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Apache::TestTrace(3)                 User Contributed Perl Documentation                Apache::TestTrace(3)



NAME
       Apache::TestTrace - Helper output generation functions

SYNOPSIS
           use Apache::TestTrace;

           debug "foo bar";

           info_sub "missed it";

           error_mark "something is wrong";

           # test sub that exercises all the tracing functions
           sub test {
               print $Apache::TestTrace::LogFH
                     "TraceLevel: $Apache::TestTrace::Level\n";
               $_->($_,[1..3],$_) for qw(emerg alert crit error
                                         warning notice info debug todo);
               print $Apache::TestTrace::LogFH "\n\n"
           };

           # demo the trace subs using default setting
           test();

           {
               # override the default trace level with 'crit'
               local $Apache::TestTrace::Level = 'crit';
               # now only 'crit' and higher levels will do tracing lower level
               test();
           }

           {
               # set the trace level to 'debug'
               local $Apache::TestTrace::Level = 'debug';
               # now only 'debug' and higher levels will do tracing lower level
               test();
           }

           {
               open OUT, ">/tmp/foo" or die $!;
               # override the default Log filehandle
               local $Apache::TestTrace::LogFH = \*OUT;
               # now the traces will go into a new filehandle
               test();
               close OUT;
           }

           # override tracing level via -trace opt
           % t/TEST -trace=debug

           # override tracing level via env var
           % env APACHE_TEST_TRACE_LEVEL=debug t/TEST

DESCRIPTION
       This module exports a number of functions that make it easier generating various diagnostics messages
       in your programs in a consistent way and saves some keystrokes as it handles the new lines and sends
       the messages to STDERR for you.

       This module provides the same trace methods as syslog(3)'s log levels. Listed from low level to high
       level: emerg(), alert(), crit(), error(), warning(), notice(), info(), debug(). The only different
       function is warning(), since warn is already taken by Perl.

       The module provides another trace function called todo() which is useful for todo items. It has the
       same level as debug (the highest).

       There are two more variants of each of these functions. If the _mark suffix is appended (e.g.,
       error_mark) the trace will start with the filename and the line number the function was called from.
       If the _sub suffix is appended (e.g., error_info) the trace will start with the name of the
       subroutine the function was called from.

       If you have "Term::ANSIColor" installed the diagnostic messages will be colorized, otherwise a
       special for each function prefix will be used.

       If "Data::Dumper" is installed and you pass a reference to a variable to any of these functions, the
       variable will be dumped with "Data::Dumper::Dumper()".

       Functions whose level is above the level set in $Apache::TestTrace::Level become NOPs. For example if
       the level is set to alert, only alert() and emerg() functions will generate the output. The default
       setting of this variable is warning. Other valid values are: emerg, alert, crit, error, warning,
       notice, info, debug.

       Another way to affect the trace level is to set $ENV{APACHE_TEST_TRACE_LEVEL}, which takes effect if
       $Apache::TestTrace::Level is not set. So an explicit setting of $Apache::TestTrace::Level always
       takes precedence.

       By default all the output generated by these functions goes to STDERR. You can override the default
       filehandler by overriding $Apache::TestTrace::LogFH with a new filehandler.

       When you override this package's global variables, think about localizing your local settings, so it
       won't affect other modules using this module in the same run.

TODO
        o provide an option to disable the coloring altogether via some flag
          or import()

AUTHOR
       Stas Bekman with contributions from Doug MacEachern



perl v5.8.8                                      2005-10-20                             Apache::TestTrace(3)