using stream to log information in C++ - c++

Question

I have a C++ class which logs messages to a std::ofstream. In the class definition is this code:
#ifdef NDEBUG
#define FOO_LOG(msg) /* calls to log messages are no-op in release mode */
#else
std::ofstream log_stream;
#define FOO_LOG(msg) if (log_stream.is_open()) { log_stream << msg << std::endl; }
#endif
The constructor for that class has several things it checks, and in certain situations will open the log file similar to this:
#ifndef NDEBUG
log_stream.open("output.log");
#endif
Then in the code, it calls the C macro like this:
FOO_LOG("stuff=" << stuff << " in loop counter #" << xyz)
It is convenient that you can pass multiple params to the FOO_LOG() macro. There are obvious limitations, like when logging messages from multiple threads, but this is only used for simple logging in debug builds.
What I want to know is whether there is a different/better way to deal with the msg parameter in C++? Is there a simpler/cleaner way to implement something similar to FOO_LOG() in C++?

Answer 1

Instead of having #ifdef NDEBUG everywhere in your code you can have a #ifdef NDEBUG at the start of the header to define other useful macros.
For me FOO_LOG("stuff=" << stuff << " in loop counter #" << xyz); feels a bit unnatural. I would have to keep reffering back to the macro definition to see how it's implemented. Instead you can define a macro to behave as an std::ostream and use it as you would any other stream. That way you can do stuff like LOG_STREAM << "stuff=" << stuff << " in loop counter #" << xyz << std::endl;.
For this answer I had some inspiration from this question.
#include <fstream>
#define NDEBUG
//An ostream class that does nothing
class DummyStream : public std::ostream {
public:
int overflow(int c) { return c; }
} dummyStream;
//Here we let NDEBUG define other macros.
#ifdef NDEBUG
std::ofstream logStream;
std::ostream& oLogStream(*(std::ostream*)&logStream);
#define LOG_STREAM (logStream.is_open() ? oLogStream : dummyStream)
#define OPEN_LOG(log) (logStream.is_open() ? logStream.close(), logStream.open(log, std::ofstream::out | std::ofstream::app) : \
logStream.open(log, std::ofstream::out | std::ofstream::app))
#define CLOSE_LOG() (logStream.close())
#else
#define LOG_STREAM (dummyStream)
#define OPEN_LOG(log) //no-op
#define CLOSE_LOG() //no-op
#endif // NDEBUG
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
//will only log if NDEBUG is defined.
OPEN_LOG("log.txt");
std::string stuff("stuff to log");
for(int xyz = 0; xyz < 4; xyz++) {
LOG_STREAM << "stuff=" << stuff << " in loop counter #" << xyz << std::endl;
}
CLOSE_LOG();
//Log is not open so it will not log anything.
stuff = "stuff to not log";
for(int xyz = 0; xyz < 4; xyz++) {
LOG_STREAM << "stuff=" << stuff << " in loop counter #" << xyz << std::endl;
}
return 0;
}
Benifits of this?
LOG_STREAM is treated more intuitively like any other stream.
OPEN_LOG(log) will close already open logs before opening a new one and when NDEBUG is not define it will do nothing.
CLOSE_LOG() will close a log and when NDEBUG is not define it will do nothing.
Don't need to type #ifdef NDEBUG ... #endif everywhere.
dummyStream can be replaced with something like std::cout or some other stream.
Down side?
You have this DummyStream that's just in your code and a few no-op's are performed when LOG_STREAM is used when NDEBUG is not defined.