I have a logger class QueuedLog
which queues up log messages and inserts all the log message(s) in the queue into a std::ostream
if and when desired. To separate each log message, I wrote a manipulator called endm
which is used in a similar manner as std::endl
. For example, here's a use case:
QueuedLog log(INFO);
// do stuff
log << "test: 0x" << std::hex << std::uppercase << 15 << endm; // add a log message
// do more stuff
log << "log something else" << endm;
std::cout << log << std::endl; // insert all the queued up log messages into cout
// do more stuff
log << "start another message...";
// calculate something, add it to a log message and end the message
log << std::dec << 42 << endm;
std::cout << log << std::endl; // insert all the queued up log messages into cout
log << "add yet another message" << endm;
// don't need to log that last message after all
// leave it in the QueuedLog instead of inserting it into cout
My code compiles fine with Visual C++ but g++ and clang++ fail compilation when I try to use the endm
manipulator. Here is a minimal version of the QueuedLog
(which usually resides in a separate header file), with a small example usage demonstrating the problem:
#include <ios>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#include <deque>
#include <stdexcept>
namespace Logger {
enum LogType {
NONE,
DEBUG,
INFO,
WARN,
ERROR,
FATAL
};
// Converts a LogType to a `std::string` which can be prepended to a log message.
std::string prepend_type(LogType type) {
switch (type) {
case DEBUG: return std::string("[DEBUG] ");
case INFO: return std::string("[INFO] ");
case WARN: return std::string("[WARN] ");
case ERROR: return std::string("[ERROR] ");
case FATAL: return std::string("[FATAL] ");
default: return std::string("");
}
}
class QueuedLog {
/* Holds a partially contructed log message.
A std::stringstream is used instead of a std::string so that non-string data types can be inserted into
the QueuedLog without requiring conversion. Also, client code can apply I/O manipulators like std::hex.
*/
std::ostringstream stream;
std::deque<std::string> messages; // Holds the queued, completed log message(s).
// The LogType of new messages inserted into the QueuedLog. This can be changed at any time.
LogType log_type;
public:
QueuedLog(LogType logtype = NONE) : log_type(logtype) {} // Constructs a QueuedLog with no text and an initial LogType.
// Inserts a character sequence into the QueuedLog.
template<typename T> inline QueuedLog& operator<<(const T& message) {
//inline QueuedLog& operator<<(const std::string& message) { // non-template version doesn't work, either
// Only prepend with logtype if it is the beginning of the message
if (stream.str().empty()) stream << prepend_type(log_type);
stream << message;
return *this;
}
// Overload used for manipulators like QueuedLog::endm()
inline QueuedLog& operator<<(QueuedLog& (*pf)(QueuedLog&)) {
(*pf)(*this);
return *this;
}
// Adds the newline character and marks the end of a log message.
friend inline QueuedLog& endm(QueuedLog& log) {
log.stream << log.stream.widen('\n');
// Add the completed message to the messages deque, and reset the stream for the next message
log.messages.push_back(log.stream.str());
log.stream.str(""); // clear the underlying string
log.stream.clear(); // clear any error flags on the stream
return log;
}
/* Inserts all the completed log messages in the QueuedLog object into a std::ostream.
If the QueuedLog contains an incomplete log message (a message that has not been terminated by QueuedLog::endm())
then that partial message will not be inserted into the std::ostream.
*/
friend inline std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream& os, QueuedLog& log) {
while (!log.messages.empty()) {
os << log.messages.front();
log.messages.pop_front();
}
return os;
}
};
} // end namespace Logger
using namespace Logger;
int main() {
QueuedLog log(INFO);
log << "test: 0x" << std::hex << std::uppercase << 15; // compiles by itself with all compilers
log << endm; // but compilation error w/ g++/clang++ when trying to use endm
std::cout << log << std::endl;
}
Or, this (possibly over-)simplified example:
class QueuedLog {
public:
friend inline void endm() {
}
};
int main() {
endm;
}
I've attempted to compile it with all three compilers at rextester but it only compiles successfully with Visual C++.
g++ gives the following error:
error: ‘endm’ was not declared in this scope
The error message from clang++ is similar:
error: use of undeclared identifier 'endm'
Why does this work in Visual C++ but not g++ or clang++? How do I fix it for g++/clang++? The solution does not need to work in all three compilers simultaneously, I just want to know how to fix it for g++ and clang++.
friend functions defined inside a class definition are only visible inside that class definition. You need to declare the function outside the class definition. Add this line outside your class QueuedLog
, but inside your namespace Logger
:
extern QueuedLog& endm(QueuedLog&);