🚨 Design workflows of slog handlers: pipeline, middleware, fanout, failover, load balancing...

  • By Samuel Berthe
  • Last update: Apr 12, 2023
  • Comments: 1

slog: Handler chain, fanout, failover, load balancing...

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Design workflows of slog handlers:

  • fanout: distribute log.Record to multiple slog.Handler in parallel
  • pipeline: rewrite log.Record on the fly (eg: for privacy reason)
  • failover: forward log.Record to the first available slog.Handler
  • load balancing: increase log bandwidth by sending log.Record to a pool of slog.Handler

Here a simple workflow with both pipeline and fanout:

workflow example with pipeline and fanout

See also:

🚀 Install

go get github.com/samber/slog-multi

Compatibility: go >= 1.20.1

This library is v0 and follows SemVer strictly. On slog final release (go 1.21), this library will go v1.

No breaking changes will be made to exported APIs before v1.0.0.

💡 Usage

GoDoc: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/samber/slog-multi

Broadcast: slogmulti.Fanout()

Distribute logs to multiple slog.Handler in parallel.

import (
    slogmulti "github.com/samber/slog-multi"
    "golang.org/x/exp/slog"
)

func main() {
    logstash, _ := net.Dial("tcp", "logstash.acme:4242")    // use github.com/netbrain/goautosocket for auto-reconnect
    stderr := os.Stderr

    logger := slog.New(
        slogmulti.Fanout(
            slog.HandlerOptions{}.NewJSONHandler(logstash),  // pass to first handler: logstash over tcp
            slog.HandlerOptions{}.NewTextHandler(stderr),    // then to second handler: stderr
            // ...
        ),
    )

    logger.
        With(
            slog.Group("user",
                slog.String("id", "user-123"),
                slog.Time("created_at", time.Now()),
            ),
        ).
        With("environment", "dev").
        With("error", fmt.Errorf("an error")).
        Error("A message")
}

Stderr output:

time=2023-04-10T14:00:0.000000+00:00 level=ERROR msg="A message" user.id=user-123 user.created_at=2023-04-10T14:00:0.000000+00:00 environment=dev error="an error"

Netcat output:

{
	"time":"2023-04-10T14:00:0.000000+00:00",
	"level":"ERROR",
	"msg":"A message",
	"user":{
		"id":"user-123",
		"created_at":"2023-04-10T14:00:0.000000+00:00"
	},
	"environment":"dev",
	"error":"an error"
}

Failover: slogmulti.Failover()

List multiple targets for a slog.Record instead of retrying on the same unavailable log management system.

import (
	"net"
    slogmulti "github.com/samber/slog-multi"
    "golang.org/x/exp/slog"
)


func main() {
	// ncat -l 1000 -k
	// ncat -l 1001 -k
	// ncat -l 1002 -k

    // list AZs
    // use github.com/netbrain/goautosocket for auto-reconnect
	logstash1, _ := net.Dial("tcp", "logstash.eu-west-3a.internal:1000")
	logstash2, _ := net.Dial("tcp", "logstash.eu-west-3b.internal:1000")
	logstash3, _ := net.Dial("tcp", "logstash.eu-west-3c.internal:1000")

	logger := slog.New(
		slogmulti.Failover()(
			slog.HandlerOptions{}.NewJSONHandler(logstash1),    // send to this instance first
			slog.HandlerOptions{}.NewJSONHandler(logstash2),    // then this instance in case of failure
			slog.HandlerOptions{}.NewJSONHandler(logstash3),    // and finally this instance in case of double failure
		),
	)

	logger.
		With(
			slog.Group("user",
				slog.String("id", "user-123"),
				slog.Time("created_at", time.Now()),
			),
		).
		With("environment", "dev").
		With("error", fmt.Errorf("an error")).
		Error("A message")
}

Load balancing: slogmulti.Pool()

Increase log bandwidth by sending log.Record to a pool of slog.Handler.

import (
	"net"
    slogmulti "github.com/samber/slog-multi"
    "golang.org/x/exp/slog"
)

func main() {
	// ncat -l 1000 -k
	// ncat -l 1001 -k
	// ncat -l 1002 -k

    // list AZs
    // use github.com/netbrain/goautosocket for auto-reconnect
	logstash1, _ := net.Dial("tcp", "logstash.eu-west-3a.internal:1000")
	logstash2, _ := net.Dial("tcp", "logstash.eu-west-3b.internal:1000")
	logstash3, _ := net.Dial("tcp", "logstash.eu-west-3c.internal:1000")

	logger := slog.New(
		slogmulti.Pool()(
            // a random handler will be picked
			slog.HandlerOptions{}.NewJSONHandler(logstash1),
			slog.HandlerOptions{}.NewJSONHandler(logstash2),
			slog.HandlerOptions{}.NewJSONHandler(logstash3),
		),
	)

	logger.
		With(
			slog.Group("user",
				slog.String("id", "user-123"),
				slog.Time("created_at", time.Now()),
			),
		).
		With("environment", "dev").
		With("error", fmt.Errorf("an error")).
		Error("A message")
}

