Log::Report::Dispatcher(3pm)

NAME
Log::Report::Dispatcher - manage message dispatching, display or logging

INHERITANCE
 Log::Report::Dispatcher is extended by
   Log::Report::Dispatcher::Callback
   Log::Report::Dispatcher::File
   Log::Report::Dispatcher::Log4perl
   Log::Report::Dispatcher::LogDispatch
   Log::Report::Dispatcher::Perl
   Log::Report::Dispatcher::Syslog
   Log::Report::Dispatcher::Try

SYNOPSIS
  use Log::Report;

  # The following will be created for you automatically
  dispatcher 'PERL', 'default', accept => 'NOTICE-';
  dispatcher close => 'default';  # after deamonize

  dispatcher 'FILE', 'log',
    mode => 'DEBUG', to => '/var/log/mydir/myfile';

  # Full package name is used, same as 'FILE'
  dispatcher Log::Report::Dispatch::File => 'stderr',
    to => \*STDERR, accept => 'NOTICE-';

DESCRIPTION
In Log::Report, dispatchers are used to handle (exception) messages which are created somewhere else. Those message were produced (thrown) by Log::Report::error() and friends.

This base-class handles the creation of dispatchers, plus the common filtering rules. See the "DETAILS" section, below.

METHODS

  Constructors

$class->new($type, $name, %options)
    Create a dispatcher. The $type of back-end to start is required, and listed in the "DESCRIPTION" part of this manual-page. For various external back-ends, special wrappers are created.

    The $name must be uniquely identifying this dispatcher. When a second dispatcher is created (via Log::Report::dispatcher()) with the name of an existing dispatcher, the existing one will get replaced.

    All %options which are not consumed by this base constructor are passed to the wrapped back-end. Some of them will check whether all %options are understood, other ignore unknown %options.

     -Option       --Default
      accept         depend on mode
      charset        undef
      format_reason  'LOWERCASE'
      locale         <system locale>
      mode           'NORMAL'

    accept => $reasons|\@reasons
        See Log::Report::Util::expand_reasons() for possible values. If the initial mode for this dispatcher does not need verbose or debug information, then those levels will not be accepted.

        When the mode equals "NORMAL" (the default) then "accept"'s default is "NOTICE- ". In case of "VERBOSE" it will be "INFO- ", "ASSERT" results in "ASSERT- ", and "DEBUG" in "ALL".

    charset => CHARSET
        Convert the messages in the specified character-set (codeset). By default, no conversion will take place, because the right choice cannot be determined automatically.

    format_reason => 'UPPERCASE'|'LOWERCASE'|'UCFIRST'|'IGNORE'|CODE
        How to show the reason text which is printed before the message. When a CODE is specified, it will be called with a translated text and the returned text is used.

    locale => LOCALE
        Overrules the global locale setting. Can be overruled itself by Log::Report::report(locale).

    mode => 'NORMAL'|'VERBOSE'|'ASSERT'|'DEBUG'|0..3
        Possible values are "NORMAL" (or 0 or "undef"), which will not show "INFO" or debug messages, "VERBOSE" (1; shows "INFO" not debug), "ASSERT" (2; only ignores "TRACE" messages), or "DEBUG" (3) which shows everything. See section "Run modes" in Log::Report.

        You are advised to use the symbolic mode names when the mode is changed within your program: the numerical values are available for smooth Getopt::Long integration.

  Attributes

$obj->isDisabled()

$obj->mode()
    Returns the mode in use for the dispatcher as number. See new(mode) and "Run modes" in Log::Report.

$obj->name()
    Returns the unique name of this dispatcher.

$obj->needs( [$reason] )
    Returns the list with all REASONS which are needed to fulfill this dispatcher's needs. When disabled, the list is empty, but not forgotten.

    [0.999] when only one $reason is specified, it is returned if in the list.

$obj->type()
    The dispatcher type, which is usually the same as the class of this object, but not in case of wrappers like for Log::Dispatch.

  Logging

$any->addSkipStack(@CODE)
    [1.13] Add one or more "CODE" blocks of caller lines which should not be collected for stack-traces or location display. A "CODE" gets called with an ARRAY of caller information, and returns "true" when that line should get skipped.

    Warning: this logic is applied globally: on all dispatchers.

    » example:

    By default, all lines in the Log::Report packages are skipped from display, with a simple "CODE" as this:

      sub in_lr { $_[0][0] =~ m/^Log\:\:Report(?:\:\:|$)/ }
      Log::Report::Dispatcher->addSkipStack(\&in_lr);

    The only parameter to in_lr is the return of caller(). The first element of that ARRAY is the package name of a stack line.

$obj->close()
    Terminate this dispatcher activities. The dispatcher gets disabled, to avoid the case it accidentally gets used. Returns "undef" ("false") if the dispatcher was already closed.

$any->collectLocation()
    Collect the information to be displayed as line where the error occurred.

$any->collectStack( [$maxdepth] )
    Returns an ARRAY of ARRAYs with text, filename, line-number.

$obj->log(\%options, $reason, $message, $domain)
    This method is called by Log::Report::report() and should not be called directly. Internally, it will call translate(), which does most of the work.

$obj->skipStack()
    [1.13] Returns the number of nestings in the stack which should be skipped to get outside the Log::Report (and related) modules. The end-user does not want to see those internals in stack-traces.

