# Journal manual ###### \[in package JOURNAL with nicknames JRN\] ## JOURNAL ASDF System - Version: 0.1.0 - Description: A library for logging, tracing, testing and persistence. - Licence: MIT, see COPYING. - Author: Gábor Melis <mega@retes.hu> - Homepage: [http://github.com/melisgl/journal](http://github.com/melisgl/journal) - Bug tracker: [http://github.com/melisgl/journal/issues](http://github.com/melisgl/journal/issues) - Source control: [GIT](https://github.com/melisgl/journal.git) ## Links Here is the [official repository](https://github.com/melisgl/journal) and the [HTML documentation](http://melisgl.github.io/mgl-pax-world/journal-manual.html) for the latest version. ## Portability Tested on ABCL, CCL, CLISP, CMUCL, ECL, and SBCL. AllegroCL Express edition runs out of heap while running the tests. On Lisps that seem to lack support for disabling and enabling of interrupts, such as ABCL and CLISP, durability is compromised, and any attempt to SYNC-JOURNAL (see @SYNCHRONIZATION-STRATEGIES and @SAFETY) will be a runtime error. ## Background Logging, tracing, testing, and persistence are about what happened during code execution. Recording machine-readable logs and traces can be repurposed for white-box testing. More, when the code is rerun, selected frames may return their recorded values without executing the code, which could serve as a [mock][mock-object] framework for writing tests. This ability to isolate external interactions and to reexecute traces is sufficient to reconstruct the state of a program, achieving simple persistence not unlike a [journaling filesystem][journaling-fs] or [Event Sourcing][event-sourcing]. [mock-object]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mock_object [journaling-fs]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journaling_file_system [event-sourcing]: https://martinfowler.com/eaaDev/EventSourcing.html Journal is the library to log, trace, test and persist. It has a single macro at its heart: JOURNALED, which does pretty much what was described. It can be thought of as generating two events around its body: one that records the name and an argument list (as in a function call), and another that records the return values. In Lisp-like pseudocode: ``` (defmacro journaled (name args &body body) `(progn (record-event `(:in ,name :args ,args)) (let ((,return-values (multiple-value-list (progn ,@body)))) (record-event `(:out ,name :values ,return-values)) (values-list ,return-values)))) ``` The Journal library is this idea taken to its logical conclusion. ## Distinguishing features ##### As a logging facility - Nested contexts and single messages - Customizable content and format - Human- or machine-readable output ``` #68200.234: ("some-context") #68200.234: Informative log message #68200.250: => NIL ``` See @LOGGING for a complete example. ##### Compared to CL:TRACE - Ability to handle @NON-LOCAL-EXITs - Customizable content and format - Optional timestamps, internal real- and run-time ``` (FOO 2.1) (1+ 2.1) => 3.1 =E "SIMPLE-ERROR" "The assertion (INTEGERP 3.1) failed." ``` See @TRACING for a complete example. ##### As a test framework - White-box testing based on execution traces - Isolation of external dependencies - Record-and-replay testing ``` (define-file-bundle-test (test-user-registration :directory "registration") (let ((username (replayed ("ask-username") (format t "Please type your username: ") (read-line)))) (add-user username) (assert (user-exists-p username)))) ``` See @TESTING for a complete example. ##### As a solution for persistence - Event Sourcing: replay interactions with the external world - Unchanged control flow - Easy to implement history, undo ``` (defun my-resumable-autosaving-game-with-history () (with-bundle (bundle) (play-guess-my-number))) ``` See @PERSISTENCE for a complete example. ## Basics The JOURNALED macro does both recording and replaying of events, possibly at the same time. Recording is easy: events generated by JOURNALED are simply written to a journal, which is a sequence of events much like a file. What events are generated is described in JOURNALED. @REPLAY is much more