A Logger instance that gives better control of messaging the user and logging app activity. At it's most basic, you would use info as a replacement for puts and error as a replacement for STDERR.puts. Since this is a logger, however, you can also use debug, warn, and fatal, and you can control the format and “logging level” as such.

So, by default:

  • debug messages do not appear anywhere

  • info messages appear on the standard output

  • warn, error, and fatal messagse appear on the standard error

  • The default format of messages is simply the message, no logging cruft, however if your output is redirected to a file, a better timestamped logging format is used

You can customize this in several ways:

  • You can override the devices used by passing different devices to the constructor

  • You can adjust the level of message that goes to the error logger via error_level=

  • You can adjust the format for messages to the error logger separately via error_formatter=

Example

logger = CLILogger.new
logger.debug("Starting up") # => only the standard output gets this
logger.warn("careful!") # => only the standard error gets this
logger.error("Something went wrong!") # => only the standard error gets this

logger = CLILogger.new
logger.error_level = Logger::ERROR
logger.debug("Starting up") # => only the standard output gets this
logger.warn("careful!") # => only the standard OUTPUT gets this
logger.error("Something went wrong!") # => only the standard error gets this

logger = CLILogger.new('logfile.txt')
logger.debug("Starting up") # => logfile.txt gets this
logger.error("Something went wrong!") # => BOTH logfile.txt AND the standard error get this
Methods
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Constants
BLANK_FORMAT = proc { |severity,datetime,progname,msg| msg + "\n" }
 
DEFAULT_ERROR_LEVEL = Logger::Severity::WARN
 
Class Public methods
new(log_device=$stdout,error_device=$stderr)

A logger that logs error-type messages to a second device; useful for ensuring that error messages go to standard error. This should be pretty smart about doing the right thing. If both log devices are ttys, e.g. one is going to standard error and the other to the standard output, messages only appear once in the overall output stream. In other words, an ERROR logged will show up only in the standard error. If either log device is NOT a tty, then all messages go to log_device and only errors go to error_device

log_device

device where all log messages should go, based on level

error_device

device where all error messages should go. By default, this is Logger::Severity::WARN

# File lib/optparse_plus/cli_logger.rb, line 84
def initialize(log_device=$stdout,error_device=$stderr)
  @stderr_logger = Logger.new(error_device)

  super(log_device)

  log_device_tty   = tty?(log_device)
  error_device_tty = tty?(error_device)

  @split_logs = log_device_tty && error_device_tty

  self.level = Logger::Severity::INFO
  @stderr_logger.level = DEFAULT_ERROR_LEVEL

  self.formatter = BLANK_FORMAT if log_device_tty
  @stderr_logger.formatter = BLANK_FORMAT if error_device_tty
end
Instance Public methods
error_formatter=(formatter)

Overrides the formatter for the error logger. A future call to formatter= will affect both, so the order of the calls matters.

formatter

Proc that handles the formatting, the same as for formatter=

# File lib/optparse_plus/cli_logger.rb, line 121
def error_formatter=(formatter)
  @stderr_logger.formatter=formatter
end
error_level=(level)

Set the threshold for what messages go to the error device. Note that calling level= will not affect the error logger unless both devices are TTYs.

level

a constant from Logger::Severity for the level of messages that should go to the error logger

# File lib/optparse_plus/cli_logger.rb, line 113
def error_level=(level)
  @stderr_logger.level = level
end
level=(level)
# File lib/optparse_plus/cli_logger.rb, line 101
def level=(level)
  super(level)
  if (level > DEFAULT_ERROR_LEVEL) && @split_logs
    @stderr_logger.level = level
  end
end