Writing Logs from Console Shell - shell

Question

I have been using CakePHP 2.4.4 to build the interactive web part of my app and that is going very well. CakePHP is awesome.
I am now doing some supporting background processes. The Console and Shell seems to be the way to do it as it has access to the Models.
I have written the code and have it working but I am trying to write to the same log that I use for the Models. In the models I have an afterSave function to log all the database changes and I just used the $this->log("$model $logEntry", 'info'); to write to the log.
That doesn't work in the Shell but I thought the CakeLog::write('info', "$model $logEntry"); might work but it doesn't either.
Do I need to initialise the CakeLog to point to the correct log files?
<?php
App::uses('CakeTime', 'Utility');
App::uses('CakeLog', 'Utility');
class ProcessRequestShell extends AppShell {
//Need to access the request and monitor tables
public $uses = array('Request');
private function updateRequest($data){
$model = 'Request';
$result = $this->Request->save($data);
$logEntry = "UPDATE ProcessRequestShell ";
foreach ($data[$model] AS $k => $v){$logEntry .= "$k='$v' ";}
if ($result){
//$this->log("$model $logEntry", 'info');
CakeLog::write('info', "$model $logEntry");
} else {
//$this->log("$model FAILED $logEntry", 'error');
CakeLog::write('error', "$model FAILED $logEntry");
}
return($result);
}
public function main() {
$options = array('conditions' => array('state' => 0, 'next_state' => 1));
$this->Request->recursive = 0;
$requests = $this->Request->find('all', $options);
//See if the apply_changes_on date/time is past
foreach ($requests AS $request){
$this->out("Updating request ".$request['Request']['id'], 1, Shell::NORMAL);
//Update the next_state to "ready"
$request['Request']['state'] = 1;
$request['Request']['next_state'] = 2;
$this->updateRequest($request);
}
}
}
?>

Answer 1

Did you set up a default listener/scope for those log types?
If not, they will not get logged.
// Setup a 'default' cache configuration for use in the application.
Cache::config('default', array('engine' => 'File'));
In your bootstrap.php for example
See http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/appendices/2-2-migration-guide.html#log

Answer 2

You need to setup default log stream writing to file, eventually, in app/Config/bootstrap.php.
CakeLog does not auto-configure itself anymore. As a result log files
will not be auto-created anymore if no stream is listening. Make sure
you got at least one default stream set up, if you want to listen to
all types and levels. Usually, you can just set the core FileLog class
to output into app/tmp/logs/:
CakeLog::config('default', array(
'engine' => 'File'
));
See Logging → Writing to logs section of the CookBook 2.x