Main reason: Debugging crashes/errors/me being stupid
Second reason: I log the IRC channels I'm in because I often times need to go back and find a link to something posted days ago. It's also helpful in other situations. I can't remember now but a friend was freaking out about something we'd talked about months ago one day. I grepped my logs and copy/pasted what he'd written 6+ months ago to put his mind at ease.

Another time he couldn't remember something he asked me to remind him of. I couldn't remember either. Grepped the logs and didn't have to admit I was drunk and forgetful.

I always assume anything I'm doing over the internet is being logged by someone because it probably is. Looking through the fail2ban/system logs on my servers and workstations is something I try to stay in the habit of to. Since it's fun to watch people attempt to break-in in real time.

Last time logs helped me was just last week. One of my VPSs kept crashing (file server). Couldn't figure out why. I also run an ZNC on that server. Turns out someone on IRC was angry I wouldn't respond to him. Never talked to the guy before but he thought my username was sexy and kept spamming messages on a server I don't really check and only lurk for bug reporting and talking to some devs about projects I contribute to.

Anyway, he got angry and started sending malformed packets to my ZNC because he thought it was my home connection. Was just trying to crash my computer to be an asshole. If it weren't for the logs I would have never put that together since I don't assume the worst in people and I hadn't noticed his messages at that point anyway.

If you're reading this random guy on the internet: You're creepy and I do not have a vagina.

>>1252
sounds like a crazy brazillian

Better to have some idea of what went wrong when something does go wrong, instead of being in the dark. At least that's what I tell myself but never bother to create a logging system for the programs I create.

thread theme

At work it's mostly for security and compliance requirements but also for debugging.
Though when I'm debugging i usually just use print statements instead of a dedicated logger object.
For personally stuff it's almost strictly debugging and I pretty much only use print statements sprinkled around.

>>1364
what do you mean by security and compliance? Can you elaborate on that

>>1365
Some customers want to aggregate metadata about what users are doing with their web app and do this with some sort of cronjob that uploads logging output to some sort repository for later use. Usually for consumption in some dashboard like https://matomo.org/ It's for the bean counters to count beans and security guys to audit the systems.

>>1366
the group im working for has only internal users and one developer, so I've been wondering if logs are pointless or not. Kinda sounds like it is because I don't do a lot of been counting and just want to cover my back in case of problems

>>1367
> want to cover my back in case of problems
You may still want to generate logs, my understanding of the industry "standard" for "DevSec" advises "meaningful" activity logs are kept for your applications. Even if no one uses them or requires you to upload them somewhere, it still would be a good idea to generate them. Mostly for cover your ass purposes but if the customer doesn't want or care about the feature maybe just put it in the backlog for when you need an easy day.

>>1368
it's what i've been doing for a lot of the analytical tools, but since the most recent features are going to handle multiple digits of money flowing I'm trying to make sure I don't "therac" my way into a problem. Client doesn't have a good idea of software risk so have to insert my own best practices.

Wise old men at two different jobs in two different fields told me the same thing
>99% of this job is covering your own ass
Both were right.