[erlang-questions] error_logger and the perils of asynchronicity

[Oscar Hellström]

Steve Davis wrote:
> I'm pretty sure the messaging backup is caused by the absolutely
> necessary use of io:format in the standard error_logger/
> error_logger_file_h.
> 
> I'm sure that nobody can have missed that io:format even to tty is the
> just about the slowest component of any application.

Yes. But regardless if a process is overloaded with work or not, sending 
it too many messages at the same time will explode its heap. With enough 
processes running at the same priority level, it will have a hard time 
keeping up and consuming those messages.

> Maybe (just a suggestion) the answer is to install a custom log
> handler that writes the entries to a memory cache (ets) then run
> another process that works down the table of entries and writes it out
> to disk at its own pace?

Ah, but in this case, in the event of a system failure (which results in 
the VM crashing from running out of memory) we still wouldn't know what 
should have been logged.

> regs,
> Steve
> 
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