Make the output of `ActiveRecord::Core#inspect` configurable. #49765

andrewn617 · 2023-10-24T14:20:10Z

Motivation / Background

This Pull Request has been created because we noticed that ActiveRecord::Core#inspect was taking >9s to run for some large objects in production. This is because the parameter filter is be executed for every attribute.

Detail

This Pull Request introduces configuration for ActiveRecord::Core#inspect. By default, inspect just returns the object with its id (eg #<Post id: 1>. The attributes to include can be configured with Post.attributes_to_inspect=. If you want to full output with all the attributes you can call Post.full_inspect.

Additional information

In my first draft I had a config to disable this, if you just always want to use full_inspect. But it seems easy enough just to do alias_method :inspect, :full_inspect on the model, or in ApplicationRecord if you want to disable it globally. So the config didn't seem worth it to me.

Checklist

Before submitting the PR make sure the following are checked:

This Pull Request is related to one change. Changes that are unrelated should be opened in separate PRs.
Commit message has a detailed description of what changed and why. If this PR fixes a related issue include it in the commit message. Ex: [Fix #issue-number]
Tests are added or updated if you fix a bug or add a feature.
CHANGELOG files are updated for the changed libraries if there is a behavior change or additional feature. Minor bug fixes and documentation changes should not be included.

andrewn617 · 2023-10-24T14:41:18Z

activerecord/test/models/developer.rb

@@ -132,6 +132,8 @@ class SymbolIgnoredDeveloper < ActiveRecord::Base
 class AuditLog < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :developer, validate: true
  belongs_to :unvalidated_developer, class_name: "Developer"
+
+  self.attributes_to_inspect = [:id, :message]


Fixes AssociationsTest#test_inspect_does_not_reload_a_not_yet_loaded_target

andrewn617 · 2023-10-24T14:43:16Z

activerecord/test/cases/core_test.rb

@@ -51,9 +65,9 @@ def test_inspect_class_without_table
    assert_equal "NonExistentTable(Table doesn't exist)", NonExistentTable.inspect
  end

-  def test_inspect_relation_with_virtual_field
-    relation = Topic.limit(1).select("1 as virtual_field")
-    assert_match(/virtual_field: 1/, relation.inspect)


I decided to remove this test. Relation#inspect calls inspect on each of the records. It seems unnatural that virtual columns would be included in attributes_to_expect so I didn't want to add that as a test case.

I think we could add a full_inspect method to Relation if we want to preserve this behaviour.

I think you can rewrite this test in a way that makes sure virtual attributes are inside the loaded record and can be inspected. You could call full_inspect in relation.first

adrianna-chang-shopify

Would there be value in adding a global config, e.g. config.active_record.attributes_to_inspect? If we opted for an :all option, might be useful to be able to set this across all Active Records in order to maintain the existing behaviour.

I think the argument is less strong if we stick with #full_inspect instead of an :all option, although you could make the argument that users may always want inspect to include certain fields (e.g. timestamps).

