loggingniveau

Loggingniveau, or log level, is a concept used in software logging to categorize messages by their severity. It enables control over which messages are recorded and where they are sent. A configured threshold determines which messages are emitted: messages with a level at or above the threshold are logged, while those below are ignored.

Common levels, from most verbose to least, include TRACE or DEBUG, INFO, WARN or WARNING, ERROR, and FATAL or CRITICAL. Some systems also define ALL and OFF as sentinel levels to enable all messages or disable logging entirely. Levels are often implemented in a hierarchical or layered way, allowing finer-grained control at different parts of an application.

How logging niveau works: a log message is assigned a level and is passed to the logger or appenders which decide whether to record it based on the configured level. If the message passes, it is transmitted to one or more handlers or destinations, such as the console, a file, or a remote monitoring system. In many frameworks, loggers form a hierarchy by name, and a logger inherits the effective level from its ancestors unless it has an explicit level.

Best practices include using a low threshold (such as DEBUG) during development to aid diagnosis, and a higher threshold (such as INFO or WARN) in production to reduce noise and overhead. Some environments support dynamic changes to levels at runtime. It is important to avoid logging sensitive data and to implement rotation and retention policies to manage log volume and storage. Differences exist across ecosystems, but the core idea—controlling message visibility by severity—remains consistent.