Bash logging function

Logging.sh

# Function to write to the Log file
# Credit to http://linuxadvices.blogspot.com/2013/05/logging-in-bash-nice-subroutine-to-reuse.html
###################################

write_log() 
{
  while read text
  do 
      LOGTIME=`date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"`
      # If log file is not defined, just echo the output
      if [ "$LOG_FILE" == "" ]; then 
    echo $LOGTIME": $text";
      else
        LOG=$LOG_FILE.`date +%Y%m%d`
    touch $LOG
        if [ ! -f $LOG ]; then echo "ERROR!! Cannot create log file $LOG. Exiting."; exit 1; fi
    echo $LOGTIME": $text" | tee -a $LOG;
      fi
  done
}


It is easy to log any output to such subroutine, just pipe the output as folowing:
echo "Skipping to next copy" | write_log