involved, thus it gets its own section. The journals used for recording and replaying are specified by WITH-JOURNALING or by WITH-BUNDLE. The @JOURNALS-REFERENCE is presented later, but for most purposes creating them (e.g. with MAKE-IN-MEMORY-JOURNAL, MAKE-FILE-JOURNAL) and maybe querying their contents with LIST-EVENTS will suffice. Some common cases of journal creation are handled by the convenience function TO-JOURNAL. Built on top of journals, @BUNDLES juggle repeated replay-and-record cycles focussing on persistence. - [generic-function] TO-JOURNAL DESIGNATOR Return the journal designated by DESIGNATOR or signal an error. The default implementation: - returns DESIGNATOR itself if it is of type JOURNAL, - returns a new IN-MEMORY-JOURNAL if DESIGNATOR is T, - returns a new FILE-JOURNAL if DESIGNATOR is a PATHNAME. - [macro] WITH-JOURNALING (&KEY RECORD REPLAY REPLAY-EOJ-ERROR-P) &BODY BODY Turn recording and/or replaying of events on or off for the duration of BODY. Both RECORD and REPLAY should be a JOURNAL designator (in the sense of TO-JOURNAL) or NIL. If RECORD designates a JOURNAL, then events generated by enclosed JOURNALED @BLOCKs are written to that journal (with exceptions, see the LOG-RECORD argument of JOURNALED). If REPLAY designates a JOURNAL, then the generated events are matched against events from that journal according to the rules of @REPLAY. A JOURNAL-ERROR is signalled, if RECORD is a JOURNAL that has been previously recorded to by another WITH-JOURNALING (that is, if its JOURNAL-STATE is not :NEW), or if REPLAY is a JOURNAL that is not a complete recording of successful replay (i.e. its JOURNAL-STATE is not :COMPLETED). These checks are intended to catch mistakes that would render the new or existing records unusable for replay. When WITH-JOURNALING finishes, the RECORD journal is marked :COMPLETED or :FAILED in its JOURNAL-STATE. REPLAY-EOJ-ERROR-P controls whether an END-OF-JOURNAL is signalled when a new event is being matched to the replay journal from which there are no more events to read. If there was a JOURNALING-FAILURE or a REPLAY-FAILURE during execution, then END-OF-JOURNAL is not signalled. If BODY completes successfully, but REPLAY has unprocessed events, then signal REPLAY-INCOMPLETE. WITH-JOURNALING for different RECORD journals can be nested and run independently. - [glossary-term] block A journaled block, or simply block, is a number of forms wrapped in JOURNALED. When a block is executed, a @FRAME is created. - [glossary-term] frame A frame is an IN-EVENT, OUT-EVENT pair, which are created when a @BLOCK is entered and left, respectively. - [function] RECORD-JOURNAL Return the journal in which events are currently being recorded (see WITH-JOURNALING and WITH-BUNDLE) or NIL. - [function] REPLAY-JOURNAL Return the journal from which events are currently being replayed (see WITH-JOURNALING and WITH-BUNDLE) or NIL. - [macro] JOURNALED (NAME &KEY (LOG-RECORD :RECORD) VERSION ARGS VALUES CONDITION INSERTABLE REPLAY-VALUES REPLAY-CONDITION) &BODY BODY JOURNALED generates events upon entering and leaving the dynamic extent of BODY (also known as the journaled @BLOCK), which we call the @IN-EVENTS and @OUT-EVENTS. Between generating the two events, BODY is typically executed normally (except for @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME). Where the generated events are written is determined by the :RECORD argument of the enclosing WITH-JOURNALING. If there is no enclosing WITH-JOURNALING and LOG-RECORD is NIL, then event recording is turned off and JOURNALED imposes minimal overhead. - NAME can be of any type except [NULL][type], not evaluated. For names, and for anything that gets written to a journal, a non-keyword symbol is a reasonable choice as it can be easily made unique. However, it also exposes the package structure, which might make reading stuff back more difficult. Keywords and strings do not have this problem. - ARGS can be of any type, but is typically a list. Also see in @LOG-RECORD in the @LOGGING section. For a description of VERSION, INSERTABLE, REPLAY-VALUES and REPLAY-CONDITION, see @JOURNALED-FOR-REPLAY. ### In-events