Debug.log

Introduction

The introduction to Diagnostics article is the place to look for general information about the files described here for Cumulus 1.

This article is only for Cumulus 1 users, please see MXDiags for equivalent file if you use Cumulus MX.

Details

File names

Cumulus 1 creates diagnostic logs in two places:

1. It creates a file called Debug.log in the same folder as where the executable is stored.
   • This file periodically has a message 0000.000 : **** Logging Disabled stored if debugging is switched off.
   • This file will have additional debugging information added, as per example below, if debugging is turned on.
2. It creates a diags folder; diags is a subfolder of the folder where the Cumulus executable is stored.
   • That diags folder contains up to 10 files named cumulus.~og and cumulus.001 to cumulus.009.
     • cumulus.~og is the current log reporting what has happened since the last time Cumulus was started.
     • cumulus.001 to cumulus.009 represent logs for previous 9 Cumulus restarts, and so do not exist if Cumulus has not been used before.
   • Each file in the diags folder has entries like the example below, regardless of whether debugging is turned on or off.

File type, and content

All diagnostic log files are simple text files, with multiple lines (inside a file) containing the time and a description of each event.

Entries in debug.log are identified by date as fraction, and time e.g. 9173.516 : 14:23:59.

Entries in cumulus.~og are identified by a date (in your selected Windows locale format) and time (to milliseconds) e..g. 28/01/2017 14:29:31.083 : Reading cumulus.ini file

These latter files log many of the actions performed by Cumulus 1. They will show the Cumulus specific files that have been accessed, values found (or calculated) from log files, before and after values for updates to highs and lows for monthly and annual extreme records, rejected spikes, and much more.

File growth and deletion

A new file is created each time Cumulus is restarted, after deleting the oldest and renaming the other old files to maintain the naming sequence. If debugging is switched off, periodically a message, confirming that as shown earlier, is added to the debug.log file, so it grows in size even when full diagnostics are not being stored.

Entries are added to the cumulus.~og file while Cumulus is left running, regardless of whether debugging is on or off (see example above).

To avoid loss (or inaccuracy) of readings being processed from your weather station, it is best if Cumulus is left running, and not restarted except when unavoidable. Consequently, the current diagnostic files will grow in size. If the file is left to grow too large, Cumulus will crash. Therefore, you may want to delete these files.

Any diagnostic file can be deleted at any time as Cumulus does not read from them. Cumulus creates a new file if necessary to continue its logging.

Solving Cumulus 1 Errors

The diagnostic file cumulus.~og also logs error messages, often with extra information compared to the error window (accessed by clicking error light/indicator), and that file may help you if you have a problem.

When you ask for support via the forum, you often need to upload (as a zip) one, or all, of the diagnostic files in the Diags folder especially for problems that occur when you start or restart Cumulus. Include all files in the folder, unless you definitely know that a single diags file contains all the information for both when Cumulus 1 is running normally, and when it encountered the problem and failed.

In Windows Explorer, open the Cumulus installation folder (default is C:\Cumulus). Right-click on the 'Diags' folder, and from the pop-up menu, select 'Send to -> Compressed (zipped) Folder' (available in most Windows versions). This will create a file called Diags.zip. Add debug.log from the folder above into the zip.

Post your message in the forum, and attach the zip file using the 'Attachment' section below the area where you have typed your message (browse for the file, then click 'Add the file').

Sample File for Cumulus 1

An extract from a debug.log file

9168.735 : 14:23:54 Realtime FTP Put attempt
9168.766 : 14:23:54 Realtime FTP local file: C:\Program Files\Cumulus\realtime.txt
9168.766 : 14:23:54 Realtime FTP remote file: /var/www/html/data/realtime.txt
9173.500 : 14:23:59 USB device is plugged in
9173.500 : 14:23:59 request EW data block, written = 9, addr = 000000 
9173.516 : 14:23:59 EW data line 01  55 AA FF FF FF FF FF FF 
9173.516 : 14:23:59 EW data line 02  FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 
9173.531 : 14:23:59 EW data line 03  0A 20 08 25 11 00 00 00 
9173.531 : 14:23:59 EW data line 04  81 00 00 F0 0F 00 10 DD 
9173.531 : 14:23:59 USB device is plugged in
9173.547 : 14:23:59 request EW data block, written = 9, addr = 00DD10 
9173.563 : 14:23:59 EW data line 05  00 3A BF 00 47 97 00 FD 
9173.578 : 14:23:59 EW data line 06  25 00 03 00 0B 0C 08 00 
9173.578 : 14:23:59 Data: 00 3A BF 00 47 97 00 FD 25 00 03 00 0B 0C 08 00 
9173.578 : 14:23:59 EW data line 07  0A 2D D5 00 55 57 00 16 
9173.594 : 14:23:59 EW data line 08  26 00 00 00 06 65 07 00 
9175.328 : 27/08/2009 14:24:00 Minute timer 24
9175.328 : Adding LH entry, ts = 14:24:00 raintot = 618
9175.328 : TD = 0.0833333358168602 Lastval = 618 Firstval = 618 rate = 0