When running --seq, provide start and end of mode log messages

[gavinmccall]

Hi Colin et al,

We are currently using --seq to step thru a sequence of all the available tests, and concurrently running system performance tests.

The system performance tests are timestamped, so we can see ranges of time in which their performance is impacted.

What we need to do is tie this back to knowing which specific mode --seq was in at the time of the observed behaviour.

So my idea would be to add a "info: starting test XXX" as the hogs start a test mode

add "info: ending test XXX" when the mode is completed

adding --timestamp adds the time to these messages.

we can then parse the log file and extract for each test XXX its start time and end time.

?

[ColinIanKing]

That's a good idea, let me see what I can do for that.

[ColinIanKing]

I'm trying to keep the information sparse as possible by default so we don't SPAM the log with too many messages. So I'm thinking

1. To log this extra info with a new option, e.g. --stressor-time
2. Formatting the time is always an internationalisation nightmare, so I'm thinking of keeping the format fixed to help folk who parse the output, so what about something like: HH:MM:SS.HS YYYY:MM:DD, e.g: 15:15:20.12 2024-09-17 where HH=hour, MM=min, SS=secs, HS=hundredths of a second, YYYY=year MM=month, DD=day

[gavinmccall]

so the line could be something like
SN HH:MM:SS.HS YYYY:MM:DD ET
where SN=stress-name/mode, ET=event, i.e. "start" or "end" ?

[ColinIanKing]

yes, is that OK?

[gavinmccall]

yes - great!

[gavinmccall]

maybe (looking after a break)

SN-ET HH:MM:SS.HS YYYY:MM:DD

[gavinmccall]

move stress name and start/end to front of log

[ColinIanKing]

Fix committed:

commit 43576c5 (HEAD -> master, origin/master, origin/HEAD)
Author: Colin Ian King colin.i.king@gmail.com
Date: Wed Oct 2 15:47:52 2024 +0100

Add new --stressor-time option to debug log the start/finish times of stressors