Category:Log Files

Below is a list of the Log files within Cumulus.

Descriptions, and tips, can also be found in the Help file within the Cumulus software.

CAUTIONS

Remember, if you edit any of these log files to obey cautions in the individual articles:

• stop cumulus before editing any file that Cumulus might be updating,
• don't use a word processor (that adds lots of unwanted control characters),
• don't change the format of files for example don't change format of dates or real numbers (using a spreadsheet, like Microsoft Office Excel or Libre Office Calc, don't let dates or special numbers be recognised),
• don't add 'Byte Order Mark' (many pieces of software on Microsoft Windows such as Notepad treat a BOM as a required magic number and add a BOM when saving text as UTF-8. Google Docs also adds a BOM when converting a document to a plain text file for download.),
• don't add blank lines to any Comma Separated Value files(the only 'blank' line in a log file is the final one, where Cumulus will later append the next item), (you can add blank lines to log files that contain "attribute=value" lines such as 'today.ini')
• don't add any header lines to any log files where Cumulus needs to read the file as well as update it (Cumulus reads all log files except Alltimelog.txt).

TYPES

Essentially, there are 4 types:

1. .ini files - these hold values that represent sums, counts, or extremes, for cumulus to read, and update, as it reads the weather observations.
2. .txt files - these are the logs that Cumulus updates at defined intervals to hold details of what has happened, but it can also read these files when requested.
3. .xml file - this holds the Weather_Diary. Although it uses standard XML, the component that Cumulus 1 uses also writes a special value that other XML editors will not understand.
4. .log file - cumulus 1 writes either "Logging Disabled" messages or logs its actions in detail for debugging purposes into debug.log.

CUMULUS 1 and MX differences

These files apply to both Cumulus 1 and Cumulus MX.

• Note that file names are case-sensitive, read documentation to see where capital letters are required.
• Cumulus 1 is reasonably tolerant of numbers using a comma to separate the integer and decimal part of real number. MX always expects periods/full stops in .ini files regardless of the locale in use, please see the Cumulus MX Announcements and Download - PLEASE READ FIRST for details, as there is limited documentation, but generally if you want to transfer these files from Cumulus 1 to MX, it is best if you edit them so all decimal numbers have a "." between the integer and decimal parts.
• Cumulus 1 is tolerant of various separators for dates and times. Cumulus MX insists all times use a colon separator, and all dates are in ISO format. However, MX will read the date/time entries in the Cumulus 1 format, and it will only change them to the new format when it needs to update an extreme in that particular file.
• In individual articles, any differences in the precise content or format within individual files will be highlighted.

Cumulus MX also has some JSON files with data for its trends web page. See MX announcements for more details.