NAME

Spreadsheet::Edit::Log - log method/function calls, args, and return values

SYNOPSIS

use Spreadsheet::Edit::Log qw/:DEFAULT btw btwN oops/;

sub public_method {
  my $self = shift;
  $self->_internal_method(@_);
}
sub _internal_method {
  my $self = shift;

  # Debug printing; shows location of call
  btw "By the way, the zort is $self->{zort}" if $self->{debug};
  btwN 2, "message";  # With location of caller's caller'caller
  btwbt "message";    # With 1-line mini traceback

  # Wrapper for Carp::Confess
  oops "zort not set!" unless defined $self->{zort};

  my @result = (42, $_[0]*1000);

  log_call \@_, [\"Here you go:", @result] if $self->{verbose};

  @result;
}
...
$obj->public_method(100);
#  file::lineno public_method 100 ==> Here you go:42,100000

DESCRIPTION

(This is generic, no longer specific to Spreadsheet::Edit. Someday it might be published as a stand-alone distribution rather than packaged with Spreadsheet-Edit.)

This provides possibly-overkill convenience for "verbose logging" and/or debug tracing of subroutine calls.

The resulting message string includes the location of the user's call, the name of the public function or method called, and a representation of the inputs and outputs.

The "public" function/method name shown is not necessarily the immediate caller of the logging function.

log_call {OPTIONS}, [INPUTS], [RESULTS]

Prints the result of calling fmt_call with the same arguments.

The message is written to STDERR unless logdest => FILEHANDLE is included in OPTIONS or set_logdest() is called.

$msgstring = fmt_call {OPTIONS}, [INPUTS], [RESULTS]

{OPTIONS} and [RESULTS] are optional, i.e. may be entirely omitted.

A message string is composed and returned. The general form is:

 File:linenum funcname input,items,... ==> output,items,...\n
or
 File:linenum Obj<address>->methname input,items,... ==> output,items,...\n

[INPUTS] and [RESULTS] are each a ref to an array of items (or a single non-aref item), used to form comma-separated lists.

Each item is formatted similar to Data::Dumper, i.e. strings are "quoted" and complex structures serialized; printable Unicode characters are shown as themselves (rather than hex escapes)

... with two exceptions:

  1. If an item is a reference to a string then the string is inserted as-is (unquoted), and unless the string is empty, adjacent commas are suppressed. This allows pasting arbitrary text between values.

  2. If an item is an object (blessed reference) then only it's type and abbreviated address are shown, unless overridden via the fmt_object option described below.

{OPTIONS}

(See "Default OPTIONS" below to specify most of these statically)

self => objref

If your sub is a method, your can pass self => $self and the the invocant will be displayed separately before the method name. To reduce clutter, the invocant is displayed for only the first of a series of consecutive calls with the same self value.

fmt_object => CODE

Format a reference to a blessed thing, or the value of the self option (if passed) whether blessed or not.

The sub is called with args ($state, $thing). It should return either $thing or an alternative representation string. By default, the type/classname is shown and an abbreviated address (see addrvis in Data::Dumper::Interp).

$state is a ref to a hash where you can store anything you want; it persists only during the current fmt_call invocation.

is_public_api => CODE

Recognize a public entry-point in the call stack.

The sub is called repeatedly with arguments ($state, [package,file,line,subname,...]).

The second argument contains results from caller(N). Your sub should return True if the frame represents the call to be described in the message.

The default callback is sub{ $_[1][3] =~ /(?:::|^)[a-z][^:]*$/ }, which looks for any sub named with an initial lower-case letter; in other words, it assumes that internal subs start with an underscore or capital letter (such as for constants).

$string = fmt_methcall {OPTIONS}, $self, [INPUTS], [RESULTS]

A short-hand for

$string = fmt_call {OPTIONS, self => $self}, [INPUTS], [RESULTS]

log_methcall $self, [INPUTS], [RESULTS]

log_methcall {OPTIONS}, $self, [INPUTS], [RESULTS]

A short-hand for

log_call {OPTIONS, self => $self}, [INPUTS], [RESULTS]

Usually {OPTIONS} can be omitted for a more succinct form.

$frame = nearest_call {OPTIONS};

Locate the call frame for the "public" interface most recently called. This accesses the internal logic used by fmt_call, and uses the same is_public_api callback.

The result is a reference to the items returned by caller(N) which represent the call to be traced.

{OPTIONS} may be omitted.

($filename, $linenum, $subname) = abbrev_call_fn_ln_subname {OPTIONS};

Returns abbreviated information from nearest_call, possibly ambiguous but usually more friendly to humans: $filename is the basename only and $subname omits the Package:: prefix.

Default OPTIONS

our %SpreadsheetEdit_Log_Options = (...); in your package will be used to override the built-in defaults (but are still overridden by {OPTIONS} passed in individual calls).

DEBUG UTILITIES

(Not related to the log functions above).

NOTE: None of these are exported by default.

btw STRING,STRING,...

btwN LEVELSBACK,STRING,STRING,...

btwbt STRING,STRING,...

Print debug trace messages. btw stands for "by the way...".

btw prints a message to STDERR (or as specified via set_logdest) preceeded by "linenum:" giving the line number of the call to btw. A newline is appended to the message unless the last STRING already ends with a newline.

This is similar warn when the message omits a final newline but with a different presentation.

btwN displays the line number of the call LEVELSBACK in the call stack (0 is the same as btw, 1 for your caller's location etc.)

btwbt displays an inline mini traceback before the message, like this:

PkgA 565 ⇐ PkgB 330 ⇐ 456 ⇐ 413 : message...

By default, only the line numbers of calling locations are shown if the call was from package 'main' or Spreadsheet::Edit::Log was imported by only a single module.

If a tag :btw=PFX is imported then customized btw(), btwN() and btwbt() functions will be imported which prefix line numbers with an arbitrary prefix PFX, which may contain $lno $path $fname $package $pkg or $pkg_space to interpolate respectively the calling line number, file path, file basename, package name, abbreviated package name (*:: removed). or abbrev. package name followed by a space, or nothing if the package is "main".

oops STRING,STRING,...

Prepends "\n<your package name> oops:\n" to the message and then chains to Carp::confess for backtrace and death.

set_logdest($filehandle or *FILEHANDLE)

Sets the filehandle (STDERR by default) for log messages and output from btw*.

SEE ALSO

Data::Dumper::Interp

AUTHOR

Jim Avera (jim.avera gmail)

LICENSE

Public Domain or CC0