mod(options): build options to log to stderr and/or a file

NOTE: file logging will not work correctly yet due to opening files
appending using the std is currently not implemented (as of zig version
0.13.0)!

README.md

@@ -89,3 +89,20 @@ This will result in the following output:
 For more details about the output customization see the configuration options of the `zlog` module. Following options are available:
 
 - _timestamp_ (default: `true`): Prepend the current timestamp before each log message.
+- _stderr_ (default: `true`): Print log messages to stderr. **NOTE**: Currently not working as log output is not appended and only the last log message will be in the resulting log file! This is a not-yet-implemented feature of the standard library of zig 0.13.0! See this [issue](https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/14375) for more details.
+
+## Tips
+
+The following list shows some tips on how to use logging more effectively. These tips do not apply just to `zlog` (and not even only to zig code).
+
+- Use `errdefer` to directly print messages on failures in the same function they occur:
+  ```zig
+  // assume log is already defined before (with the corresponding scope)
+  const port = port: {
+    errdefer |err| log.err("failed to read the port number: {}", .{err});
+
+    var buf: [fmt.count("{}\n", .{maxInt(u16)})]u8 = undefined;
+    const len = try process.stdout.?.readAll(&buf);
+    break :port try fmt.parseInt(u16, buf[0 .. len -| 1], 10);
+  };
+  ```

build.zig

@@ -6,9 +6,13 @@ const std = @import("std");
 pub fn build(b: *std.Build) void {
     // build options to customize the log message formating
     const include_timestamp = b.option(bool, "timestamp", "Enable inclusion of timestamps in log messages (default: true)") orelse true;
+    const stderr = b.option(bool, "stderr", "Print all log messages to stderr (default: true)") orelse true;
+    const file = b.option([]const u8, "file", "Print all log messages to the provided file.") orelse "";
 
     const options = b.addOptions();
     options.addOption(bool, "timestamp", include_timestamp);
+    options.addOption(bool, "stderr", stderr);
+    options.addOption([]const u8, "file", file);
 
     const options_module = options.createModule();
 

src/zlog.zig

@@ -15,26 +15,52 @@ fn logFn(
 ) void {
     // TODO: provide build time configuration to allow tweaking corresponding output
     // - change output file for writing messages to (default `stderr`)
+    // write into own file for each level?
     const level_txt = comptime message_level.asText();
     const prefix = if (scope == .default) ": " else "(" ++ @tagName(scope) ++ "): ";
-    const stderr = std.io.getStdErr().writer();
+    const fmt = level_txt ++ prefix ++ format ++ "\n";
-    var bw = std.io.bufferedWriter(stderr);
+    if (comptime build_options.file.len != 0) blk: {
-    const writer = bw.writer();
+        // NOTE: with zig 0.13.0 there is currently no way to open files to append (except to use libc or talk directly to posix, which this lib should not have to do)
+        const file = std.fs.openFileAbsolute(build_options.file, .{
+            .mode = .read_write,
+        }) catch std.fs.createFileAbsolute(build_options.file, .{
+            .truncate = false,
+        }) catch break :blk;
+        defer file.close();
+
+        var buffer = std.io.bufferedWriter(file.writer());
+        defer buffer.flush() catch {};
+
+        const writer = buffer.writer();
+        log_writing(writer, fmt, args);
+    }
+
+    if (comptime build_options.stderr) {
+        var buffer = std.io.bufferedWriter(std.io.getStdErr().writer());
+        defer buffer.flush() catch {};
 
         std.debug.lockStdErr();
         defer std.debug.unlockStdErr();
+
+        const writer = buffer.writer();
+        log_writing(writer, fmt, args);
+    }
+}
+
+fn log_writing(writer: anytype, comptime fmt: []const u8, args: anytype) void {
     nosuspend {
-        if (build_options.timestamp) {
+        if (build_options.timestamp) log_timestamp(writer);
+        writer.print(fmt, args) catch return;
+    }
+}
+
+fn log_timestamp(writer: anytype) void {
     const curtime = c_time.time(null);
     const tm = c_time.localtime(&curtime);
 
-            var buf: [32]u8 = undefined;
+    var buffer: [32]u8 = undefined;
-            _ = c_time.strftime(@ptrCast(&buf), 32, "%F %R", tm);
+    _ = c_time.strftime(@ptrCast(&buffer), 32, "%F %R", tm);
-            writer.print("[{s}] ", .{buf}) catch return;
+    writer.print("[{s}] ", .{buffer}) catch return;
-        }
-        writer.print(level_txt ++ prefix ++ format ++ "\n", args) catch return;
-        bw.flush() catch return;
-    }
 }
 
 pub fn pretty_format(object: anytype, comptime fmt: []const u8, options: std.fmt.FormatOptions, writer: anytype) !void {