[libcamera-devel] [PATCH] libcamera: base: log: Use emoji's in log output

[Kieran Bingham]

Our debug logs are already growing terse and difficult to parse with the
eye. The specific notifications can easily blend into each other.

Add some highlight and colour to the log messages by replacing
the log severity levels with emoji characters which convey
the same meaning but in much less space.

Syslog and output to files remains unchanged. Only stream outputs
display emoji symbols.

Signed-off-by: Kieran Bingham <kieran.bingham at ideasonboard.com>
---
 src/libcamera/base/log.cpp | 25 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/libcamera/base/log.cpp b/src/libcamera/base/log.cpp
index 64813b6607c5..aceec7302549 100644
--- a/src/libcamera/base/log.cpp
+++ b/src/libcamera/base/log.cpp
@@ -96,6 +96,23 @@ static const char *log_severity_name(LogSeverity severity)
 		return "UNKWN";
 }
 
+static const std::string &log_severity_emojis(LogSeverity severity)
+{
+	static const std::string emojis[] = {
+		"🪲 ", // DEBUG
+		"ℹ️ ", // INFO
+		"⚠️ ", // WARNING
+		"🔥 ", // ERROR
+		"🆘 ", // FATAL
+		"🤔 ", // Unknown
+	};
+
+	if (static_cast<unsigned int>(severity) < std::size(emojis))
+		return emojis[severity];
+	else
+		return emojis[std::size(emojis) - 1];
+}
+
 /**
  * \brief Log output
  *
@@ -194,7 +211,6 @@ void LogOutput::write(const LogMessage &msg)
 		    + msg.msg();
 		writeSyslog(msg.severity(), str);
 		break;
-	case LoggingTargetStream:
 	case LoggingTargetFile:
 		str = "[" + utils::time_point_to_string(msg.timestamp()) + "] ["
 		    + std::to_string(Thread::currentId()) + "] "
@@ -203,6 +219,13 @@ void LogOutput::write(const LogMessage &msg)
 		    + msg.msg();
 		writeStream(str);
 		break;
+	case LoggingTargetStream:
+		str = "[" + utils::time_point_to_string(msg.timestamp()) + "] ["
+		    + std::to_string(Thread::currentId()) + "] "
+		    + log_severity_emojis(msg.severity()) + " "
+		    + msg.category().name() + " " + msg.fileInfo() + " "
+		    + msg.msg();
+		writeStream(str);
 	default:
 		break;
 	}
-- 
2.32.0