warninglevel

Warninglevel is a qualitative or quantitative indicator used to categorize the severity of a condition, event, or message, signaling that action may be needed. It is commonly used in information systems to distinguish benign notices from more serious issues and to guide automated responses or operator attention.

Scales for warninglevels vary by system. Some employ simple categories such as informational, warning, and critical. Others use numeric scales, often 1 to 5, where higher values indicate greater severity. The chosen scale should be consistent across components to enable reliable automation and clear user understanding.

In practice, warninglevels influence behavior and workflows. Log entries may include a warninglevel field to aid filtering and analysis. Monitoring systems use thresholds so that alerts are raised when a level crosses a defined boundary. Build tools may elevate certain warnings to errors at higher levels. User interfaces may display different visual cues or messages depending on the level.

Design and implementation considerations include defining clear, mutually exclusive levels; documenting the exact meaning and action associated with each level; aligning levels with appropriate responses (ignore, notify, escalate); supporting localization and readability; and ensuring that level comparisons are well-defined for filtering, aggregation, and reporting.

See also: severity, alerting, logging.