Chaining: slogmulti.Pipe()

Rewrite log.Record on the fly (eg: for privacy reason).

func main() {
    // first middleware: format go `error` type into an object {error: "*myCustomErrorType", message: "could not reach https://a.b/c"}
    errorFormattingMiddleware := slogmulti.NewHandleInlineMiddleware(errorFormattingMiddleware)

    // second middleware: remove PII
    gdprMiddleware := NewGDPRMiddleware()

    // final handler
    sink := slog.HandlerOptions{}.NewJSONHandler(os.Stderr)

    logger := slog.New(
        slogmulti.
            Pipe(errorFormattingMiddleware).
            Pipe(gdprMiddleware).
            // ...
            Handler(sink),
    )

    logger.
        With(
            slog.Group("user",
                slog.String("id", "user-123"),
                slog.String("email", "user-123"),
                slog.Time("created_at", time.Now()),
            ),
        ).
        With("environment", "dev").
        Error("A message",
            slog.String("foo", "bar"),
            slog.Any("error", fmt.Errorf("an error")),
        )
}

Stderr output:

{
    "time":"2023-04-10T14:00:0.000000+00:00",
    "level":"ERROR",
    "msg":"A message",
    "user":{
        "id":"*******",
        "email":"*******",
        "created_at":"*******"
    },
    "environment":"dev",
    "foo":"bar",
    "error":{
        "type":"*myCustomErrorType",
        "message":"an error"
    }
}

Custom middleware

Middleware must match the following prototype:

type Middleware func(slog.Handler) slog.Handler

The example above uses:

Note: WithAttrs and WithGroup methods of custom middleware must return a new instance, instead of this.

Inline middleware

An "inline middleware" (aka. lambda), is a shortcut to middleware implementation, that hooks a single method and proxies others.

// hook `logger.Enabled` method
mdw := slogmulti.NewEnabledInlineMiddleware(func(ctx context.Context, level slog.Level, next func(context.Context, slog.Level) bool) bool{
    // [...]
    return next(ctx, level)
})
// hook `logger.Handle` method
mdw := slogmulti.NewHandleInlineMiddleware(func(ctx context.Context, record slog.Record, next func(context.Context, slog.Record) error) error {
    // [...]
    return next(ctx, record)
})
// hook `logger.WithAttrs` method
mdw := slogmulti.NewWithAttrsInlineMiddleware(func(attrs []slog.Attr, next func([]slog.Attr) slog.Handler) slog.Handler{
    // [...]
    return next(attrs)
})
// hook `logger.WithGroup` method
mdw := slogmulti.NewWithGroupInlineMiddleware(func(name string, next func(string) slog.Handler) slog.Handler{
    // [...]
    return next(name)
})

A super inline middleware that hooks all methods.

Warning: you would rather implement your own middleware.

mdw := slogmulti.NewInlineMiddleware(
    func(ctx context.Context, level slog.Level, next func(context.Context, slog.Level) bool) bool{
        // [...]
        return next(ctx, level)
    },
    func(ctx context.Context, record slog.Record, next func(context.Context, slog.Record) error) error{
        // [...]
        return next(ctx, record)
    },
    func(attrs []slog.Attr, next func([]slog.Attr) slog.Handler) slog.Handler{
        // [...]
        return next(attrs)
    },
    func(name string, next func(string) slog.Handler) slog.Handler{
        // [...]
        return next(name)
    },
)

🤝 Contributing

Don't hesitate ;)

# Install some dev dependencies
make tools

# Run tests
make test
# or
make watch-test

👤 Contributors

Contributors

💫 Show your support

Give a ⭐️ if this project helped you!

GitHub Sponsors

📝 License

Copyright © 2023 Samuel Berthe.

This project is MIT licensed.

Download

slog-multi.zip

Comments(1)

  • 1

    slog/multi: Enabled should look at handlers' Enabled

    MultiHandler.Enabled should return true only if at least one of its contained handlers' Enabled methods returns true.

    (Although that is only an optimization and does not affect correctness.)

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