1Log::Trace::Manual(3) User Contributed Perl DocumentationLog::Trace::Manual(3)
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NAME

6       Log::Trace::Manual - A guide to using Log::Trace
7

DESCRIPTION

9       This is a brief guide to how you can use the Log::Trace module in your
10       scripts and modules.  The "Log::Trace" documentation has a
11       comprehensive list of options.
12

The basics

14       You can enable tracing by specifying the tracing target via the '"use"'
15       statement or at runtime via the "import()" method.  In most cases,
16       you'll want to keep the code that enables tracing in a single point,
17       usually the main script of your application.  In general, modules
18       should avoid directly setting tracing options.
19
20   using Log::Trace in your scripts
21       Here's a slightly contrived example which demonstrates the "TRACE",
22       "TRACEF", "DUMP" and "TRACE_HERE" functions:
23
24               #!/usr/bin/perl -w
25               use strict;
26               use Another::Module;
27               use Log::Trace log => '/var/log/myapp.log';
28
29               TRACE("-------- Starting archiver ---------");
30               TRACEF("We are going to try to archive %d items", scalar @ARGV);
31               DUMP("List of things to archive", \@ARGV);
32               archive_em($_) foreach(@ARGV);
33
34               sub archive_em {
35                       TRACE_HERE();
36                       my $thing = shift;
37                       unless (Another::Module::check_safe($thing)) {
38                               warn "bad chars in: $thing";
39                               return;
40                       }
41                       rename $thing, $thing.".archive" or warn "Couldn't archive $thing: $!";
42                       TRACE("Tried to archive $thing");
43               }
44
45       Note the way "Log::Trace" is imported.  The import list controls where
46       the output of the four tracing functions goes.  Instead we could have
47       done:
48
49               use Log::Trace qw(warn);
50
51       and the trace output would have gone to STDERR.
52
53   Using Log::Trace with modules
54       In the previous example, tracing was enabled only in the main script.
55       Now we'll see how to enable tracing in "Another::Module" at the same
56       time.
57
58       First, "Another::Module" needs to define a "TRACE" subroutine.  It may
59       also define "TRACEF", "TRACE_HERE" and "DUMP" stubs.  It can do that
60       simply by using "Log::Trace".  However, if "Another::Module" defines
61       its own stub tracing functions, we can remove the dependency on
62       "Log::Trace".
63
64               package Another::Module;
65
66               sub check_safe {my_routine {
67                       my $filename = shift;
68                       TRACE("Checking that '$filename' has safe characters");
69                       return $filename =~ /^([\w.\-/]+)$/
70               }
71
72               sub my_other_routine {
73                       TRACE_HERE();
74               }
75
76               # tracing stubs
77               sub TRACE {}
78               sub TRACE_HERE {}
79
80       Now, in the main script, we can change the '"use"' statement so tracing
81       will be enabled in "Another::Module":
82
83               use Log::Trace log => '/var/log/myapp.log', {Deep => 1};
84
85       By default, the "Deep" option will force "Log::Trace" to export tracing
86       functions to any modules that define a "TRACE" subroutine.  That
87       includes modules that are not directly used by the main script.  But
88       this behaviour can be relaxed or tightened with other options.  See
89       "Deep import" for examples.
90
91       Adding "TRACE" and other stub functions to your module is an Interface
92       Contract between your module and Log::Trace (in some software circles
93       this might be given a name such as ISupportsTracing).  Of course you
94       can write other code that takes advantage of this interface completely
95       independent of Log::Trace, e.g.
96
97               use Another::Module;
98               if($ENV{DEBUG}) {
99                       *Another::Module::TRACE = sub {print "TRACE: ".join("\t",@_)."\n"};
100               }
101
102   Error handling
103       Since "Log::Trace" is designed with debugging in mind, all tracing
104       failures are non-fatal, so allowing normal execution to continue.
105       However, Log::Trace will report to STDERR that a problem has occurred.
106
107       For example, this code:
108
109               use Log::Trace file => '/myapp.log';
110               TRACE('Running');
111               print "Hello World!\n";
112
113       Will produce this output:
114
115               Log::Trace: Cannot open /myapp.log : Permission denied at lib/Log/Trace.pm line <nnn>.
116               Hello World!
117

