Logging

When something behaves unexpectedly, logs are usually your first stop. Portway logs through Serilog, which gives you structured output, sensible file rotation, and per-namespace level control. Here is how the pieces fit together.

Log outputs ​

Console logging ​

• Displays real-time logs with timestamp formatting
• Information level and above shown by default
• Color-coded by severity level
• Useful for development and debugging

File logging ​

• Stored in the /log directory
• Daily rotation with pattern: portwayapi-YYYYMMDD.log
• 10MB file size limit with automatic rollover
• Retains 10 days of log files
• Buffered writing for performance

Log levels ​

Configuration ​

Logging is configured in appsettings.json under the Serilog section. See Application Settings for the full configuration schema.

Log file management ​

Rotation policy ​

• Daily rotation at midnight
• Size-based rotation at 10MB
• Automatic file naming with date suffix

Retention policy ​

• Keeps last 10 log files
• Older files automatically deleted
• Configurable retention period

File naming convention ​

log/
├── portwayapi-20240120.log
├── portwayapi-20240119.log
└── portwayapi-20240118.log

Performance logging ​

Request timing ​

[DBG] Incoming request: POST /api/500/Orders
[DBG] Outgoing response: 200 for /api/500/Orders - Took 125ms

Rate limiting ​

[INF] Rate limiter initialized - IP: 100/60s, Token: 1000/60s
[INF] IP 192.168.1.100 has exceeded rate limit, blocking for 60s
[DBG] Rate limit for IP 192.168.1.100 has expired, allowing traffic

Structured logging ​

Event properties ​

The logging system captures structured data for better analysis:

• Request method and path
• User identity and token information
• Environment and endpoint names
• Duration and status codes
• Error details and stack traces

Context enrichment ​

Logs are automatically enriched with:

• Machine name
• Application version
• Request correlation IDs
• User context
• Environment information

Troubleshooting ​

Diagnostic tools ​

Handy commands for log analysis:

# Find errors in today's log
Get-Content "log/portwayapi-$(Get-Date -Format 'yyyyMMdd').log" | Select-String "ERR"

# Count requests by endpoint
Get-Content "log/portwayapi-*.log" | Select-String "Processing.*endpoint:" | Group-Object

# Monitor log growth
Get-ChildItem "log" -Filter "*.log" | Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending | Select-Object Name, Length

# Find errors in today's log
grep "ERR" "log/portwayapi-$(date +%Y%m%d).log"

# Count requests by endpoint
grep -hoE "Processing.*endpoint: [^ ]+" log/portwayapi-*.log | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

# Monitor log growth
ls -lhtS log/*.log