logging errors with erlang and mochiweb

If you would like to run mochiweb or any erlang application and log messages to disk to review later, all you have to do is create a simple config file and wrote something in it like as follows:

[{sasl, [
%% minimise shell error logging
{sasl_error_logger, false},
%% only report errors
{errlog_type, error},
%% define the parameters of the rotating log
%% the log file directory
{error_logger_mf_dir,"/var/logs/error_logs"},
%% # bytes per logfile
{error_logger_mf_maxbytes,10485760}, % 10 MB
%% maximum number of
{error_logger_mf_maxfiles, 10}
]}].

let's say we call this filename erlang_log.config. The trick here is that we have to create the log directory for erlang and make sure it's writable by the user which runs erlang process.
# mkdir /var/logs/error_logs/
you can also make it world writable if you don't care about who reads it on the server.
# chmod 777 /var/log/error_logs/

now pass the config file as parameter to your erl command (on mochiweb part, you can edit start.sh or start-dev.sh file).

erl -config erlang_log

when you first run your erlang process or mochiweb, first of all run on your erlang command prompt
rb:start().
to create index files in log directory and load rb module.Here is some useful commands to see log messages created by erlang. The log files in the directory are binary so you cannot simple read them.You have to read them through erlang (rb module).
rb:list().
%% shows log messages index
rb:show(number).
%% shows given indexed numbered message details
rb:rescan().
%% re-reads the error log directory index.

running mochiweb or any erlang application in background

Erlang is Ericsson's concurrent programming language.See Erlang Wikipedia for more information. Mochiweb is a web framework to create lightweight http servers written in Erlang language.
After creating a skeleton project with mochiweb (./scripts/new_mochiweb.erl). You can write your own code and compile it. Here is an article shows this in detail.
After all, running your new http server is done by star.sh or start-dev.sh in your application directory where you created by new_mochiweb.erl script. The script runs erl (The Erlang Emulator) command with some parameters. But it runs in foreground, if you want to run the erlang application in background simply add "-detached" parameter to your erl command. But, there is a drawback here. The erlang application runs in background and we cannot see the error and any information log messages now. I'll will explain how to log theses messages in log file and read them in another post.