How do you create a debug only function that takes a variable argument list? Like printf()

Question

I\'d like to make a debug logging function with the same parameters as printf. But one that can be removed by the pre-processor during optimized builds.

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Answer 1

Part of the problem with this kind of functionality is that often it requires variadic macros. These were standardized fairly recently(C99), and lots of old C compilers do not support the standard, or have their own special work around.

Below is a debug header I wrote that has several cool features:

• Supports C99 and C89 syntax for debug macros
• Enable/Disable output based on function argument
• Output to file descriptor(file io)

Note: For some reason I had some slight code formatting problems.

#ifndef _DEBUG_H_
#define _DEBUG_H_
#if HAVE_CONFIG_H
#include "config.h"
#endif

#include "stdarg.h"
#include "stdio.h"

#define ENABLE 1
#define DISABLE 0

extern FILE* debug_fd;

int debug_file_init(char *file);
int debug_file_close(void);

#if HAVE_C99
#define PRINT(x, format, ...) \
if ( x ) { \
if ( debug_fd != NULL ) { \
fprintf(debug_fd, format, ##__VA_ARGS__); \
} \
else { \
fprintf(stdout, format, ##__VA_ARGS__); \
} \
}
#else
void PRINT(int enable, char *fmt, ...);
#endif

#if _DEBUG
#if HAVE_C99
#define DEBUG(x, format, ...) \
if ( x ) { \
if ( debug_fd != NULL ) { \
fprintf(debug_fd, "%s : %d " format, __FILE__, __LINE__, ##__VA_ARGS__); \
} \
else { \
fprintf(stderr, "%s : %d " format, __FILE__, __LINE__, ##__VA_ARGS__); \
} \
}

#define DEBUGPRINT(x, format, ...) \
if ( x ) { \
if ( debug_fd != NULL ) { \
fprintf(debug_fd, format, ##__VA_ARGS__); \
} \
else { \
fprintf(stderr, format, ##__VA_ARGS__); \
} \
}
#else /* HAVE_C99 */

void DEBUG(int enable, char *fmt, ...);
void DEBUGPRINT(int enable, char *fmt, ...);

#endif /* HAVE_C99 */
#else /* _DEBUG */
#define DEBUG(x, format, ...)
#define DEBUGPRINT(x, format, ...)
#endif /* _DEBUG */

#endif /* _DEBUG_H_ */