DataServer Logging (-dslog)
- Last Updated: February 11, 2026
- 3 minute read
- OpenEdge
- Version 13.0
- Documentation
DataServer Logging (-dslog)
Use DataServer Logging (-dslog) to allow an
application to automatically write server error and warning messages, and other server log
messages, to the specified log file name. You can apply the -dslog startup parameter to the DataServer for Microsoft SQL Server as well as
the DataServer for Oracle.
| Operating system and syntax | UNIX / Windows |
-dslog
filename
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use with | Maximum value | Minimum value | Single-user default | Multi-user default |
| DataServer Session | — | — | — | — |
- filename
-
The name of log file the DataServer uses for log messages.
The —dslog startup parameter specifies the DataServer log file name.
If you do not specify a log file name at startup, then the default
dataserv.lg file will be used for logging server information.
The dataserv.lg file is the default value for the -dslog
parameter. For non-interactive sessions that encounter errors, warnings or other messages
that need to be logged, it writes to this log file by default.
If the filename you supply is a relative pathname, then a file is accessed relative to the
current working directory. If the filename is an absolute pathname, then the specified file
is accessed unless the $DSLOGDIR environment variable is set to specify a
directory path for the -dslog file name. The $DSLOGDIR
setting overrides the current working directory in search for the
-dslog file name.
Use the Log Entry Types (-Dsrv logentrytypes) DataServer connection
parameter to specify one or more types of log entries you want to write to the server
context log file. Use the Logging Level (-Dsrv logginglevel) DataServer
connection parameter to specify the level at which log entries are written to the log file.
ABL clients, including the client component of the DataServer, write their logging to the
file specified by the —clientlog startup parameter. For more information
about the -clientlog startup parameter, see Client Logging (-clientlog).
For more information about Log Entry types in the client and server contexts, see Log Entry Types (-logentrytypes).
The OpenEdge client, including the client component of the DataServer, to
which the -clientlog switch applies, can be thought of as
the "client log context." Similarly, the server component of the DataServer, to which the
-dslog switch applies, can be considered the "server log
context." When the OpenEdge DataServer runs self-service (that is, not client/server), the
OpenEdge client's log context and the OpenEdge DataServer's log context can be merged into a
single log file by selecting the same file name with the -clientlog and -dslog log file specifications
in both log contexts. Note that the -logthreshold, -logappend and -numlog file
parameters specified at client startup apply to both client and server log contexts in this
case.
-numlogfiles startup parameter is used without a
specification for the -logthreshold, then the -numlogfiles
startup parameter is ignored. See Log Threshold (-logthreshold) and Number of Log Files to Keep (-numlogfiles) for more
details. The -dslog, -logthreshold, —logappend, and -numlogfiles parameters affect the DataServer's log file when
specified as startup parameters to an OpenEdge client or a probrkr broker process starting a remote DataServer server process. You can also
specify these parameters in the srvrDSLogFile, srvrLogThreshold, srvrNumLogFiles and srvrLogAppend properties,
respectively, of a DataServer broker instance defined to the Unified Broker and manage
server log files for an application server connected to a DataServer. All the server
processes affected by these parameters will write to the same -dslog
or srvrDSLogFile log file and switch to the next log file when the logthreshold
is reached.
All the server processes affected by these parameters will write to the same
-dslog log file and switch to the next log file when the log threshold is
reached.The code page used for the log file is -cpinternal and no
conversions are performed for these log files.
For more information about the logging settings for the client and server contexts, see the reference entries for the LOG-ENTRY-TYPES attribute and the LOGGING-LEVEL attribute in the ABL Reference.
For more information about using -Dsrv to
specify these logging settings for the server context, see Troubleshoot ABL Applications, and OpenEdge DataServer guides.