems recording transactions, and microservices architectures where distributed tracing relies on aggregated logs.