Changing the logging level for a running process

Change the logging level of a running process to provide more detailed log or trace files to aid debugging.

About this task

You can change the logging level or trace level (also called the debug level) of a running process by sending a USR1 or USR2 signal to the process. Sending a USR1 signal changes the logging level and sending a USR2 signal changes the trace level. The extra information provided by increasing the logging or trace levels can help you when debugging a problem with a process.

Trace files have five debug levels (0 to 4) that you can cycle through to provide increasing levels of detail about a process. For example, if a process is already at level 3, a USR2 signal will increase the level to 4; if the process is at level 4, a USR2 signal will move it to level 0.

Log files have four message levels that you can cycle through to increase the level of detail that is captured: error, warn, info, and debug.

The following procedure describes how to increase the trace level of a process. To increase the logging level of a process, perform the same procedure using the USR1 signal instead of USR2.

To increase the trace level of a process, perform the following procedure:

Procedure

  1. Find the Process ID (PID) of the process you are investigating:
    1. On Unix and Linux® operating systems, enter ps -ef | grep ncp at the command line.
  2. To increase the debug level by one level:
    1. On Unix and Linux operating systems, enter kill -USR2 PID at the command line.