What's New in the SAS 9.3 Logging Facility

Overview

The logging facility has the following changes and enhancements:

support for modifying or replacing the logging configuration file without restarting SAS
ability to restrict modification of the logging configuration using the SAS language
new error messages for logging configuration file errors
new appenders to write log events for third-party DBMS, Java classes, and Java Messaging Service (JMS)
ability to audit access to SAS libraries
new conversion patterns and new header and footer conversion patterns that SAS supplies
filter enhancements

Support for Modifying and Replacing the Logging Configuration File

You can now modify or replace the logging configuration file without restarting SAS. For more information, see Modifying or Replacing the Logging Configuration File.

Restrict Modification of the Logging Configuration

The new logger attribute, IMMUTABILITY, can be set to restrict modification of the logging configuration by users who use the logging facility autocall macros, functions, and component objects in SAS programs. If IMMUTABILITY is set to FALSE, the SAS language can be used to modify the logger settings for additivity and level. For more information, see Loggers and Logger.

Logging Configuration File Error Messages

When an appender or logger cannot be created or configured, SAS issues more specific messages. For more information, see Error Messages for Logging Configuration File Errors.

New Appenders

The following appenders have been added:

DBAppender writes log events to a SAS table or to a table in a third-party DBMS. For more information, see DBAppender.
JavaAppender sends messages to a custom Java class. For more information, see JavaAppender.
JMSAppender sends messages to a message queue by using the Java Message Service (JMS) interfaces. For more information, see JMSAppender.

Audit the Access to SAS Libraries

When you use the new logger Audit.Data.Dataset.Open and the %E conversion character, log messages can include SAS library information such as the libref, the engine assigned to the library, the library member and member type, the mode the library was opened for, and the path to the library. For more information, see About Audit Messages for SAS Library Access and E Conversion Character.

Conversion Pattern Enhancements

The new uuid conversion character reports the unique identifier for the log event. For more information, see uuid Conversion Character.

The new severity conversion character translates logging facility levels to Common Base Event (CBE) and Web Services Distributed Management Event Format (WEF) severity codes. For more information, see severity Conversion Character.

The %d conversion character can now be specified in HeaderPattern and FooterPattern layout parameters to capture date information. For more information, see Syntax for a Pattern Layout.

The %E conversion character can be used to add audit data to an audit log. For more information, see E Conversion Character and Audit Messages for SAS Library Access.

You can now specify a default value for the %S conversion character. The default value is used as the value for %S when a specified key cannot be found. For more information, see S Conversion Character.

SAS now provides several conversion patterns that you can specify as values for the HeaderPattern, FooterPattern, and ConversionPattern parameters in appender definitions. You specify the name of a SAS conversion pattern in place of a conversion pattern that you would normally specify. For more information, see Conversion Patterns Supplied by SAS.

Filter Enhancements

The RepeatMatchFilter inhibits logging repeated messages if the immediate prior log message is identical to the current log message for an appender. For more information, see Overview of Filters and RepeatMatchFilter.