Complete guide to application logging

Application logs are structured records of events and activities generated by software applications, capturing a wide range of information including error messages, user interactions, system events, and application-specific data. These logs serve as a crucial tool for troubleshooting and diagnosing issues, auditing and compliance, and performance monitoring. However, they require proper management throughout their lifecycle, which includes creation, collection, aggregation, storage, analysis, querying, visualization, and alerts, as well as archival and deletion. Effective log management enables developers and system administrators to identify the root cause of problems, track user activities, and optimize software systems, ultimately supporting debugging, security, compliance, and performance optimization.