pince

Pince
=====

Pince is a lightweight logger that combines some of the best
properties of log4j and node. It's equally usable in Node, (most)
browsers, and Meteor (client and server).

It was developed for MadEye.

Features:

* Log levels: error, warn, info, debug, trace
* Dynamically change the log level on the client.
* Change the log level with no code changes on the server.
* Logging is very lightweight when there's nothing listening to it.
* Each logger has a name -- you can set levels individually by name!
* Names can be heirarchally namespaced by separating them with ':'s, like
myLibrary:aModule:thisObject.
* Set log levels by any level of the namespace hierarcy!

Installation (Node.js)
----------------------
To install, npm install pince.

In any file you wish to make a logger, require it via
Logger = require('pince');

Installation (Meteor)
---------------------
To install, just meteor add jag:pince. The global Logger symbol will be
there waiting for you.

By default, on the server Meteor will prepend a string to logs that includes
a timestamp (amongst other things). To silence Meteor's prefix, run meteor
with the --raw-logs flag: meteor --raw-logs.

Usage
----------

Set the log level:
``javascript
//Default is info
Logger.setLevel('trace');
`

Make a new logger:
`javascript
var log = new Logger('router');
log.info("Routing.");
//2013-10-31 11:29:36.097 info: [router] Routing.
log.trace("Setting up routes...");
//2013-10-31 11:29:36.101 trace: [router] Setting up routes...
`

Set individual levels:
`javascript
Logger.setLevel('info');
Logger.setLevel('controller', 'trace');
var routerLog = new Logger('router');
var controllerLog = new Logger('controller');

routerLog.trace("Can't hear me!");
//Nothing
controllerLog.trace("Can hear me.");
//2013-10-31 11:31:21.906 trace: [controller] Can hear me.

Logger.setLevels({router:'debug', controller:'warn'});
routerLog.info("Finally! Someone is listening to me.");
//2013-10-31 11:32:48.374 info: [router] Finally! Someone is listening to me.
controllerLog.info("Hello? Hello??");
//Nothing
`

Hierarchically name and set levels:
`javascript
var routerLog = new Logger('myPackage:router');
var controllerLog = new Logger('myPackage:controller');
Logger.setLevel('myPackage', 'info');
Logger.setLevel('myPackage:controller', 'debug');

routerLog.info('You can see this.');
routerLog.debug('You cannot see this; myPackage level is set to info.');
controllerLog.debug('You can see this, myPackage:controller level is set to debug.');
``