ignore code when compiling

[OReubens]

In a rather large codebase, there is a set of recurring calls to a couple vararg functions (mainly for logging)

   logthis(foo, bar(), somefunction(parameter1,parameter2), somethingelse);

The number of parameters to this function is variable
It has all types of variables, function calls, etc.
The code has thousands of these lines



There is now a need for a special version of the compile that will remove a lot of the code, among others is the logging.
Can I somehow #define the "logthis" name into something that'll remove all actual calls to the code. including the actual parameters/expressions to the call.


I can't afford to add #ifdef/#endif around each of the calls because there are too many of them, and because that'll cause some undisired side effects in our code conformance tests.

#define logthis __noop

comes close, that removes the call, but it still causes the compiler to evaluate and validate all the parameters to the logthis function, which doesn't work because in this case, removing the logging headers also removes other members of the class that get used as part of the parameters to logthis()

Ideal would be if I could define logthis into // resulting in all the rest of the line being comments, but that doesn't work. But it's basically something like that which I'm seeking.

Preferably I'd like something to be portable, but I'll take a solution that only works on visual studio as well.

[superbonzo]

if no template appears as argument, you can use a variadic macro, can't you ? ( I ask, because I'm sure you already thought about that ... )

[OReubens]

actually... I hadn't, for the simple fact, I didn't even know this existed. And I'm not alone, turns out of the whole programming team, nobody did, except for one guy that "claims" he did, but in several discussions, it never occured to him to use it like that.

So yeh, it really is as simple as:

#define logthis(...)

Now I'll go crawl in my shell of shame for the weekend.

[S_M_A]

It's just to accept, even though you're experienced sometimes the solution just refuses to come to mind. That's life..

[ninja9578]

It's rarely a good idea to define a method to something else. This is how I would do it:

inline static void logthis(...){
   #ifndef NDEBUG
      //the functionality of logthis
   #endif
}

Turn NDEBUG on, and logthis suddenly becomes an empty inline function, which the compiler will optimize out.

[laserlight]

Turn NDEBUG on, and logthis suddenly becomes an empty inline function, which the compiler will optimize out.

I tested with this:

#include <iostream>

inline static void logthis(int n)
{
#ifndef NDEBUG
    std::cout << "We logged: " << n << std::endl;
#endif
}

#ifndef NDEBUG
int bar()
{
    std::cout << "Hello world!" << std::endl;
    return 0;
}
#endif

int main()
{
    logthis(bar());
}

Compiling with g++ 4.6.2 with -O3 and -DNDEBUG, I get the error:

test.cpp: In function 'int main()':
test.cpp:20:17: error: 'bar' was not declared in this scope

Changing to:

#include <iostream>

#ifndef NDEBUG
inline static void logthis(int n)
{
    std::cout << "We logged: " << n << std::endl;
}
#else
#define logthis(...)
#endif

#ifndef NDEBUG
int bar()
{
    std::cout << "Hello world!" << std::endl;
    return 0;
}
#endif

int main()
{
    logthis(bar());
}

I don't get an error, with or without NDEBUG set.

[OReubens]

the function solution doesn't work, because of the variety of parameters used. In the case where I want to remove the call, all the types, classes, templates etc associated with the logging have (obviously) also been removed from the build, and a dummy function doesn't work in that case because the compiler can't evaluate the parameter expressions. So yes, it is exactly like the first case laserlight posted (and like I did in my OP), the function won't work because bar() is no longer defined in the "do not log" compilation.

The define is the only usable way out of this.