nestlog -- logging with automatic call-graph indenting

Nestlog is a lightweight header-only library for console logging.

Features

• header-only; nothing to link
• easy-to-read format uses indenting to show call structure. indentation has user-controlled upper limit to preserve readability with deeply nested call graphs
• colorized output using vt100 color codes (ansi or xterm)
• automatically captures + displays timestamp, function name and code location. supports several function-name formats to reflect tradeoff readability for precision
• application code may issue logging code that contains embedded newlines and/or color escapes; logger preserves indentation.
• logger is 'truthy' -> only pay for formatting when entry points is enabled.
• also provides family of convenience stream-inserters

Examples

1

#include "nestlog/scope.hpp"

using namespace xo;

void inner(int x) {
    scope log(XO_ENTER0(always), ":x ", x);
}

void outer(int y) {
    scope log(XO_ENTER0(always), ":y ", y);

    inner(2*y);
}

int
main(int argc, char ** argv) {
    outer(123);
}

output:

• nestlog types are provided in the xo namespace. macros are prefixed with XO_
• indentation reflects call structure. We don't see anything for main(), since we didn't put any logging there

2 slightly more elaborate example

/* examples ex2/ex2.cpp */

#include "nestlog/scope.hpp"

using namespace xo;

int
fib(int n) {
    scope log(XO_ENTER0(info), ":n ", n);

    int retval = 1;

    if (n >= 2) {
        retval = fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2);
        log && log(":n ", n);
    }

    log.end_scope("<- :retval ", retval);

    return retval;
}

int
main(int argc, char ** argv) {
    log_config::min_log_level = xo::log_level::info;
    log_config::indent_width = 4;

    int n = 4;

    scope log(XO_ENTER0(info), ":n ", 4);

    int fn = fib(n);

    log && log(":n ", n);
    log && log("<- :fib(n) ", fn);
}

output:

• global configuration settings live in the xo::log_config class. see log_config.hpp
• the recommended form log && log(...) tests whether logging at this site is enabled /before/ evaluating/formatting the log message; when logging is disabled, this saves the cost of computing and formatting that message.

3 example exposing runtime configuration options

    /* examples ex3/ex3.cpp */

    #include "nestlog/scope.hpp"

    using namespace xo;

    int
    fib(int n) {
        scope log(XO_ENTER0(info), tag("n", n));

        int retval = 1;

        if (n >= 2) {
            retval = fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2);
        }

        log.end_scope(tag("n", n), " <-", xtag("retval", retval));

        return retval;
    }

    int
    main(int argc, char ** argv) {
        log_config::min_log_level = log_level::info;
        log_config::time_enabled = true;
        log_config::time_local_flag = true;
        log_config::style = FS_Streamlined;
        log_config::indent_width = 4;
        log_config::max_indent_width = 30;
        log_config::location_tab = 80;
        log_config::encoding = CE_Xterm;
        log_config::function_entry_color = 69;
        log_config::function_exit_color = 70;
        log_config::code_location_color = 166;

        int n = 3;

        scope log(XO_ENTER0(info), ":n ", 4);

        int fn = fib(n);

        log && log(tag("n", n));
        log && log("<-", xtag("fib(n)", fn));
    }

    /* ex3/ex3.cpp */

output: