5 diagnostics, splain - produce verbose warning diagnostics
9 Using the C<diagnostics> pragma:
12 use diagnostics -verbose;
17 Using the C<splain> standalone filter program:
19 perl program 2>diag.out
20 splain [-v] [-p] diag.out
22 Using diagnostics to get stack traces from a misbehaving script:
24 perl -Mdiagnostics=-traceonly my_script.pl
28 =head2 The C<diagnostics> Pragma
30 This module extends the terse diagnostics normally emitted by both the
31 perl compiler and the perl interpreter (from running perl with a -w
32 switch or C<use warnings>), augmenting them with the more
33 explicative and endearing descriptions found in L<perldiag>. Like the
34 other pragmata, it affects the compilation phase of your program rather
35 than merely the execution phase.
37 To use in your program as a pragma, merely invoke
41 at the start (or near the start) of your program. (Note
42 that this I<does> enable perl's B<-w> flag.) Your whole
43 compilation will then be subject(ed :-) to the enhanced diagnostics.
44 These still go out B<STDERR>.
46 Due to the interaction between runtime and compiletime issues,
47 and because it's probably not a very good idea anyway,
48 you may not use C<no diagnostics> to turn them off at compiletime.
49 However, you may control their behaviour at runtime using the
50 disable() and enable() methods to turn them off and on respectively.
52 The B<-verbose> flag first prints out the L<perldiag> introduction before
53 any other diagnostics. The $diagnostics::PRETTY variable can generate nicer
54 escape sequences for pagers.
56 Warnings dispatched from perl itself (or more accurately, those that match
57 descriptions found in L<perldiag>) are only displayed once (no duplicate
58 descriptions). User code generated warnings a la warn() are unaffected,
59 allowing duplicate user messages to be displayed.
61 This module also adds a stack trace to the error message when perl dies.
62 This is useful for pinpointing what caused the death. The B<-traceonly> (or
63 just B<-t>) flag turns off the explanations of warning messages leaving just
64 the stack traces. So if your script is dieing, run it again with
66 perl -Mdiagnostics=-traceonly my_bad_script
68 to see the call stack at the time of death. By supplying the B<-warntrace>
69 (or just B<-w>) flag, any warnings emitted will also come with a stack
72 =head2 The I<splain> Program
74 While apparently a whole nuther program, I<splain> is actually nothing
75 more than a link to the (executable) F<diagnostics.pm> module, as well as
76 a link to the F<diagnostics.pod> documentation. The B<-v> flag is like
77 the C<use diagnostics -verbose> directive.
78 The B<-p> flag is like the
79 $diagnostics::PRETTY variable. Since you're post-processing with
80 I<splain>, there's no sense in being able to enable() or disable() processing.
82 Output from I<splain> is directed to B<STDOUT>, unlike the pragma.
86 The following file is certain to trigger a few errors at both
87 runtime and compiletime:
90 print NOWHERE "nothing\n";
91 print STDERR "\n\tThis message should be unadorned.\n";
92 warn "\tThis is a user warning";
93 print "\nDIAGNOSTIC TESTER: Please enter a <CR> here: ";
94 my $a, $b = scalar <STDIN>;
98 If you prefer to run your program first and look at its problem
101 perl -w test.pl 2>test.out
104 Note that this is not in general possible in shells of more dubious heritage,
107 (perl -w test.pl >/dev/tty) >& test.out
110 Because you just moved the existing B<stdout> to somewhere else.
112 If you don't want to modify your source code, but still have on-the-fly
115 exec 3>&1; perl -w test.pl 2>&1 1>&3 3>&- | splain 1>&2 3>&-
119 If you want to control warnings on the fly, do something like this.
120 Make sure you do the C<use> first, or you won't be able to get
121 at the enable() or disable() methods.
123 use diagnostics; # checks entire compilation phase
124 print "\ntime for 1st bogus diags: SQUAWKINGS\n";
126 print "done with 1st bogus\n";
128 disable diagnostics; # only turns off runtime warnings
129 print "\ntime for 2nd bogus: (squelched)\n";
131 print "done with 2nd bogus\n";
133 enable diagnostics; # turns back on runtime warnings
134 print "\ntime for 3rd bogus: SQUAWKINGS\n";
136 print "done with 3rd bogus\n";
139 print "\ntime for 4th bogus: (squelched)\n";
141 print "done with 4th bogus\n";
145 Diagnostic messages derive from the F<perldiag.pod> file when available at
146 runtime. Otherwise, they may be embedded in the file itself when the
147 splain package is built. See the F<Makefile> for details.
149 If an extant $SIG{__WARN__} handler is discovered, it will continue
150 to be honored, but only after the diagnostics::splainthis() function
151 (the module's $SIG{__WARN__} interceptor) has had its way with your
154 There is a $diagnostics::DEBUG variable you may set if you're desperately
155 curious what sorts of things are being intercepted.
157 BEGIN { $diagnostics::DEBUG = 1 }
162 Not being able to say "no diagnostics" is annoying, but may not be
165 The C<-pretty> directive is called too late to affect matters.
166 You have to do this instead, and I<before> you load the module.
168 BEGIN { $diagnostics::PRETTY = 1 }
170 I could start up faster by delaying compilation until it should be
171 needed, but this gets a "panic: top_level" when using the pragma form
174 While it's true that this documentation is somewhat subserious, if you use
175 a program named I<splain>, you should expect a bit of whimsy.
179 Tom Christiansen <F<tchrist@mox.perl.com>>, 25 June 1995.
186 $Carp::Internal{__PACKAGE__.""}++;
196 my($privlib, $archlib) = @Config{qw(privlibexp archlibexp)};
198 require VMS::Filespec;
199 $privlib = VMS::Filespec::unixify($privlib);
200 $archlib = VMS::Filespec::unixify($archlib);
203 "$archlib/pod/perldiag.pod",
204 "$privlib/pod/perldiag-$Config{version}.pod",
205 "$privlib/pod/perldiag.pod",
206 "$archlib/pods/perldiag.pod",
207 "$privlib/pods/perldiag-$Config{version}.pod",
208 "$privlib/pods/perldiag.pod",
210 # handy for development testing of new warnings etc
211 unshift @trypod, "./pod/perldiag.pod" if -e "pod/perldiag.pod";
212 (my $PODFILE) = ((grep { -e } @trypod), $trypod[$#trypod])[0];
214 if ($^O eq 'MacOS') {
215 # just updir one from each lib dir, we'll find it ...
216 ($PODFILE) = grep { -e } map { "$_:pod:perldiag.pod" } @INC;
221 my $WHOAMI = ref bless []; # nobody's business, prolly not even mine
227 my(%HTML_2_Troff, %HTML_2_Latin_1, %HTML_2_ASCII_7);
230 our $opt_p = our $opt_d = our $opt_v = our $opt_f = '';
235 Getopt::Std::getopts('pdvf:')
236 or die "Usage: $0 [-v] [-p] [-f splainpod]";
237 $PODFILE = $opt_f if $opt_f;
238 $DEBUG = 2 if $opt_d;
243 if (open(POD_DIAG, $PODFILE)) {
244 warn "Happy happy podfile from real $PODFILE\n" if $DEBUG;
250 for my $file ( (map { "$_/$WHOAMI.pm" } @INC), $0) {
251 warn "Checking $file\n" if $DEBUG;
252 if (open(POD_DIAG, $file)) {
255 /^__END__\s*# wish diag dbase were more accessible/;
256 print STDERR "podfile is $file\n" if $DEBUG;
263 print STDERR "podfile is <DATA>\n" if $DEBUG;
264 *POD_DIAG = *main::DATA;
268 die "couldn't find diagnostic data in $PODFILE @INC $0";
273 'amp' => '&', # ampersand
274 'lt' => '<', # left chevron, less-than
275 'gt' => '>', # right chevron, greater-than
276 'quot' => '"', # double quote
278 "Aacute" => "A\\*'", # capital A, acute accent
284 'amp' => '&', # ampersand
285 'lt' => '<', # left chevron, less-than
286 'gt' => '>', # right chevron, greater-than
287 'quot' => '"', # double quote
289 "Aacute" => "\xC1" # capital A, acute accent
295 'amp' => '&', # ampersand
296 'lt' => '<', # left chevron, less-than
297 'gt' => '>', # right chevron, greater-than
298 'quot' => '"', # double quote
300 "Aacute" => "A" # capital A, acute accent
307 $PRETTY ? \%HTML_2_Latin_1 : \%HTML_2_ASCII_7;
313 *THITHER = $standalone ? *STDOUT : *STDERR;
316 my $transmo = <<EOFUNC;
318 #local \$^W = 0; # recursive warnings we do NOT need!