Cookbook

119   Enabling tracing on the command line
120       You can invoke tracing on the command line:
121
122               perl -MLog::Trace=print -e "TRACE('hello')"
123               perl -MLog::Trace=warn -e "TRACE('hello')"
124               perl -MLog::Trace=log,test.log -e "TRACE('hello')"
125
126       However you can't apply this approach to scripts that use "Log::Trace"
127       or define a "TRACE" stub as these will clobber *main::TRACE set up by
128       -M when they are compiled.  Fortunately it is straightforward to write
129       your command-line scripts so you can, for example, get trace output
130       with -t and deep trace output with -T:
131
132               use Log::Trace;
133               use Getopt::Std;
134               use MyModule;
135
136               use vars qw($opt_t $opt_T);
137               getopts("tT");
138
139               # tracing
140               import Log::Trace 'print' if $opt_t;
141               import Log::Trace 'print' => {Deep => 1} if $opt_T;
142
143               do_something_involving_tracing();
144
145   Sending TRACE output to browser in CGI
146       Whilst tracing to a log file or "STDERR" is tolerable for CGIs, it's
147       often far more convenient to return the tracing information back to the
148       browser of the client-side developer.
149
150               use CGI;
151
152               use constant DEV_SERVER => 1;
153
154               my $trace_buffer;
155               if(DEV_SERVER && CGI::param('Tracing')) {
156                       require Log::Trace;
157                       import Log::Trace buffer => \$trace_buffer, {Deep => 1};
158               }
159
160               my $output = do_everything();
161
162               print CGI::header();
163               print $output;
164               if (DEV_SERVER && $trace_buffer)
165               {
166                       print "\n\n", "<pre>", CGI::escapeHTML($trace_buffer), "</pre>";
167               }
168
169       You should remember to change the "DEV_SERVER" constant when releasing
170       the CGI to a production environment.
171
172   Log levels
173       "Log::Trace" can filter the tracing output by referring to the logging
174       level.  The logging level is defined when you enable tracing.
175       "Log::Trace" doesn't impose any conventions on the levels.  The default
176       levels implementation requires that the levels be numeric, but that can
177       be overriden.
178
179       In the simplest case, you can specify the level as a threshold value:
180
181               use Log::Trace print => {Level => 3};
182
183       In this example, all trace messages at level 3 or below will be output.
184
185       You can also specify a list of valid levels:
186
187               use Log::Trace print => {Level => [0 .. 3, 7]};
188
189       All the tracing functions accept a hash as an optional first parameter
190       where you can specify the level for that trace message.  E.g.:
191
192               TRACE({Level => 4}, "This is a warning");
193               TRACEF({Level => 6}, "%d items found", scalar @items);
194               TRACE_HERE({Level => 10});
195               DUMP({Level => 8}, 'Retrieved data', \%data);
196
197       "DUMP" is designed to accept a hash as its first parameter, but there
198       may be cases where you wish to dump a hash that contains a "Level" key.
199       In those cases, you can take advantage of the return value of "DUMP()":
200
201               my $dumped = DUMP({Level => 1, Health => '0.68'});
202               TRACE({Level => 8}, 'Game stats', $dumped);
203
204       If you specify a tracing level when you enable "Log::Trace", then
205       tracing messages that do not specify a level will not be output, unless
206       you include "undef" in the trace levels:
207
208               use Log::Trace print => {Level => [3, undef]};
209               TRACE("This is level undef, and will be output");
210               TRACE({Level => 3}, "This will also be output");
211               TRACE({Level => 8}, "... but this won't");
212
213       Here are some sample tracing levels (borrowed from Log::Agent) which
214       you can use as a guide:
215
216               0       emergency
217               1       alert
218               2       critical
219               3       error
220               4       warning
221               6       notice
222               8       info
223               10      debug
224
225   Fine-tuning deep import
226       Occasionally you won't want to see the trace output from ALL your
227       modules in your application.  For example your application may give a
228       module a huge data structure or call it in a long loop.  The "Exclude"
229       option allows you to mask out one or more modules.
230
231               use Log::Trace warn => {'Deep' => 1, 'Exclude' => 'MyVerboseModule'};
232
233       or
234
235               use Log::Trace warn => {'Deep' => 1, 'Exclude' => ['MyVerboseModule', 'Another::Module']};
236
237       Conversely you can use an opt-in approach rather than opt-out.  The
238       "Match" option allows a regular expression to be used to select which
239       packages are initialised by Log::Trace.  For example:
240
241               use Log::Trace print => {'Deep' => 1, 'Match' => qr/^MySubSystem::/};
242

