Less logging for the average user

[koblue]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

I was doing some housekeeping on my machine and noticed that PowerToys seems incredibly log happy.

I doofed and didnt get a screenshot but it was in the order of hundreds of megabytes of logs, and for PowerToys I dont use like Awake.

Is it really necessary for Mouse Highlight to log that it started every start up, for example?

Is there a way to turn this sort of thing off, or can one be added?

Thanks

Scenario when this would be used?

Cuts down on logs being written when they are not desired or required.

Supporting information

No response

[TheSQLGuru]

This should be easy to accomplish, since per the source code files some of this functionality is already exposed/available:

https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/src/common/logger/logger.cpp

namespace
{
const std::unordered_map<std::wstring, level_enum> logLevelMapping = {
{ L"trace", level_enum::trace },
{ L"debug", level_enum::debug },
{ L"info", level_enum::info },
{ L"warn", level_enum::warn },
{ L"err", level_enum::err },
{ L"critical", level_enum::critical },
{ L"off", level_enum::off },
};
}

...

void Logger::init(std::string loggerName, std::wstring logFilePath, std::wstring_view logSettingsPath)
{
...
logger->set_level(logLevel);
logger->set_pattern("[%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f] [p-%P] [t-%t] [%l] %v");
spdlog::register_logger(logger);
spdlog::flush_every(std::chrono::seconds(3));
logger->info("{} logger is initialized", loggerName);

---

I will add that I could find zero settings in the app that exposed any of this, nor any documentation regarding logging. Please add this as a TODO item.

---

C:\Users\TheSQLGuru\AppData\Local\Microsoft\PowerToys\log_settings.json

That file's contents on my system is this: {"logLevel":"trace"}

Clearly we can overwrite "trace" with one of the CONST values above to greatly reduce the logging. It would be nice to have documentation about what the various levels mean.

***** NOTE: THIS SECTION IS A WORK-AROUND SOLUTION TO THE OP's REQUEST *****

---

But what else can be put in the log_settings.json file? I suspect frequency and format at a minimum based on the source code file, but what would be the exact format for that? What are the full options for each logging configuration?

---

It would also be nice to be able to control each feature's logging level. But I found no log-related settings in any of the config files for any features. Please add this as an additional logging feature request.

---

I quickly scanned my various logs. I definitely agree with the OP that it is silly to log ANYTHING for PT features that are DISABLED. This is a bug, not a feature. Please make it stop.

The ACTUAL, and FAR WORSE bug, however, is that DISABLED PT features are actually ACTIVATED and RUNNING. I will post a Bug Item about that.