Error objects are discarded during logging

[lobodpav]

Trying to call logger this way in a callback:

function(err) {
    // err object was created by new Error('Connection to the DB failed')
    winston.info('An error happened:', err);
}

does not print out the Error object.
By walking through the common.js code I found this section in exports.log which shall print out the err.stack:

if (meta && meta instanceof Error && meta.stack) {
    meta = meta.stack;
}

However, this does not work because there is this line:

meta = options.meta !== undefined || options.meta !== null ? exports.clone(cycle.decycle(options.meta)) : null

I.e. calling the exports.clone(...... causes to return back an empty object instead of the options.meta.

[agsha]

+1 This is really bad!

[jpgarcia]

+1

[dmmalam]

+1

[dalgleish]

+1 Just bit me

[joef3]

+1

In the mean time, here's a cheezy hack -- as early as you can (only needs to be done once across all modules of course):

// A workaround for a bug in winston:
// See: https://github.com/flatiron/winston/issues/280
(function patchWinston() {
    var winstonCommon = require('winston/lib/winston/common')
        , _log = winstonCommon.log;

    function errorToStack(obj) {
        var copy;

        if (obj == null || typeof obj != 'object') {
            return obj;
        }

        if (obj instanceof Error) {
            return obj.stack;
        }

        if (obj instanceof Date || obj instanceof RegExp) {
            return obj;
        }

        if (obj instanceof Array) {
            copy = [];
            for (i in obj) {
                copy[i] = errorToStack(obj[i]);
            }
            return copy;
        }
        else {
            copy = {};
            for (k in obj) {
                if (obj.hasOwnProperty(k)) {
                    copy[k] = errorToStack(obj[k]);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    winstonCommon.log = function (options) {
        if (options != null && typeof options === 'object' && typeof options.meta === 'object') {
            options.meta = errorToStack(options.meta);
        }
        return _log(options);
    }
})();

And it's possible you might have to add more instanceof checks...

[jlukanta]

This is my workaround:

https://gist.github.com/jlukanta/6863823

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

+1 and I echo the sentiments earlier: this is really bad and it's over 4 months old and it's pretty critical. Is this project dead?

[agsha]

I think its kinda dead. I switched over to bunyan. very satisfied.

On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 5:33 PM, WhatFreshHellIsThis <
notifications@github.com> wrote:

+1 and I echo the sentiments earlier: this is really bad and it's over
4 months old and it's pretty critical. Is this project dead?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/280#issuecomment-28529748
.

[jpgarcia]

Hey @agsha I wanted to move also to bunyan a time ago but I wasn't because of json logs but I really didn't dig into too much. Do you know if is possible to log as text like winston?

thanks!

[lobodpav]

Also, I would be interested if bunyan supports email transport. Currently I use winston-email module.

[agsha]

@jpgarcia bunyan primarily deals with json logs. There is no text mode in bunyan. But you can always log like this:

{txt:"My log text"}

However I found the json format much more convenient after a while. Almost every object I log has to be json formatted anyway.

@lobodpav Bunyan doesnt currently support email transport AFAIK. It seems easy to write one. See bunyan streams

[lobodpav]

Thanks @agsha thanks for the hint. I could reuse the winston-mail code to implement bunyan stream.
What bothers me is the absence of plaintext. No issues with json in file stream, but logging json into console is a nonsense...

[agsha]

@lobodpav As for the issue of ugly json on console, I never read the json logs without the bunyan cli

It prints the output very nicely and is very readable. Internally bunyan prints a single line of json per log record and the bunyan cli formats it very nicely. Plus the cli comes packaged with some handy filtering options.

[lobodpav]

@agsha I see, piping the output to bunyan CLI is a way to get the stuff readable on console. Although, typing npm start only is a bit user friendlier.

[agsha]

agree. its a little painful.

On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 10:46 AM, Pavel Lobodinský <notifications@github.com

wrote:

@agsha https://github.com/agsha I see, piping the output to bunyan CLI
is a way to get the stuff readable on console. Although, typing npm startonly is a bit user friendlier.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/280#issuecomment-28578495
.

[lobodpav]

Now I realised that actually I can put this script directly into package.json:

"scripts": {
    "start": "node index.js | bunyan"
}

So actually, everything should work nicely as before :)

[lobodpav]

Yesterday, I switched over to bunyan too. No more patience to wait half a year to get logger... actually logging.
I got exactly the same functionality as I had with winston, except the missing email stream, which I will implement myself once really needed.
One great thing about bunyan is that it can create a child logger and bind specific properties to it. I.e. I can create a logger child per node module and specify module name to bunyan. This way I will always know where the log message comes from.

[yzapuchlak]

+1 to fixing this issue...

And bunyan looks interesting, I'll have to take a deeper look at it. : )

[pentateu]

+1

[rogchap]

+1

[pmendelski]

+1
This (really inconvenient) problem is 8 months old.
Is winston project still alive?

[agsha]

Project is not active.

On Mon, Mar 17, 2014 at 8:59 AM, pmendelski notifications@github.comwrote:

+1
This (really inconvenient) problem is 8 months old.
Is winston project still alive?

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/280#issuecomment-37812016
.

[robinduckett]

Uh, yes it is.

On Mon, Mar 17, 2014 at 1:46 PM, agsha notifications@github.com wrote:

Project is not active.

On Mon, Mar 17, 2014 at 8:59 AM, pmendelski <notifications@github.com

wrote:

+1
This (really inconvenient) problem is 8 months old.
Is winston project still alive?

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub<
https://github.com/flatiron/winston/issues/280#issuecomment-37812016>

.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/280#issuecomment-37816387
.

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

Robin, your idea of "active" might differ from the rest of us.

[pmendelski]

Please prove that it's still active by fixing this issue ;)

[romanostolosh-devpronet]

+1 really annoying :(

[Guuz]

So... This is the first thing I ran into when using Winston. Is this gonna be fixed/changed in the project or what is the proposed solution?

[oleduc]

@Guuz This project appears to be inactive.

[stevenzyang]

Dammit Winston! Moving to Bunyan then.

[jakeorr]

+1

[rus0000]

+1

[ahowardsky]

+1

[indexzero]

Dug into this. Very strange behavior. TIL that all properties on Error instances are not enumerable by default. >_<

[psychobunny]

+1 :)

[lillem4n]

+1

[indexzero]

Fix is already committed for this. Just need to ship 0.9.0

[lillem4n]

Yup, saw that. Still need it to be shipped, hence the +1 since I'm affected by the issue. :)

[jmcbee]

I thought this project's dead.

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

Utterly dead.

[metasansana]

I fell back to console.log 😒
On 16 Dec 2014 19:17, "WhatFreshHellIsThis" notifications@github.com
wrote:

Utterly dead.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#280 (comment).

[jmcbee]

Which commit exactly added this feature? @indexzero

[indexzero]

This one on the 0.9.x branch: 8fe22b1

This project is not dead. @pose, @jcrugzz and I have been triaging old issues before shipping 0.9.0, but I expect that to happen before the new year when this will land.

If you don't want to use it because of your lack of patience then don't. No one is forcing you, but the Jedi will probably be disappointed in your attitude

[lillem4n]

Mmm, the Jedi. :)

[davidporter-id-au]

This is shit

[indexzero]

Locked this issue. @desertlynx your negative and unproductive comments will get you nowhere.