Ruby - share logger instance among module/classes

Question

Working on a little Ruby script that goes out to the web and crawls various services. I\'ve got a module with several classes inside:

module Crawler
  class          


        

Answer 1

Inspired by this thread I created the easy_logging gem.

It combines all the features discussed such as:

• Adds logging functionality anywhere with one, short, self-descriptive command
• Logger works in both class and instance methods
• Logger is specific to class and contains class name

Installation:

gem install 'easy_logging

Usage:

require 'easy_logging'

class YourClass
  include EasyLogging

  def do_something
    # ...
    logger.info 'something happened'
  end
end

class YourOtherClass
  include EasyLogging

  def self.do_something
    # ...
    logger.info 'something happened'
  end
end

YourClass.new.do_something
YourOtherClass.do_something

Output

I, [2017-06-03T21:59:25.160686 #5900]  INFO -- YourClass: something happened
I, [2017-06-03T21:59:25.160686 #5900]  INFO -- YourOtherClass: something happened

More details on GitHub.

Answer 2

The may be some weird Ruby magic that could let you avoid it, but there's a fairly simple solution that doesn't need weird. Just put the logger into the module and access it directly, with a mechanism to set it. If you want to be cool about it, define a "lazy logger" that keeps a flag to say if it has a logger yet, and either silently drops messages until the logger is set, throws an exception of something is logged before the logger is set, or adds the log message to a list so it can be logged once the logger is defined.

Answer 3

With the design you've laid out, it looks like the easiest solution is to give Crawler a module method that returns a module ivar.

module Crawler
  def self.logger
    @logger
  end
  def self.logger=(logger)
    @logger = logger
  end
end

Or you could use "class <<self magic" if you wanted:

module Crawler
  class <<self
    attr_accessor :logger
  end
end

It does the exact same thing.

Answer 4

As Zenagray points out, logging from class methods was left out of Jacob's answer. A small addition solves that:

require 'logger'

module Logging
  class << self
    def logger
      @logger ||= Logger.new($stdout)
    end

    def logger=(logger)
      @logger = logger
    end
  end

  # Addition
  def self.included(base)
    class << base
      def logger
        Logging.logger
      end
    end
  end

  def logger
    Logging.logger
  end
end

The intended use is via "include":

class Dog
  include Logging

  def self.bark
    logger.debug "chirp"
    puts "#{logger.__id__}"
  end

  def bark
    logger.debug "grrr"
    puts "#{logger.__id__}"
  end
end

class Cat
  include Logging

  def self.bark
    logger.debug "chirp"
    puts "#{logger.__id__}"
  end

  def bark
    logger.debug "grrr"
    puts "#{logger.__id__}"
  end
end

Dog.new.bark
Dog.bark
Cat.new.bark
Cat.bark

Produces:

D, [2014-05-06T22:27:33.991454 #2735] DEBUG -- : grrr
70319381806200
D, [2014-05-06T22:27:33.991531 #2735] DEBUG -- : chirp
70319381806200
D, [2014-05-06T22:27:33.991562 #2735] DEBUG -- : grrr
70319381806200
D, [2014-05-06T22:27:33.991588 #2735] DEBUG -- : chirp
70319381806200

Note the id of the logger is the same in all four cases. If you want a different instance for each class, then don't use Logging.logger, rather use self.class.logger:

require 'logger'

module Logging
  def self.included(base)
    class << base
      def logger
        @logger ||= Logger.new($stdout)
      end

      def logger=(logger)
        @logger = logger
      end
    end
  end

  def logger
    self.class.logger
  end
end

The same program now produces:

D, [2014-05-06T22:36:07.709645 #2822] DEBUG -- : grrr
70350390296120
D, [2014-05-06T22:36:07.709723 #2822] DEBUG -- : chirp
70350390296120
D, [2014-05-06T22:36:07.709763 #2822] DEBUG -- : grrr
70350390295100
D, [2014-05-06T22:36:07.709791 #2822] DEBUG -- : chirp
70350390295100

Note that the first two id's are the same but are different from the 2nd two ids showing that we have two instances -- one for each class.

Answer 5

A little chunk of code to demonstrate how this works. I'm simply creating a new basic Object so that I can observe that the object_id remains the same throughout the calls:

module M

  class << self
    attr_accessor :logger
  end

  @logger = nil

  class C
    def initialize
      puts "C.initialize, before setting M.logger: #{M.logger.object_id}"
      M.logger = Object.new
      puts "C.initialize, after setting M.logger: #{M.logger.object_id}"
      @base = D.new
    end
  end

  class D
    def initialize
      puts "D.initialize M.logger: #{M.logger.object_id}"
    end
  end
end

puts "M.logger (before C.new): #{M.logger.object_id}"
engine = M::C.new
puts "M.logger (after C.new): #{M.logger.object_id}"

The output of this code looks like (an object_id of 4 means nil):

M.logger (before C.new): 4
C.initialize, before setting M.logger: 4
C.initialize, after setting M.logger: 59360
D.initialize M.logger: 59360
M.logger (after C.new): 59360

Thanks for the help guys!

Answer 6

Although an old question, I thought it worthwhile to document a different approach.

Building on Jacob's answer, I would suggest a module that you can add in as and when needed.

My version is this:

# saved into lib/my_log.rb

require 'logger'

module MyLog

  def self.logger
    if @logger.nil?
      @logger = Logger.new( STDERR)
      @logger.datetime_format = "%H:%M:%S "
    end
    @logger
  end

  def self.logger=( logger)
    @logger = logger
  end

  levels = %w(debug info warn error fatal)
  levels.each do |level|
    define_method( "#{level.to_sym}") do |msg|
      self.logger.send( level, msg)
    end
  end
end

include MyLog

I have this saved into a library of handy modules, and I would use it like this:

#! /usr/bin/env ruby
#

require_relative '../lib/my_log.rb'

MyLog.debug "hi"
# => D, [19:19:32 #31112] DEBUG -- : hi

MyLog.warn "ho"
# => W, [19:20:14 #31112]  WARN -- : ho

MyLog.logger.level = Logger::INFO

MyLog.logger = Logger.new( 'logfile.log')

MyLog.debug 'huh'
# => no output, sent to logfile.log instead

I find this a lot easier and more versatile than other options I've looked at so far, so I hope it helps you with yours.