wrapper around cronolog using pipes

[Hemant Kumar]

require "thread"
require "open4"

path_to_cron = `which cronolog`
path_to_cron = path_to_cron.chomp

DELAY_TEMPLATES = { :daily => {:cmd_string => "#{path_to_cron}
",:format_string => "\%Y/\%m/\%d"},
:hourly => {:cmd_string => "#{path_to_cron} --delay '1 hour'
",:format_string => nil},
:midnight => {:cmd_string => "#{path_to_cron} --delay '12 hours'
",:format_string => nil}}

class Log4u

def initialize(_file_name,delay_interval = :daily)

raise(ArgumentError.new,"Invalid arguments") unless
[:daily,:hourly,:midnight].include? delay_interval

@mutex = Mutex.new

filename_string = File.basename(_file_name)
dirname_string = File.dirname(_file_name)

if (format_string = DELAY_TEMPLATES[delay_interval][:format_string])
option_string =
"#{dirname_string}/#{format_string}/#{filename_string}"
else
option_string = "#{dirname_string}/#{filename_string}"
end

check_for_prgrm dirname_string

cmd_string = DELAY_TEMPLATES[delay_interval][:cmd_string]
pid,@log_pipe,stdout,stderr = Open4.popen4("#{cmd_string}
#{option_string}")
end

def check_for_prgrm dirname_string
path_to_cron = `which cronolog`
raise "Cronolog doesn't exist in path" if path_to_cron.empty?
raise "Log Directory isn't writable" unless File.writable?
dirname_string
end

def time_string
time_now = Time.now
time_now.strftime("%I:%M%p")
end

def error msg
@mutex.synchronize{ @log_pipe.puts "ERROR: #{time_string}: #{msg}" }
end

def info msg
@mutex.synchronize{ @log_pipe.puts "INFO: #{time_string}: #{msg}" }
end

def debug msg
@mutex.synchronize { @log_pipe.puts "DEBUG: #{time_string}: #{msg}"}
end

def close_log
@mutex.synchronize { @log_pipe.close }
end
end

I am facing following problems with above code:

1. Doesn't detect the pipe errors and propagate it to parent ,
and when used from threads would invariably lead to buggy code.
because threads won't
detect the exception until abort_on_exception is true or a join is
performed.
May be a problem of the author who is going to use it, but still if
i can simpify things a bit.
2. Not sure, how it behaves when multiple processes/threads attempt to
get cronolog on
the same file. In my tests cronolog seems to handle it, but not
entirely sure.
3. Gives bloody zombie processes sometimes.


Any ideas folks?