activerecord/lib/active_record/core.rb

adrianna-chang-shopify · 2023-10-24T16:05:35Z

activerecord/CHANGELOG.md

+    Post.first.inspect #=> "#<(Post id: 1)>"
+    ```
+
+    The attributes to be included in the out of `inspect` can be configured with


Suggested change

The attributes to be included in the out of `inspect` can be configured with

The attributes to be included in the output of `inspect` can be configured with

adrianna-chang-shopify · 2023-10-24T16:15:18Z

activerecord/test/cases/core_test.rb

-    assert_match(/virtual_field: 1/, relation.inspect)
+  def test_full_inspect_instance
+    topic = topics(:first)
+    assert_equal %(#<Topic id: 1, title: "The First Topic", author_name: "David", author_email_address: "david@loudthinking.com", written_on: "#{topic.written_on.to_fs(:inspect)}", bonus_time: "#{topic.bonus_time.to_fs(:inspect)}", last_read: "#{topic.last_read.to_fs(:inspect)}", content: "Have a nice day", important: nil, binary_content: nil, approved: false, replies_count: 1, unique_replies_count: 0, parent_id: nil, parent_title: nil, type: nil, group: nil, created_at: "#{topic.created_at.to_fs(:inspect)}", updated_at: "#{topic.updated_at.to_fs(:inspect)}">), topic.full_inspect


We could pull this out into a HEREDOC to make it easier to read?

rafaelfranca · 2023-10-26T19:29:21Z

activerecord/lib/active_record/core.rb

@@ -680,21 +683,18 @@ def connection_handler
      self.class.connection_handler
    end

-    # Returns the contents of the record as a nicely formatted string.
+    # Returns the attributes specified by #attributes_for_inspect as a nicely formatted string.


Suggested change

# Returns the attributes specified by #attributes_for_inspect as a nicely formatted string.

# Returns the attributes specified by <tt>.attributes_for_inspect</tt> as a nicely formatted string.

rafaelfranca · 2023-10-26T19:32:59Z

activerecord/test/cases/core_test.rb

@@ -51,9 +65,9 @@ def test_inspect_class_without_table
    assert_equal "NonExistentTable(Table doesn't exist)", NonExistentTable.inspect
  end

-  def test_inspect_relation_with_virtual_field
-    relation = Topic.limit(1).select("1 as virtual_field")
-    assert_match(/virtual_field: 1/, relation.inspect)


I think you can rewrite this test in a way that makes sure virtual attributes are inside the loaded record and can be inspected. You could call full_inspect in relation.first

p8 · 2023-10-26T20:00:01Z

activerecord/lib/active_record/core.rb

-          end
-        end.join(", ")
+      if attributes_for_inspect == :all
+        inspect_with_attributes(attribute_names)


Suggested change

inspect_with_attributes(attribute_names)

full_inspect

Argh, thanks. I think I left it like this when I was playing with a version that had inspect(:all) instead of full_inspect

p8 · 2023-10-26T20:07:10Z

We also already have a filter_attributes and filter_attributes= method.
It seems these have a lot of overlap with this feature:
https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/9289e5bbc3b5b5d43e477f00f5ce2d8446d657fc/activerecord/lib/active_record/core.rb#L308-L321

rafaelfranca · 2023-10-26T20:20:00Z

It doesn't overlap. filter_attributes tell active Record to show FILTERED for each attribute. We don't want to show anything, we don't even want to run the parameter filtering, or reading the value, etc.

BTW, maybe we should implement another improvement on this entire pipeline because it doesn't make sense to:

read the attribute

rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb

Line 365 in 58bfc4d

value = _read_attribute(attr_name)

do transformations with that value

rails/activerecord/lib/active_record/attribute_methods.rb

Lines 495 to 501 in 58bfc4d

    
           inspected_value = if value.is_a?(String) && value.length > 50 
        
             "#{value[0, 50]}...".inspect 
        
           elsif value.is_a?(Date) || value.is_a?(Time) 
        
             %("#{value.to_fs(:inspect)}") 
        
           else 
        
             value.inspect 
        
           end

Just to show [FILTERED] and don't use the value for anything.

p8 · 2023-10-26T20:25:28Z

Ah sorry, my mistake. I thought it would bypass the parameter filter, but instead it creates a customer filter if filter_attributes is set.

Earlopain · 2023-10-27T10:49:01Z

Currently there doesn't seem to be a distinction between local/remote here, which the original issue mentions.

I have accidentally printed much more than I intended in production and because of slow connections that took quite a while. IRB had its autocomplete disabled in production because of similar reasons.

In development however I want to see everything. I know I can set the required config to do that, but it really should be the default in my opinion.

rafaelfranca · 2023-10-27T13:36:07Z

I do agree with that. Let's automatically set it to :all in active_record/railtie.rb when consider_all_requests_local is true, of course respecting any explicit config the user might set.

Add a test to make sure it is set to :all in test and development in the railties test as well.

levicole · 2024-08-30T18:10:42Z

why is this not opt in? I imagine this is a massive annoyance to most people who have upgraded to 7.2. If I opened a PR to make this opt in instead of opt out, would it be accepted, or is rails core taking a hard stance on this?

rafaelfranca · 2024-08-30T18:23:32Z

This is opt-out, not opt-in.

levicole · 2024-08-30T18:25:36Z

Sorry, maybe I got that reversed...why did this not default to:all? I can't imagine why this would be the desired behavior.

rafaelfranca · 2024-08-30T18:26:40Z

Because :all is slow in production, and rails in production mode, by default is configured to be fast. You can still configure your production mode to be easier to debug, that is why we have an option, but easy to debug should not be the default in production.

rafaelfranca · 2024-08-30T18:27:26Z

It is explained in the issue #49707 (comment).

levicole · 2024-08-30T18:28:59Z

This seems like a very specific problem in a very specific rails app that most rails apps will not experience. Thanks for the explanation.

rafaelfranca · 2024-08-30T18:31:53Z

Wait a sec, I just now realized this that changed for existing applications without given them any warning. I do think :id is a better default, but you app should not change to that unless you chose to. Do you want to open a PR to keep the default for < 7.2 apps :all?

levicole · 2024-08-30T18:33:59Z

The problem came up for us when we upgraded to 7.2, so it really caught us off guard even when upgrading. I can see what I can do in the next week or so.

rafaelfranca · 2024-08-30T18:35:35Z

Yeah, that wasn't not the intention. New apps having that new default is fair, but for existing apps this can break a lot of behavior. I'll try to fix today.