324 print STDERR "FINISHING COMPILATION for $_\n" if $DEBUG;
332 sub noop { return $_[0] } # spensive for a noop
333 sub bold { my $str =$_[0]; $str =~ s/(.)/$1\b$1/g; return $str; }
334 sub italic { my $str = $_[0]; $str =~ s/(.)/_\b$1/g; return $str; }
335 s/C<<< (.*?) >>>|C<< (.*?) >>|[BC]<(.*?)>/bold($+)/ges;
336 s/[LIF]<(.*?)>/italic($1)/ges;
338 s/C<<< (.*?) >>>|C<< (.*?) >>|[BC]<(.*?)>/$+/gs;
339 s/[LIF]<(.*?)>/$1/gs;
342 if (defined $header) {
343 if ( $header eq 'DESCRIPTION' &&
344 ( /Optional warnings are enabled/
345 || /Some of these messages are generic./
356 unless ( s/=item (.*?)\s*\z//) {
358 if ( s/=head1\sDESCRIPTION//) {
359 $msg{$header = 'DESCRIPTION'} = '';
362 elsif( s/^=for\s+diagnostics\s*\n(.*?)\s*\z// ) {
368 if( $for_item ) { $header = $for_item; undef $for_item }
371 while( $header =~ /[;,]\z/ ) {
372 <POD_DIAG> =~ /^\s*(.*?)\s*\z/;
377 # strip formatting directives from =item line
378 $header =~ s/[A-Z]<(.*?)>/$1/g;
380 my @toks = split( /(%l?[dx]|%c|%(?:\.\d+)?s)/, $header );
383 for my $i (0..$#toks){
385 if( $toks[$i] eq '%c' ){
387 } elsif( $toks[$i] eq '%d' ){
389 } elsif( $toks[$i] eq '%s' ){
390 $toks[$i] = $i == $#toks ? '.*' : '.*?';
391 } elsif( $toks[$i] =~ '%.(\d+)s' ){
393 } elsif( $toks[$i] =~ '^%l*x$' ){
394 $toks[$i] = '[\da-f]+';
396 } elsif( length( $toks[$i] ) ){
397 $toks[$i] = quotemeta $toks[$i];
398 $conlen += length( $toks[$i] );
401 my $lhs = join( '', @toks );
402 $transfmt{$header}{pat} =
403 " s{^$lhs}\n {\Q$header\E}s\n\t&& return 1;\n";
404 $transfmt{$header}{len} = $conlen;
406 $transfmt{$header}{pat} =
407 " m{^\Q$header\E} && return 1;\n";
408 $transfmt{$header}{len} = length( $header );
411 print STDERR "$WHOAMI: Duplicate entry: \"$header\"\n"
418 close POD_DIAG unless *main::DATA eq *POD_DIAG;
420 die "No diagnostics?" unless %msg;
422 # Apply patterns in order of decreasing sum of lengths of fixed parts
423 # Seems the best way of hitting the right one.
424 for my $hdr ( sort { $transfmt{$b}{len} <=> $transfmt{$a}{len} }
426 $transmo .= $transfmt{$hdr}{pat};
428 $transmo .= " return 0;\n}\n";
429 print STDERR $transmo if $DEBUG;
435 if (!@ARGV and -t STDIN) { print STDERR "$0: Reading from STDIN\n" }
436 while (defined (my $error = <>)) {
437 splainthis($error) || print THITHER $error;
447 $^W = 1; # yup, clobbered the global variable;
448 # tough, if you want diags, you want diags.
