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embedlog

Quick intro

#include <embedlog.h>

int main(void) {
    el_init();

    /* Turn on timestamp and information from which log originates */
    el_set_timestamp(EL_TS_LONG, EL_TS_TM_REALTIME, EL_TS_FRACT_US);
    el_print_extra_info(1);

    /* Enable log to file, create max 10 files, each of 1MB of max size */
    el_enable_file_log("/tmp/embedlog-test-file.log", 10, 1024 * 1024);
    el_print(ELN, "from now on, logs will be printed to both file and stderr");
    el_print(ELF, "log with fatal severity");

    el_cleanup();
    return 0;
}

Above program will print:

[2024-02-29 14:05:51.929980][print-example.c:12:main()] n/from now on, logs will be printed to both file and stderr
[2024-02-29 14:05:51.930005][print-example.c:13:main()] f/log with fatal severity

Dump memory locations in readable formats

const char *ascii = get_ascii_table();
el_pmemory(ELN, ascii, strlen(ascii));

Output:

i/0x0000  00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07  08 09 0a 0b 0c 0d 0e 0f  ........ ........
i/0x0010  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17  18 19 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f  ........ ........
i/0x0020  20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27  28 29 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f   !"#$%&' ()*+,-./
i/0x0030  30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37  38 39 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e 3f  01234567 89:;<=>?
i/0x0040  40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47  48 49 4a 4b 4c 4d 4e 4f  @ABCDEFG HIJKLMNO
i/0x0050  50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57  58 59 5a 5b 5c 5d 5e 5f  PQRSTUVW XYZ[\]^_
i/0x0060  60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67  68 69 6a 6b 6c 6d 6e 6f  `abcdefg hijklmno
i/0x0070  70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77  78 79 7a 7b 7c 7d 7e 7f  pqrstuvw xyz{|}~.

About

Logger written in C89 targeting embedded systems. It's main goals are to be small and fast. Many features can be disabled during compilation to generate smaller binary. Amount of needed stack memory can be lowered by adjusting maximum printable size of single log message. Altough logger focuses on embedded systems, it is general c/c++ logger that can be used in any application. Implemented features are (most of them optionally configured in runtime):

  • printing to different outputs (simultaneously) like:
    • syslog (very limited, works on nuttx for now)
    • directly to serial device (like /dev/ttyS0)
    • standard error (stderr)
    • standard output (stdout)
    • file (with optional log rotate, and syncing to prevent data loss)
    • automatic file reopening on unexpected events (file deletion, SD remount)
    • custom routine - can be anything embedlog just calls custom function with string to print
  • appending timestamp to every message
    • clock_t
    • time_t
    • CLOCK_REALTIME (requires POSIX)
    • CLOCK_MONOTONIC (requires POSIX)
    • configurable precision of fraction of seconds (mili, micro, nano)
  • file log rotation based on:
    • file size - limit number of files and their sizes
    • date - new file is created every day (or hour, or other choosen timeslice)
  • print location of printed log (file and line)
  • print function name of printed log (required at least c99)
  • 8 predefinied log levels (total rip off from syslog(2))
  • colorful output (ansi colors) for easy error spotting
  • print memory block in wireshark-like output
  • fully binary logs with binary data (like CAN frames) to save space
  • full thread safety using pthread
  • stripping binary from all strings and embedlog code in final release image

Almost all of these features can be disabled to save some precious bytes of memory.

Functions description

Overview of the library (functions, use cases etc.) can be found at el_overview(7) <el_overview.7:overview> This is very good starting point to get to know library better.

For detailed description of every function check out project documentation at manual pages

Examples

Check examples directory to get the idea of how to use embedlog. Examples can also be compiled to see how they work.

Short examples are also in the documentation.

Dependencies

Library is written in C89 but some features require implemented POSIX to work. Also there are some additional features for users with C99 compiler.