$any->stackTraceLine(%options)

     -Option    --Default
      abstract    1
      call        <required>
      filename    <required>
      linenr      <required>
      max_line    undef
      max_params  8
      package     <required>
      params      <required>

    abstract => INTEGER
        The higher the abstraction value, the less details are given about the caller. The minimum abstraction is specified, and then increased internally to make the line fit within the "max_line" margin.

    call => STRING
    filename => STRING
    linenr => INTEGER
    max_line => INTEGER
    max_params => INTEGER
    package => CLASS
    params => ARRAY
$obj->translate(\%options, $reason, $message)
    See "Processing the message", which describes the actions taken by this method. A string is returned, which ends on a new-line, and may be multi-line (in case a stack trace is produced).

DETAILS

  Available back-ends
When a dispatcher is created (via new() or Log::Report::dispatcher()), you must specify the TYPE of the dispatcher. This can either be a class name, which extends a Log::Report::Dispatcher, or a pre-defined abbreviation of a class name.

Implemented are:

Log::Report::Dispatcher::Perl (abbreviation 'PERL')
    Use Perl's own print(), warn() and die() to ventilate reports. This is the default dispatcher.

Log::Report::Dispatcher::File (abbreviation 'FILE')
    Logs the message into a file, which can either be opened by the class or be opened before the dispatcher is created.

Log::Report::Dispatcher::Syslog (abbreviation 'SYSLOG')
    Send messages into the system's syslog infrastructure, using Sys::Syslog.

Log::Report::Dispatcher::Callback (abbreviation 'CALLBACK')
    Calls any CODE reference on receipt of each selected message, for instance to send important message as email or SMS.

"Log::Dispatch::*"
    All of the Log::Dispatch::Output extensions can be used directly. The Log::Report::Dispatcher::LogDispatch will wrap around that back-end.

"Log::Log4perl"
    Use the Log::Log4perl main object to write to dispatchers. This infrastructure uses a configuration file.

Log::Report::Dispatcher::Try (abbreviation 'TRY')
    Used by function Log::Report::try(). It collects the exceptions and can produce them on request.

  Processing the message
Addition information

The modules which use "Log::Report" will only specify the base of the message string. The base dispatcher and the back-ends will extend this message with additional information:

. the reason
. the filename/line-number where the problem appeared
. the filename/line-number where it problem was reported
. the error text in $!
. a stack-trace
. a trailing new-line

When the message is a translatable object (Log::Report::Message, for instance created with Log::Report::__()), then the added components will get translated as well. Otherwise, all will be in English.

Exactly what will be added depends on the actual mode of the dispatcher (change it with mode(), initiate it with new(mode)).

                         mode mode mode mode
  REASON   SOURCE   TE!  NORM VERB ASSE DEBUG
  trace    program  ...                 S
  assert   program  ...            SL   SL
  info     program  T..       S    S    S
  notice   program  T..  S    S    S    S
  mistake  user     T..  S    S    S    SL
  warning  program  T..  S    S    SL   SL
  error    user     TE.  S    S    SL   SC
  fault    system   TE!  S    S    SL   SC
  alert    system   T.!  SL   SL   SC   SC
  failure  system   TE!  SL   SL   SC   SC
  panic    program  .E.  SC   SC   SC   SC

  T - usually translated
  E - exception (execution interrupted)
  ! - will include $! text at display
  L - include filename and linenumber
  S - show/print when accepted
  C - stack trace (like Carp::confess())

Filters

With a filter, you can block or modify specific messages before translation. There may be a wish to change the REASON of a report or its content. It is not possible to avoid the exit which is related to the original message, because a module's flow depends on it to happen.

When there are filters defined, they will be called in order of definition. For each of the dispatchers which are called for a certain REASON (which "accept" that REASON), it is checked whether its name is listed for the filter (when no names where specified, then the filter is applied to all dispatchers).

When selected, the filter's CODE reference is called with four arguments: the dispatcher object (a Log::Report::Dispatcher), the HASH-of-OPTIONS passed as optional first argument to Log::Report::report(), the REASON, and the MESSAGE. Returned is the new REASON and MESSAGE. When the returned REASON is "undef", then the message will be ignored for that dispatcher.

Be warned about processing the MESSAGE: it is a Log::Report::Message object which may have a "prepend" string and "append" string or object. When the call to Log::Report::report() contained multiple comma-separated components, these will already have been joined together using concatenation (see Log::Report::Message::concat().

» Example: a filter on syslog

  dispatcher filter => \&myfilter, 'syslog';

  # ignore all translatable and non-translatable messages containing
  # the word "skip"
  sub myfilter($$$$)
  {   my ($disp, $opts, $reason, $message) = @_;
      return () if $message->untranslated =~ m/\bskip\b/;
      ($reason, $message);
  }

» Example: take all mistakes and warnings serious

  dispatch filter => \&take_warns_seriously;
  sub take_warns_seriously($$$$)
  {   my ($disp, $opts, $reason, $message) = @_;
        $reason eq 'MISTAKE' ? (ERROR   => $message)
      : $reason eq 'WARNING' ? (FAULT   => $message)
      :                        ($reason => $message);
  }

DIAGNOSTICS

Error: Perl does not support charset $cs
    Cast by new()

Alert: cannot use class $backend:\n$@: $!
    Cast by new()

Error: illegal format_reason '$format' for dispatcher
    Cast by new()

SEE ALSO
This module is part of Log-Report version 1.46, built on June 16, 2026. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/CPAN/

LICENSE
For contributors see file ChangeLog.

This software is copyright (c) 2007-2026 by Mark Overmeer.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.