Program

WWLOGGER

Version

1,0,0,4

Synopsis

Console Mode Batch File Activity Logger

Syntax

WWLOGGER is a console program, with the following syntax.

WWLOGGER.exe LogFileName [-U|G|L] [-FFormatString] Message

where: LogFileName = Name of log file

FormatString = Override Date format string

Switches: F = Use specified custom format for date

U = Report UTC (GMT) Time (same as G)

G = Report GMT (UTC) Time (same as U)

L = Report Local Time (default)

WWLOGGER is intended to be run from a batch file or script, though it can, of course, be run directly from a command prompt.

Notes

LogFileName will be created if it does not exist.
All switches must immediately follow the file name. Otherwise, they will be ignored, as switches, and treated as part of the message.
Invalid switches are ignored and discarded; they will not appear in the log file. All such errors are reported on the system console (STDOUT).
If you use the F switch, FormatString must immediately follow the switch, without an intervening space. Think of it as a switch modifier. If the F switch is omitted or specified without a format string, a default format of YYYY/MM/DD hh:mm:ss is assumed.
Please see the next section for details about the format string.
Switches U, G, and L are mutually exclusive. If none of the three is specified, the program behaves as if switch L had been specified.
Switches U and G are interchangeable, as they have the same meaning.
Switches may be upper or lower case.
Any text following the last switch and it modifier (if applicable) is written, verbatim, to the log file. This permits writing a whole sentence, without the need for enclosing quotation marks.
For Unicode input and output, substitute WWLOGGERU for WWLOGGER in the command.

Description

Given a file name, a message, and optional switches and format string for the date, append the message to a text file, along with a time stamp.

The specified file is created if it does not exist.
The date is written into the log file, followed by a tab, then the message.

There are ANSI and Unicode versions of this program.

The ANSI version accepts ANSI command line arguments and creates an ANSI (plain ASCII) text file. When run from a command shell, Windows supplies ANSI strings to this version.
The Unicode version accepts Unicode command line arguments and creates a Unicode text file. When run from a command shell, Windows supplies Unicode strings to this version.

Files created by either version open directly in Windows Notepad.

By default, both versions of WWLOGGER report local time in YYYY/MM/DD hh:mm:ss format, where the tokens are defined as shown in Table 1below.

Token	Meaning
^YYYY	Year, always reported in 4 digits.
^MMM	Month abbreviation from Windows language table for the currently defined language, per Regional Settings.
^MMMM	Month name (spelled out) from Windows language table for the currently defined language, per Regional Settings.
^MM	Month number (01-12)
^DD	Day of month (01-31)
^hh	Hour of day (24 hour clock, 00-23)
^mm	Minutes past hour (00-59)
^ss	Seconds past minute (00-59)
^WW	First two (of possible three) letters of weekday abbreviation from Windows language table for the currently defined language, per Regional Settings.
^WWW	Weekday abbreviation from Windows language table for the currently defined language, per Regional Settings.
^WWWW	Weekday name from Windows language table for the currently defined language, per Regional Settings.

Table 1 - Date Format Tokens

The following rules apply to all tokens.

All tokens begin with a carat (^).
All tokens are case sensitive, as they must be, because ^MM and ^mm are both valid, have different meanings, and may occur in the same format string.
Any character that is not part of a format string is reproduced verbatim,. This includes embedded spaces and strings, such as the abbreviation, UTC, shown in the second illustration in Table 2.
Beware; after the date fields are substituted into the format string, it is passed to the sprintf function in the C Runtime Library. Consequently, formatting understood by printf is subject to further interpretation, and variable substitution tokens will produce unpredictable, and possibly harmful, results.

Table 2 below gives examples of format strings and the generated output.

Format String	Output Sample
^YYYY/^MM/^DD ^hh:^mm:^ss	2005/12/24 01:17:11
^WWW ^DD ^MMM ^YYYY ^hh:^mm:^ss UTC	Sat 24 Dec 2005 01:17:11 UTC

Table 2 - Sample Format Strings

The first format is the default used for data written to the log file. The second format is used to echo the current UTC time to the system console.

Installation

WWLOGGER consists of two stand alone executable files, WWLOGGER.exe and WWLOGGERU.exe, and a documentation file, WWLOGGER.pdf. Since neither program has Registry keys of its own, and both programs are self contained, no formal installation is required. Copy the files into any convenient location, such as a directory on your MS-DOS path. The latest versions is always posted here.

The MD5 digest of this file is 428e2297eca66ba17f5de3cb92eee188. You can use MD5WIN to verify the MD5 digest of this and other files.

Support

This program is free software. As such, it comes without support or a warranty. Nevertheless, I shall entertain questions about its use, ways that I could improve it, or problems that you have had with it. Naturally, I am very interested to learn how people use it. You can reach me by means of this form, which sends email directly to me.

License

This program is licensed under the GNU General Public License. Accordingly, all of the source code that went into its development is freely available. Since the program incorporates code from a statically linked library of custom functions, there are three elements, detailed in Table 3 below.

Location	Content	MD5 Digest
Program Source	Visual C++ Projects for WWLOGGER (ANSI and Unicode)	`ec43f8f9f1599109e0108903a79bae8d`
P6CLIB1 Custom Function Library	Visual C++ Project for static library P6CLIB1	`9af5496f1a1e8d2ff04a35360fd09ad0`
P6CLIB1 Header Files	C Header files for static library P6CLIB1	`837ff8717776ec640735da26978ad8e3`

Table 3 - Source Code for WWLOGGER

This program was created using Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0, and requires Microsoft Windows 95 or later. Although it could easily be made portable, I chose not to do so at this time, so that I could take advantage of the library of C functions that I developed for general internal use.

Revision History

Date	Version	Comment
11/06/2005	1.0.0.1	Initial, limited release.
12/23/2005	1.0.0.2	First feature complete version.
12/24/2005	1.0.0.3	Convert lookup tables into static data.
12/25/2005	1.0.0.4	Corrections to user documentation. No code changed.

Author

David A. Gray, MBA, of Simple Soft Services, Inc., d/b/a WizardWrx.

Copyright

The above copyright declaration applies to both the source and object forms of the programs, and to the functions from library P6CLIB1 that are incorporated therein. To the extend that such copyright conflicts with the GPL, the terms of the GPL shall govern.

Last Updated 19 August 2006