levicole · 2024-08-30T18:43:28Z

I appreciate that! Thanks for talking this out with me!!

levicole · 2024-08-30T18:52:17Z

Where might this live? I can try to fix it, but I also know you probably know exactly where to do this.

rafaelfranca · 2024-08-30T19:04:21Z

There are a few things that I was planning to do:

For the Rails console, register a custom IRB inspector that would call full_inspect in ActiveRecord::Base objects.
Add the default value for attributes_to_inspect to be :all in

rails/railties/lib/rails/application/configuration.rb

Line 291 in 57a0e07

active_record.generate_secure_token_on = :initialize
Add attributes_to_inspect to https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/57a0e07111b3a9bde07c04c18048c7d3e4b931d9/railties/lib/rails/generators/rails/app/templates/config/initializers/new_framework_defaults_7_2.rb.tt explaining the value people want and why.

I think if we do those 3 things, all apps, even new ones will be able to see all attribute when inspecting on the Rails console. New apps will not suffer the performance problem that can take down apps when calling a Hash#to_s in production, and if people want that, they can just change the default in their apps.

levicole · 2024-08-30T19:15:59Z

Got it! I'll give this a shot, and put up a PR.

andrewn617 · 2024-08-30T19:27:38Z

@levicole Thanks for the report and sorry this is causing you issues. I am happy to help if you run into any trouble with the PR.

I agree with Rafael's suggestions except for one thing. Altho it is not the original motivation for the feature, something I like about this feature is that it allows the console output for models to be less noisey when you using the development console or debugging a test. So, I would not like to have an IRB inspector calling full_inspect on models in development or test mode, since it takes that capability away from the user. Instead, I think it would be better to just add that in production. After all it is :all by default in dev and test so the user still has to opt in to the less noisey output.

levicole · 2024-08-30T19:30:14Z

@andrewn617 I wondered about the IRB inspector as well. I'm definitely tackling the defaults, and adding it to the framework defaults. I will probably skip the IRB inspector. It's super interesting though!

This would be my first PR to rails. Would this PR need to be based on the v7.2 tag? I saw that this file doesn't exist on main.

levicole · 2024-08-30T19:36:23Z

Got it. Not sure how to bring that old file back since it's not present on main.

andrewn617 · 2024-08-30T19:41:27Z

@levicole Yeah, its a bit of an uncommon situation to add a framework default after the release. I believe @rafaelfranca will have to add it himself when he merges your PR. So it's ok just to open a PR on main for the other changes.

levicole · 2024-08-30T19:42:46Z

Got it! Ok, almost done here. I just need to find where there might be tests for the configuration and update/add.

jmkoni · 2024-08-30T19:55:27Z

Just FYI that I see this behavior in development as well.

levicole · 2024-08-30T20:04:12Z

@andrewn617 / @rafaelfranca this is probably going to take me longer than I expected due to me getting my the dev environment set up. But I do want to do this. If you need to get the change in sooner than I'm able to, then I understand!

levicole · 2024-08-30T20:37:06Z

PR is opened. We can move the discussion there.

jmkoni · 2024-09-03T14:49:09Z

Just FYI that I see this behavior in development as well.

Just want to be clear that I did make a mistake with environments (ugh long week), but I am seeing this behavior in my test environment despite setting this to :all in my primary app config.

MatheusRich · 2025-05-22T20:24:54Z

@andrewn617 hey, thanks for this PR! Is there a good way to exclude a column from this config? I basically want :all - some columns. I can't just use self.attributes_for_inspect = attribute_names - ['undesired'] because that will try to load the schema upfront

zzak · 2025-05-27T13:48:38Z

@MatheusRich I think you can just define that method on your model:

class Foo < AR::Base
  def attributes_for_inspect
    super - ['undesired']
  end
end

Something to that affect, maybe.

MatheusRich · 2025-05-28T13:33:59Z

@zzak I totally missed that overriding the instance method was possible. TY!

rails-bot bot added the activerecord label Oct 24, 2023

andrewn617 force-pushed the configurable-inspect branch 4 times, most recently from a419cda to 6c384a2 Compare October 24, 2023 14:40

andrewn617 commented Oct 24, 2023

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andrewn617 mentioned this pull request Oct 24, 2023

ActiveRecord::Core#inspect should have an option to not show the attributes in production #49707

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andrewn617 force-pushed the configurable-inspect branch 4 times, most recently from 3053798 to e22000f Compare October 25, 2023 20:38

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Earlopain mentioned this pull request Aug 28, 2024

Only id is shown when inspecting records in Rails console in production #52728

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levicole mentioned this pull request Aug 30, 2024

ActiveRecord::Base.attributes_for_inspect should default to :all #52753

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andrewn617 mentioned this pull request Sep 4, 2024

Set attributes_for_inspect to [:id] in the production environment only #52801

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4 tasks

stevepolitodesign mentioned this pull request Nov 6, 2024

How do we want to handle inspecting an ActiveRecord instance in production? thoughtbot/suspenders#1238

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G-Rath mentioned this pull request Mar 16, 2025

What attributes do we want available for inspect by default on production? ackama/rails-template#586

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	The attributes to be included in the out of `inspect` can be configured with
	The attributes to be included in the output of `inspect` can be configured with

	# Returns the attributes specified by #attributes_for_inspect as a nicely formatted string.
	# Returns the attributes specified by <tt>.attributes_for_inspect</tt> as a nicely formatted string.

Make the output of ActiveRecord::Core#inspect configurable. #49765

Make the output of ActiveRecord::Core#inspect configurable. #49765

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Make the output of `ActiveRecord::Core#inspect` configurable. #49765

Make the output of `ActiveRecord::Core#inspect` configurable. #49765

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