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Log Records: an excellent investment

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Log Record: Data Record as Log Record
Good Logging
The data record has keys and a time_stamp area.  Every change to the data table causes the write of a record to the log file.

Add Record: write to data table and the same record to the logfile
Mod Record: write original record to logfile; change the data table
Del Record: write original record to logfile; delete in the data table

Logging has great powers for enforcing integrity and for analyzing efficiency. Knowing the number of times that an action occurs can shed great light on managerial decisions.

Logging: Data Record plus Action
Just Do It
For most typical logging situations, a time_stamp is necessary but some trivial cases do not need a time_stamp.  In rare cases, just a count of actions is sufficient; in other cases, the kind of action or the name of the  operator is sufficient.


Logging of Batch Jobs
Some systems have built-in logging.  Some do, but useful fields are mission.  The manager needs to make sure that batch jobs create log records.  One record should be created at the beginning of the job, A second record should be created as the job ends. 

When batch jobs create log records, several useful statistics arise:
  • frequency of a given job and of jobs in general
  • the CPU time
  • duration of kinds of jobs
  • counts about who launches jobs
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PCC 1982 - 2014