## Record

### Description

A recorder is a listener to the current build process that records the output to a file.

Several recorders can exist at the same time. Each recorder is associated with a file. The filename is used as a unique identifier for the recorders. The first call to the `record` task with an unused filename will create a recorder (using the parameters provided) and add it to the listeners of the build. All subsequent calls to the `record` task using this filename will modify that recorder's state (recording or not) or other properties (like logging level).

Some technical issues: the file's print stream is flushed for finished events (buildFinished, targetFinished and taskFinished), and is closed on a buildFinished event.

### Parameters

Attribute | Description | Required
--- | --- | ---
name | The name of the file this logger is associated with. | Yes
action | This tells the logger what to do: should it start recording or stop? The first time that the recorder task is called for this logfile, and if this attribute is not provided, then the default for this attribute is start. If this attribute is not provided on subsequent calls, then the state remains as previous. | No [values = start|stop, default = no state change]
append | Should the recorder append to a file, or create a new one? This is only applicable the first time this task is called for this file. | No [values = start|stop, default = no state change]
emacsmode | Removes `[task]` banners like Apache Ant's `-emacs` command line switch if set to true. | No; default is false
loglevel | At what logging level should this recorder instance record to? This is not a once only parameter (like append is)—you can increase or decrease the logging level as the build process continues. | No [values = error|warn|info|verbose|debug, default = no change]

### Examples

The following `build.xml` snippet is an example of how to use the recorder to record just the `<javac>` task:

        ...
        <compile >
            <record name="log.txt" action="start"/>
            <javac ...
            <record name="log.txt" action="stop"/>
        <compile/>
        ...

The following two calls to `<record>` set up two recorders: one to file `records-simple.log` at logging level info (the default) and one to file `ISO.log` using logging level of verbose.

        ...
        <record name="records-simple.log"/>
        <record name="ISO.log" loglevel="verbose"/>
        ...

### Notes

There is some functionality that I would like to be able to add in the future. They include things like the following:

Attribute | Description | Required
--- | --- | ---
listener | A classname of a build listener to use from this point on instead of the default listener. | No
includetarget | A comma-separated list of targets to automatically record. If this value is all, then all targets are recorded. | No; default is all
excludetarget | No
includetask | A comma-separated list of tasks to automatically record or not. This could be difficult as it may conflict with the `includetarget/excludetarget`. (e.g.: `includetarget="compile" excludetask="javac"`, what should happen?) | No
excludetask | No
action | add greater flexibility to the action attribute. Things like close to close the print stream. | No