Feature request: add additional log level: TRACE & corresponding `logger.trace()` method

[codyfrisch]

Use case

Create an additional log level of TRACE below DEBUG

DEBUG contains statements about entering specific functions, iterations of a loop, timing info, etc. as well as actual data such as function parameters, API responses etc.

INFO is reserved for normal informational messages, like logging the results of an invocation but not all the intermediate details.

TRACE level would allow DEBUG to only contain the data, API responses, etc. and TRACE then contains the statements for the execution path.

Solution/User Experience

Add an additional level for TRACE as was done for CRITICAL.

Alternative solutions

No response

Acknowledgment

• This feature request meets Powertools for AWS Lambda (TypeScript) Tenets
• Should this be considered in other Powertools for AWS Lambda languages? i.e. Python, Java, and .NET

Future readers

Please react with 👍 and your use case to help us understand customer demand.

[boring-cyborg]

Thanks for opening your first issue here! We'll come back to you as soon as we can.
In the meantime, check out the #typescript channel on our Powertools for AWS Lambda Discord: Invite link

[dreamorosi]

Hi @codyfrisch, thank you for taking the time to open an issue on our repo and for explaining the reasoning behind this new log level.

At least on the surface I see the addition of a VERBOSE level in between DEBUG and INFO as somewhat confusing as it's not immediately clear (to me at least) where it sits on the level scale.

Having a TRACE level below DEBUG on the other hand, makes me immediately think about more information than DEBUG.

Before making a decision I'd like to leave the conversation open for a while and give the chance to other customers to share what they think about the above and whether this new level could be useful for their use cases.

[codyfrisch]

@dreamorosi I see what you mean. A TRACE level would cover all of the statements about execution path - which is what I want to hide. Then DEBUG would cover details about all the data involved.

log4j2 and .net core both have TRACE. Python does not have a language level TRACE but does have a NOTSET level below DEBUG. Seems both Python and Typescript loggers could benefit from a TRACE level at least within the Powertools logger.

Since none have verbose, I am going to change my mind and say TRACE is the clearest choice for a path forward.

BTW thanks for the ability to set log level dynamically.

[timo92]

I have just started to adopt powertools and configured lambda with advanced logging controls for the first time. I expected the log levels in the logger package to match the levels mentioned by aws. This would mean that TRACE is more detailed than DEBUG and CRITICAL should be renamed or become an alias for FATAL.