Log_OC doesn't collect logs in file

[ezaquarii]

Actual behaviour

Logs don't show up in Settings->Logs

Expected behaviour

Logs should be visible there

Steps to reproduce

1. Launch Nextcloud app
2. Go to Settings->Logs
3. Logs are outdated

Environment data

Android version: 9.0
Device model: One Plus 6T
Stock or customized system: Stock
Nextcloud app version: master
Nextcloud server version: 16.0.2

Logs

Nextcloud log (data/nextcloud.log)

This is exactly the stuff that is missing!

[ezaquarii]

First, before any use. logging must be enabled:

synchronized private static void appendLog(String text) {
    if (isEnabled) {
        ...

However, the logger is enabled in a somewhat peculiar way:

synchronized public static void startLogging(Context context) {
    ...
    try {
        // Create the current log file if does not exist
        isEnabled = mLogFile.createNewFile();

File.createNewFile returns false if the file already exists, which means that logging works only for the very first ime. On all subsequent app runs logging is disabled.

[ezaquarii]

@tobiasKaminsky @AndyScherzinger

I looked at out logging implementation and there are few issues with it:

1. It generally doesn't work, because of <this bug description>
2. It's spammy - it logs tons of verbose tracing and some useful stuff via debug. Android logger has log levels and we're not leveraging their full potential IMO
3. Browser is not super friendly - can't filter, etc. That's not a big issue if you can send logs to grep them off-line, but we can still do a bit better, IMO
4. Logger implementation is shipped with nexcloud-android-library, which is not optimal:

• logger doesn't work (DOH!)
• library users might want to have their own logging strategy

5. No control - application dumps tons of traces via adb and there is no easy way to stop it

To solve this problem, there are few things that are piling up:

1. ETM PR for injectable view models: Engineering Test Mode #4133
2. Pluggable logger implementation in Library: Plug custom logger implementation into Log_OC android-library#324
3. New logger - New logger implementation #4275

1 and 2 are needed to progress with 3.

This way we'd have basic logging with old functionality that actually works (ie. no UX extras) and paved road to improve the experience with search, tunable settings, filters, etc.

The reason why this is important is that we're currently having very limited way of debugging various issues, especially around high-risk areas (sync, media, power issues), and I believe that there is little we can improve there while being blind and unable to diagnose issues with our users.

[tobiasKaminsky]

Thanks for the nice summary and bug finding/fixing!
I'll have a look at the PRs now.