To run unit tests, you also need librb

Robustness

Code is about 800 lines of code of which 300 are just to set and validate passed options. -Wall and -Wextra are standard, and code is code is passed through sanitizers and static code analyzers before release. Code is also very heavily tested:

# total tests.......:61620
# passed tests......:61620
# failed tests......:   0
# total checks......:66181
# passed checks.....:66181
# failed checks.....:   0

Overall coverage rate:
  lines...........: 89.5% (739 of 826 lines)
  functions.......: 90.6% (77 of 85 functions)

Compiling and installing

Compiling library

Project uses standard automake so to build you need to::

$ autoreconf -i
$ ./configure
$ make
# make install

Running tests

To run test simply run:

$ make check

Compiling examples

Compile examples with:

$ cd examples
$ make

Build time options

Many features can be disabled to save space and ram. While this may not be neccessary to change on big operating systems such as linux or freebsd, it may come in handy when compiling for very small embedded systems. All options are passed to configure script in common way ./configure --enable-_feature_. Run ./configure --help to see help on that matter. For all --enable options it is also valid to pass --disable. Enabling option here does not mean it will be hard enabled in runtime, this will just give you an option to enable these settings later in runtime.

--enable-out-stderr (default: enable)

When set, library will be able to print logs to standard error output (stderr) and standard output (stdout). Nothing fancy.

--enable-out-file (default: enable)

Allows to configure logger to print logs to file. Optional file rotation can be enabled. Number of rotation files and maximum size of rotation log file can be defined in runtime

--enable-out-custom (default: enable)

Allows to pas own function which will receive fully constructed message to print as const char *. Usefull when there is no output facility that suits your needs.

--enable-timestamp (default: enable)

When enabled, logger will be able to add timestamp to every message. Timestamp can be in short or long format and timer source can be configured. Check out el_set_timestamp(3) <manuals/options/el_set_timestamp.3:el_set_timestamp> to read more about it.

--enable-fractions (default: enable)

When enabled, logger will be able to add fractions of seconds to each message. Fractions are added after reguler timestamp in format ".mmm" where mmm is fractions of seconds in milliseconds. This can be tuned to use micro or even nanoseconds - if system has such resolution.

--enable-realtime, --enable-monotonic (default: enable)

Allows to use better precision timers - CLOCK_REALTIME and CLOCK_MONOTONIC but requires POSIX

--enable-clock (default: enable)

Allows logger to use clock(3) as time source

--enable-binary-logs (default: disable)

This will allow you to log binary data (like data read from CAN). Such logs cannot be read with ordinary cat or less and will ned custom-made log decoder, but such logs will use much less space on block devices. This of course can be used with file rotation. This doesn't work with stderr or syslog output as it would make no sense to send binary data there

--enable-prefix (default: enable)

This will allow user to add custom string prefix to each message printed. Very usefull when multiple programs logs to single source (like syslog or stderr, it's easier to distinguish who sent that log. It's also usefull when you want to merge logs from multiple files into on big file of logs.

--enable-finfo (default: enable)

When enabled, information about line and file name from where log originated will be added to each message.

--enable-funcinfo (default: disable)

When enabled, information about function name from where log originated will be added to each message. This uses __func__ so you need compiler that supports that. It was added in c99 standard.

--enable-colors (default: enable)

If enabled, output logs can be colored depending on their level. Good for quick error spotting.

--enable-colors-extended (default: disable)

When enable, embedlog will use more colors for some log levels. Without that some log levels will have same output color. Not all terminals/tools supports extended colors.

--enable-reentrant (default: enable)

Uses reentrant functions where possible. Not available on every platform, but if enabled, provides thread-safety on line level - that means, lines won't overlap with another thread. This is true only when output is stderr or stdout, when output is file, you need to use true thread safety with the help of EL_THREAD_SAFE and --enable-pthread.

--enable-pthread (default: enable)

When enabled, you will be able to configure embedlog to use EL_THREAD_SAFE, which will provide full thread safety in all circumstances. This is critical if output is other than stderr or stdout - like file, as there is internal state in el object that is kept between calls.

--enable-portable-snprintf (default: disable)

When enabled, library will use internal implementation of snprintf even if snprintf is provided by the operating system.

Contact

Michał Łyszczek <michal.lyszczek@bofc.pl>

License

Library is licensed under BSD 2-clause license. See LICENSE file for details

See also