Advanced features

244   Issues with the order of importing
245       When the Deep or Everywhere options are used, Log::Trace is imported
246       into all the packages which have been compiled so far.
247
248               use Package::Foo;
249               use Log::Trace ('print' => {Deep => 1});
250               use Package::Bar; #Compiled after Log::Trace is imported
251
252       In this example, the TRACE function in Package::Bar won't be
253       overridden.  It's trivial to swap the order in the example above so
254       that Log::Trace is the last module used, but suppose you have a module
255       (such as a factory) that loads others on demand:
256
257               package MyApp::Reader;
258               sub new {
259                       my $package = shift;
260                       my $type = shift;
261                       die unless($type =~ /^MyApp::Reader::\w+$/);
262                       eval "require $type";
263                       die($@) if($@);
264                       return $type->new(@_);
265               }
266
267       How do you ensure Log::Trace gets imported into the backend
268       MyApp::Reader::* modules (without polluting all your modules with
269       Log::Trace::import calls)?
270
271       Using the (experimental) AutoImport feature
272           The AutoImport feature will override "CORE::require" so that from
273           now on any modules that are loaded will have the Log::Trace import
274           run against them:
275
276                   use Log::Trace('log' => '/var/log/myapp.log', {'Deep' => 1, 'AutoImport' => 1});
277
278           This only works with recent versions of perl (see the ENVIRONMENT
279           NOTES in Log::Trace).
280
281       Getting the factory to wire the components it produces
282           A more "low-tech" approach that works with all versions of perl is
283           to get the factory to attach the stub functions of the modules it
284           loads to whatever its own stub functions have been wired to by the
285           caller.
286
287                   package MyApp::Reader;
288                   sub new {
289                           my $package = shift;
290                           my $type = shift;
291                           die unless($type =~ /^MyApp::Reader::\w+$/);
292                           eval "require $type";
293                           die($@) if($@);
294
295                           # Wire the component we've created into whatever
296                           # our TRACE etc function has been wired to
297                           *{"$type\::TRACE"} = \&MyApp::Reader::TRACE;
298                           *{"$type\::DUMP"} = \&MyApp::Reader::DUMP;
299
300                           return $type->new(@_);
301                   }
302
303   Custom TRACE functions
304       If "STDOUT", "STDERR", "syslog", a file, a file handle, or a buffer is
305       not to your liking then the custom method is for you.
306
307       Suppose you want to send your Log::Trace output into a database:
308
309               our $sth;
310               $sth = setup_logging_statement();
311
312               use Log::Trace custom => \&log_to_database;
313
314               sub log_to_database {
315
316                       #TRACE can get any number of arguments
317                       my $message = join(",", @_);
318
319                       $sth->execute($message);
320
321               }
322
323   Controlling DUMP output
324       By default, Data::Dumper is used with a fixed set of options for DUMP
325       output.  You can choose a different serialiser using the "Dumper"
326       option:
327
328               import Log::Trace('print' => {Dumper => "YAML"}});
329
330       Where the string refers to a Data::Serializer::* backend.  You can also
331       control the options passed to the Data::Serializer backend (and thus
332       customise the DUMP output) by passing a hashref of Data::Serializer
