rust-cli / rust-cli/env_logger

refactor the crate to separate the provided configurable formater and the optional custom formatter

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Dominant language
Rust
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Description

This crate does three things:

  1. It parses environment variables into a verbosity configuration for individual modules (Env)
  2. It filters log messages against said configuration (Logger.filter)
  3. It provides a configurable formater (Logger.format)

You will generally read en environment, convert it to a filter and then combine the filter and a formater into a Logger which you install as default logger.

Technically all three are usable in isolation.
In practice almost everybody is using 2., most people will be using 1. with slight modifications to the default logging level, for example using verbosity flags in clis.

3 is the most commonly exchanged. This is reflected by the builder giving you the option of providing a custom formater.

This functionality should be moved to the Logger. If you want a custom formater you do not interact with the provided configurable formater in any way, but are still forced to use the type to create a Logger.

The current behaviour increases the internal complexity of the Builder struct and leads to weird api crincles. For example after calling Builder.format(|my| fn) technically every try to modify the configurable formatter (ex. format_level) should panic, as that is programmer error (unless ofc it is followed by a call to default_format).

This issue proposes to create a build_with_custom_formatter function instead. This would allow fmt::Builder to be retired.

Also since 90% of the api on the Builder is formatter options a single fn config_builder(|f: formatter|) could reduce duplication.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing the Builder and Logger APIs described in the issue, including fmt::Builder and the custom formatter path. Compare the current formatter options with the proposed build_with_custom_formatter and config_builder designs; done means the configurable formatter is separated from custom formatting without the current API crinkles.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
developer-experience
Issue type
Refactor
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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