libspklog.a

Spookman's simple logging utility

Basic Use

At its simplest, just log using

Log& spk::log::log(std::string message)

This will append message to a file log.log.

Multiple files

To log to multiple files, or change the file name, use the get_log function, that returns a reference to a Log.

Log& spk::log::get_log(std::string file_name)

To log a message to a file game.log I can use

Log& spk::log::Log::log(std::string message);

like

using namespace spk::log;
get_log("game.log").log("A message");

The default can also be changed, and the same file written to like so:

using namespace spk::log;
get_log("game.log").set_default();
log("A message");

Indenting messages

Messages can be indented within the file, using the following three functions:

using namespace spk::log;
Log& Log::indent(unsigned char num = 1);
Log& Log::dedent(unsigned char num = 1);
Log& Log::set_indent(unsigned char width);

So I can log at different indents like this:

using namespace spk::log;
get_log("wide_indents.log").log("unindented").set_indent(8).indent().log("indented").dedent().log("unindented again");
get_log("narrow_indents.log").log("unindented").set_indent(2).indent().log("indented").dedent().log("unindented again");

The default indent width is 4. The indent can never become negative, so to reset the indent something like dedent(UCHAR_MAX) can be used.

Timestamps

Each message will be prepended by a timestamp. The format of the timestamp can be set with

Log& spk::log::set_time_format(std::string format);

which sets the format of the time to a std::strftime compatible string. If this function is not called, a default of "%F %T" (YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss) is used. Note that if the formatted time is longer than 255 characters, it will be truncated.

API Reference

// Dedent the log
Log& Log::dedent (unsigned char num = 1);
// Indent the log
Log& Log::indent (unsigned char num = 1);
// Write to the log
Log& Log::log (std::string message);
// Set the default log to this one
Log& Log::set_default ();
// Set the indent width of the log
Log& Log::set_indent (unsigned char width);
// Set the time format of the log
Log& Log::set_time_format (std::string format);

// Dedent the default log
Log& dedent (unsigned char num = 1);
// Indent the default log
Log& indent (unsigned char num = 1);
// Get the requested log (or default if log not supplied or empty string)
Log& get_log (std::string log = "");
// Write to the default log
Log& log (std::string message);
// Set the indent width of all logs
void set_indent (unsigned char width);
// Set the time format of all logs
void set_time_format (std::string format);

Any functions returning a Log& will only operate on the Log returned, and will return the Log operated on.