Advancing Logging Practices in Software Engineering

推进软件工程中的日志记录实践

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-06970
• 负责人: HamouLhadj, Abdelwahab
• 金额: $ 1.68万
• 依托单位: Concordia University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=652970
• 关键词: Advancing; Logging; Practices; Software; Engineering

Despite the advances in software development, the increasing complexity of software systems makes it difficult to produce fault free software. The residual faults often manifest themselves during system execution causing severe software failures, security breaches, and performance degradation. To diagnose the root causes of failures, software developers and system administrators frequently resort to the analysis of logs, generated during system executions. Major companies like Ericsson, Google, and Microsoft collect logs to analyze, fix, and prevent failures. Logs are also used by security providers like AlienVault and ArcSight to detect security threats and malicious behaviors.******Although logging has long been recognized as an important aspect of software development, it remains predominantly an ad hoc practice. There are no standards, guidelines, or recognized best practices for logging. In addition, software developers continue to insert logs into a system without automated guidance. The lack of systematic and automated approaches for logging has a tremendous impact on the quality of logs, often hindering viable analysis. Log analysis is further complicated by the sheer volume and variability of log data. As a direct consequence, many failure diagnosis tasks are very challenging and expensive to implement, putting at risk the reliability and security of critical systems on which society depends in areas like health, telecom, public safety, and defence.******The ultimate goal of this research program is to advance the practice of logging in software engineering. Much of the existing research effort in the field is devoted to the analysis of logs after they are generated. Considerably less attention is devoted to the study of the practice of logging. Over the next five years, we will focus on four priority research directions. First, we will identify systematic approaches and best practices for logging by studying the current practices in the field. Second, we will develop a context-aware recommendation system to automatically provide logging suggestions to developers. In the third project, we will facilitate the analysis of logs by reducing their complexity. Finally, we will produce techniques to support better logging decisions based on system design and architecture.******The outcomes of this research program are expected to have a real impact on the software industry. Improving logging practices of software developers will result in superior failure diagnosis techniques while reducing the associated costs. Another important impact of this research is its potential for commercialization driven by the strong need from industry to have better logging tools in areas like IoT, cloud computing, and security. Furthermore, the proposed program will train several HQPs who will contribute to the growth of Canada's ICT sector–an important enabler to Canada's competitiveness in the world economy.******

尽管软件开发取得了进步，但软件系统的复杂性越来越高，很难产生无故障软件。残余故障通常在系统执行期间表现出来，导致严重的软件故障、安全漏洞和性能下降。为了诊断故障的根本原因，软件开发人员和系统管理员经常求助于分析系统执行期间生成的日志。像爱立信、谷歌和微软这样的大公司收集日志来分析、修复和防止故障。AlienVault和ArcSight等安全提供商也使用防火墙来检测安全威胁和恶意行为。******虽然日志记录长期以来被认为是软件开发的一个重要方面，但它仍然主要是一种临时的实践。日志记录没有标准、指南或公认的最佳实践。此外，软件开发人员继续在没有自动指导的情况下将日志插入系统。缺乏系统和自动化的日志记录方法对日志的质量产生了巨大的影响，往往阻碍了可行的分析。测井分析由于测井数据的庞大数量和多变性而变得更加复杂。直接后果是，许多故障诊断任务非常具有挑战性，实施成本高昂，危及社会在卫生，电信，公共安全和国防等领域所依赖的关键系统的可靠性和安全性。本研究计划的最终目标是推进软件工程中日志记录的实践。该领域现有的许多研究工作都致力于日志生成后的分析。对伐木实践的研究所给予的注意要少得多。在未来五年，我们将重点关注四个优先研究方向。首先，我们将通过研究该领域的现行做法，确定系统的方法和最佳做法。其次，我们将开发一个上下文感知的推荐系统，自动为开发人员提供日志建议。在第三个项目中，我们将通过降低日志的复杂性来促进日志的分析。最后，我们将根据系统设计和体系结构提出支持更好的日志决策的技术。**这项研究计划的成果预计将对软件行业产生真实的影响。改进软件开发人员的日志记录实践将导致上级故障诊断技术，同时降低相关成本。这项研究的另一个重要影响是其商业化的潜力，这是由于行业对物联网、云计算和安全等领域更好的日志工具的强烈需求。此外，拟议的计划将培训几名HQP，他们将为加拿大ICT部门的增长做出贡献-这是加拿大在世界经济中竞争力的重要推动力。