Optional timing and logging of cron jobs. [#1143082]

Anyone who's worked with Drupal a while knows how frustrating it can be trying to debug problems with cron.

The problem is, there's no way of knowing which module is running cron, how long it runs for and at which point cron is failing across all the available hook_cron implementations.

The attached patches provide a "debug mode" checkbox on the admin cron settings form which records detailed timing information about cron runs for each module, to the watchdog - when enabled.

I've been successfully using this patch for a while now to debug cron and have found it very helpful, as have many others on irc. and would like to commit it to benefit others.

Please review, provide any feedback and commit if possible.

cheers,

David

P.S Drupal rocks!

Comment	File	Size	Author
#6	1143082-cron_timer.patch	3.55 KB	brianV
#6
#2	cron-settings-checkbox.png	23.49 KB	davidwhthomas
#2	sample-watchdog-cron-log.png	147.01 KB	davidwhthomas
#1	cron-log-information.png	165.4 KB	davidwhthomas
	enable-cron-debug-mode.patch	2.19 KB	davidwhthomas

Support from Acquia helps fund testing for Drupal Acquia logo

Comments

Comment #1

davidwhthomas CreditAttribution: davidwhthomas commented 30 April 2011 at 11:30

File	Size
cron-log-information.png	165.4 KB

The attached screenshot shows sample logging information under recent log entries for cron.

File	Size
sample-watchdog-cron-log.png	147.01 KB
cron-settings-checkbox.png	23.49 KB

Comment #3

tstoeckler

he/him

German

Essen, Germany

CreditAttribution: tstoeckler commented 19 May 2011 at 09:11

Reposting from the other issue:
If this can be done from contrib, I think it would be a useful feature for the Devel module.

Comment #4

davidwhthomas CreditAttribution: davidwhthomas commented 19 May 2011 at 10:58

Thanks for the suggestion.

Although it would be convenient for regular users to be able to switch this debug mode on / off in core, looking at putting it into devel as a contrib module or patch is a reasonable approach too.

I will look into this and follow it up with the Devel maintainers.

Comment #5

davidwhthomas CreditAttribution: davidwhthomas commented 26 May 2011 at 03:27

Note, I'm still interested in getting this into core, if there's interest from others..

Comment #6

brianV CreditAttribution: brianV commented 2 November 2012 at 19:48

File	Size
1143082-cron_timer.patch	3.55 KB

I really like this idea, and have rolled a D8 patch to implement it.

That said, I don't necessarily agree that we should call it a 'debug mode'. I believe referring to it as a timer is more precise. It's also useful for more than simply debugging.

I've also rounded the time to four positions rather than two, as for very short operations, the timer often shows 0 seconds.

Comment #7

brianV CreditAttribution: brianV commented 2 November 2012 at 19:49

Title:

Enable optional cron debug logging

» Optional timing and logging of cron jobs.

Re-titling

Comment #8

2 November 2012 at 20:01

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

The last submitted patch, 1143082-cron_timer.patch, failed testing.

Comment #9

brianV CreditAttribution: brianV commented 2 November 2012 at 20:10

Status:

Needs work

» Needs review

#6: 1143082-cron_timer.patch queued for re-testing.

Comment #10

2 November 2012 at 20:22

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

The last submitted patch, 1143082-cron_timer.patch, failed testing.

Comment #11

brianV CreditAttribution: brianV commented 2 November 2012 at 20:41

Status:

Needs work

» Needs review

#6: 1143082-cron_timer.patch queued for re-testing.

Comment #12

3 November 2012 at 02:37

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

The last submitted patch, 1143082-cron_timer.patch, failed testing.

Comment #13

brianV CreditAttribution: brianV commented 3 November 2012 at 17:15

Status:

Needs work

» Needs review

#6: 1143082-cron_timer.patch queued for re-testing.

Comment #14

brianV CreditAttribution: brianV commented 3 November 2012 at 18:17

Fifth time is the charm - no random testbot implosions...

Comment #15

25 September 2014 at 11:02

alansaviolobo queued 6: 1143082-cron_timer.patch for re-testing.

Comment #16

25 September 2014 at 11:04

Status:

Needs review

» Needs work

The last submitted patch, 6: 1143082-cron_timer.patch, failed testing.

Comment #17

25 September 2014 at 11:04

Version:

8.0.x-dev

» 8.1.x-dev

Drupal 8.0.6 was released on April 6 and is the final bugfix release for the Drupal 8.0.x series. Drupal 8.0.x will not receive any further development aside from security fixes. Drupal 8.1.0-rc1 is now available and sites should prepare to update to 8.1.0.

Bug reports should be targeted against the 8.1.x-dev branch from now on, and new development or disruptive changes should be targeted against the 8.2.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Comment #18

25 September 2014 at 11:04

Version:

8.1.x-dev

» 8.2.x-dev

Drupal 8.1.9 was released on September 7 and is the final bugfix release for the Drupal 8.1.x series. Drupal 8.1.x will not receive any further development aside from security fixes. Drupal 8.2.0-rc1 is now available and sites should prepare to upgrade to 8.2.0.

Bug reports should be targeted against the 8.2.x-dev branch from now on, and new development or disruptive changes should be targeted against the 8.3.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.