333       contructor options:
334
335               import Log::Trace('print' => {Dumper => {
336                       serializer => 'XML::Dumper',
337                       options => {
338                               dtd => 'path/to/my.dtd'
339                       }
340               }});
341
342       At the time of writing, not all the configuration options of the
343       underlying serialisation modules are exposed via their Data::Serializer
344       wrappers.  If you find this a limitation, please contribute patches to
345       extend these modules as this will benefit a number of other modules
346       that make use of the Data::Serializer API.
347
348   Execution path vs. profiling
349       You can use the "AllSubs" tracing option to trace the execution path
350       through each subroutine.  By default "Log::Trace" only wraps each
351       subroutine in packages with "TRACE" defined.  You can force it to do it
352       to all modules using the "Everywhere" option.  The following:
353
354               use Data::Dumper;
355               use Log::Trace print => {AllSubs => 1, Verbose => 1, Everywhere => 1, Exclude => 'Config'};
356               Data::Dumper->Dumpperl([[4]]);
357
358       generates the output:
359
360               main::__ANON__ (3) :: Data::Dumper::Dumpperl(  )
361               Data::Dumper::Dumpperl (3) :: Data::Dumper::new(  )
362               Data::Dumper::Dumpperl (3) :: Data::Dumper::_dump( Data::Dumper, ... )
363               Data::Dumper::_dump (205) :: overload::StrVal( ARRAY, ... )
364               overload::StrVal (239) :: overload::OverloadedStringify( ARRAY, ... )
365               overload::OverloadedStringify (92) :: overload::mycan(  )
366               overload::OverloadedStringify (92) :: overload::ov_method(      )
367               overload::OverloadedStringify (92) :: overload::mycan(  )
368               overload::OverloadedStringify (92) :: overload::ov_method(      )
369               overload::OverloadedStringify (92) :: overload::mycan(  )
370               overload::OverloadedStringify (92) :: overload::ov_method(      )
371               overload::OverloadedStringify (92) :: overload::mycan(  )
372               overload::OverloadedStringify (92) :: overload::ov_method(      )
373               Data::Dumper::_dump (205) :: Data::Dumper::_dump( Data::Dumper, ... )
374               (eval) (0) :: Data::Dumper::DESTROY( Data::Dumper, ... )
375
376   Targeting one module
377       You may wonder "How do I trace what's going on in module Acme::Foo I
378       downloaded from CPAN that isn't Log::Trace enabled?".  Assuming the
379       module doesn't have any other kind of tracing that you can hook into,
380       all you can do is use the "AllSubs" approach.  Assuming that's OK, you
381       can restrict this to just the offending module with:
382
383               use Log::Trace print => {AllSubs => 1, Everywhere => 1, Match => qr/^Acme:Foo$/};
384
385   Avoiding performance penalty
386       Although the trace stubs don't do anything, they do incur a small
387       function call overhead.  If this performance hit is unacceptable, you
388       can use a constant to enable/disable all the "Log::Trace" statements in
389       your code.  The test for the constant value will be optimised out at
390       compile time so no runtime overhead is incurred if the constant has a
391       false value:
392
393               package ThrashMe;
394
395               use constant TRACING_ENABLED => 1; #Set to zero to optimise
396
397               sub performance_critical {
398                       TRACE("this may slow things down") if(TRACING_ENABLED);
399                       do_stuff();
400               }
401
402               sub TRACE{}
403
404               1;
405

REVISION

407       $Revision: 1.9 $
408
409
410
411perl v5.28.1                      2005-11-24             Log::Trace::Manual(3)
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