449 return if defined $SIG{__WARN__} && ($SIG{__WARN__} eq \&warn_trap);
453 /^-d(ebug)?$/ && do {
458 /^-v(erbose)?$/ && do {
463 /^-p(retty)?$/ && do {
464 print STDERR "$0: I'm afraid it's too late for prettiness.\n";
468 # matches trace and traceonly for legacy doc mixup reasons
469 /^-t(race(only)?)?$/ && do {
473 /^-w(arntrace)?$/ && do {
478 warn "Unknown flag: $_";
481 $oldwarn = $SIG{__WARN__};
482 $olddie = $SIG{__DIE__};
483 $SIG{__WARN__} = \&warn_trap;
484 $SIG{__DIE__} = \&death_trap;
487 sub enable { &import }
491 return unless $SIG{__WARN__} eq \&warn_trap;
492 $SIG{__WARN__} = $oldwarn || '';
493 $SIG{__DIE__} = $olddie || '';
498 if (caller eq $WHOAMI or !splainthis($warning)) {
500 print STDERR Carp::longmess($warning);
502 print STDERR $warning;
505 goto &$oldwarn if defined $oldwarn and $oldwarn and $oldwarn ne \&warn_trap;
509 my $exception = $_[0];
511 # See if we are coming from anywhere within an eval. If so we don't
512 # want to explain the exception because it's going to get caught.
515 while (my $caller = (caller($i++))[3]) {
516 if ($caller eq '(eval)') {
522 splainthis($exception) unless $in_eval;
523 if (caller eq $WHOAMI) { print STDERR "INTERNAL EXCEPTION: $exception"; }
524 &$olddie if defined $olddie and $olddie and $olddie ne \&death_trap;
528 # We don't want to unset these if we're coming from an eval because
529 # then we've turned off diagnostics.
531 # Switch off our die/warn handlers so we don't wind up in our own
533 $SIG{__DIE__} = $SIG{__WARN__} = '';
535 # Have carp skip over death_trap() when showing the stack trace.
536 local($Carp::CarpLevel) = 1;
538 confess "Uncaught exception from user code:\n\t$exception";
539 # up we go; where we stop, nobody knows, but i think we die now
540 # but i'm deeply afraid of the &$olddie guy reraising and us getting
541 # into an indirect recursion loop
549 return 0 if $TRACEONLY;
553 ### &finish_compilation unless %msg;
556 # return unless defined;
558 # get rid of the where-are-we-in-input part
559 s/, <.*?> (?:line|chunk).*$//;
561 # Discard 1st " at <file> line <no>" and all text beyond
562 # but be aware of messsages containing " at this-or-that"
564 my @secs = split( / at / );
567 for my $i ( 1..$#secs ){
568 if( $secs[$i] =~ /.+? (?:line|chunk) \d+/ ){
572 $_ .= ' at ' . $secs[$i];
576 # remove parenthesis occurring at the end of some messages
579 if ($exact_duplicate{$orig}++) {
582 return 0 unless &transmo;
585 $orig = shorten($orig);
588 print THITHER "$orig (#$old_diag{$_})\n";
592 $old_diag{$_} = ++$count;
593 print THITHER "\n" if $wantspace;
595 print THITHER "$orig (#$old_diag{$_})\n";
597 print THITHER $msg{$_};
599 if (0 and $standalone) {
600 print THITHER " **** Error #$old_diag{$_} ",
601 ($real ? "is" : "appears to be"),
602 " an unknown diagnostic message.\n\n";
611 if ($VERBOSE and not $count) {
612 print THITHER &{$PRETTY ? \&bold : \&noop}("DESCRIPTION OF DIAGNOSTICS"),
613 "\n$msg{DESCRIPTION}\n";
624 exists $HTML_Escapes{$1}
625 ? do { $HTML_Escapes{$1} }
627 warn "Unknown escape: E<$1> in $_";
636 if (length($line) > 79 and index($line, "\n") == -1) {
637 my $space_place = rindex($line, ' ', 79);
638 if ($space_place != -1) {
639 substr($line, $space_place, 1) = "\n\t";
646 1 unless $standalone; # or it'll complain about itself
647 __END__ # wish diag dbase were more accessible