The aminilog library is a header only library providing logging macros
for NDK projects. The macros are identical to the macros used in the AOSP.
If you want to start writing C/C++ code in an Android app that eventually becomes AOSP code or if you are working primarily in the AOSP codebase and want the same macros in your new NDK based C++ project or if you do not want to write macros for yourself, this library is for you.
The goal is to have 100% compatibility to the AOSP style logging macros, provided by liblog. Compiling the code against the NDK or against the liblog library should result in the same runtime behavior.
For now the library is a header only library. Just clone, unpack or copy the
files from the git repository into your app's project, e.g. into a folder called
external/aminilog.
Then add the library to your cmake build, by adding the line
add_subdirectory(../../external/aminilog aminilog)
into your CMakeLists.txt. You mostly have to adapt the path.
Additionally you should add
target_compile_definitions(${PROJECT_NAME} PUBLIC NDEBUG=1)
to your definitions. Setting NDEBUG will disable all ALOGV log messages by
default which is also the standard behavior in AOSP code.
If you want to use the logging macros in a C/C++ source file, add the following at the very beginning of the file.
//#define LOG_NDEBUG 0
#define LOG_TAG "your_log_tag"
Further below add the following include header
#include <log/log.h>
After that the code in that file can use the logging macros:
ALOGD("debug message %d", some_int);
ALOGI("info: %s (%d)", some_string, some_int);
ALOGW("warning message");
ALOGE("error message");
// If NDEBUG is defined, ALOGV message are *not* logged.
// They are just removed from the source code.
ALOGV("verbose message");
// They can be temporarly enabled defining LOG_NDEBUG. See
// the comment at the top of the file.
To add an assert, you can use
LOG_ALWAYS_FATAL_IF(pointer == NULL);
LOG_ALWAYS_FATAL_IF(i >= 20, "array index out of range: i = %d", i);
LOG_ALWAYS_FATAL("This code should never be reached");
For more examples, have a look the AOSP code itself or at the testcases in test/src/. All available macros are documented in the AOSP liblog's README.md file.
There are no releases yet. Just use the current version on the main branch.
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See also the file LICENSE.
Contributions, e.g. to extend the available macros, are welcome. Open a merge/pull request or send a patch. Just use my email address from the commits.
At the AOSP and AAOS meetup I did a ten minute lighting talk about aminilog. It was at the The AOSP and AAOS 2024 January meetup. You can check out the recording on youtube at video aminilog – AOSP styled logging macros for NDK projects.
Just some random information. No interesting for users!
The header file android/log.h is available in the AOSP and slightly different
in the NDK.
Most AOSP code just includes the hader log/log.h to get access to the logging
macros. It's including all the other headers:
// snipped:
#include <android/log.h>
#include <log/log_id.h>
#include <log/log_main.h>
#include <log/log_radio.h>
#include <log/log_read.h>
#include <log/log_safetynet.h>
#include <log/log_system.h>
#include <log/log_time.h>
See system/core/liblog/include/log/log.h
Nearly no AOSP code includes the log/log_*.h files directly.