Upon entering a @BLOCK, JOURNALED generates an IN-EVENT, which conceptually opens a new @FRAME. These in-events are created from the NAME, VERSION and ARGS arguments of JOURNALED. For example, ``` (journaled (name :version version :args args) ...) ``` creates an event like this: ``` `(:in ,name :version ,version :args ,args) ``` where :VERSION and :ARGS may be omitted if they are NIL. Versions are used for @REPLAY. ### Out-events Upon leaving a @BLOCK, JOURNALED generates and OUT-EVENT, closing the @FRAME opened by the corresponding in-event. These out-events are property lists like this: ``` (:out foo :version 1 :values (42)) ``` Their NAME and VERSION (`FOO` and `1` in the example) are the same as in the in-event: they are the corresponding arguments of JOURNALED. EXIT and OUTCOME are filled in differently depending on how the block finished its execution. - [type] EVENT-EXIT One of :VALUES, :CONDITION, :ERROR and :NLX. Indicates whether a journaled @BLOCK: - returned normally (:VALUES, see VALUES-OUTCOME), - unwound on an expected condition (:CONDITION, see CONDITION-OUTCOME), - unwound on an unexpected condition (:ERROR, see ERROR-OUTCOME), - unwound by performing a @NON-LOCAL-EXIT of some other kind such as a throw (:NLX, see NLX-OUTCOME). The first two are EXPECTED-OUTCOMEs, while the latter two are UNEXPECTED-OUTCOMEs. - [glossary-term] values outcome If the JOURNALED @BLOCK returns normally, [EVENT-EXIT][type] is :VALUES and the outcome is the list of values returned: ``` (journaled (foo) (values 7 t)) ;; generates the out-event (:out foo :values (7 t)) ``` The list of return values of the block is transformed by the VALUES argument of JOURNALED, whose default is `#'IDENTITY`. Also see @WORKING-WITH-UNREADABLE-VALUES). - [glossary-term] condition outcome If the @BLOCK unwound due to a condition, and JOURNALED's CONDITION argument (a function whose default is `(CONSTANTLY NIL)`) returns non-NIL when invoked on it, then [EVENT-EXIT][type] is :CONDITION and the outcome is this return value: ``` (journaled (foo :condition (lambda (c) (prin1-to-string c))) (error "xxx")) ;; generates the out-event (:out foo :condition "xxx") ``` Conditions thus recognized are those that can be considered to be part of normal execution. Just like return values, these expected conditions may be required to match what's in the replay journal. Furthermore, given a suitable REPLAY-CONDITION in JOURNALED, they may be replayed without running the @BLOCK. - [glossary-term] error outcome If the JOURNALED @BLOCK unwound due to a condition, but JOURNALED's CONDITION argument returns NIL when invoked on it, then [EVENT-EXIT][type] is :ERROR and the outcome the string representations of the type of the condition and the condition itself. ``` (journaled (foo) (error "xxx")) ;; generates the out-event (:out foo :error ("simple-error" "xxx")) ``` The conversion to string is performed with PRINC in WITH-STANDARD-IO-SYNTAX. This scheme is intended to avoid leaking random implementation details into the journal, which would make `READ`ing it back difficult. In contrast with CONDITION-OUTCOMEs, error outcomes are what the code is not prepared to handle or replay in a meaningful way. - [glossary-term] nlx outcome If the JOURNALED @BLOCK performed a @NON-LOCAL-EXIT that was not due to a condition, then [EVENT-EXIT][type] is :NLX and the outcome is NIL. ``` (catch 'xxx (journaled (foo) (throw 'xxx nil))) ;; generates the out-event (:out foo :nlx nil) ``` Note that CONDITION-OUTCOMEs and ERROR-OUTCOMEs are also due to @NON-LOCAL-EXITs, but are distinct from nlx outcomes. Currently, nlx outcomes are detected rather heuristically as there is no portable way to detect what really caused the unwinding of the stack. There is a further grouping of outcomes into expected and unexpected. - [glossary-term] expected outcome An OUT-EVENT is said to have an expected outcome if it had a VALUES-OUTCOME or a CONDITION-OUTCOME, or equivalently, when its [EVENT-EXIT][type] is :VALUES or :CONDITION. - [glossary-term] unexpected outcome An OUT-EVENT is said to have an unexpected outcome if it had an ERROR-OUTCOME or an NLX-OUTCOME, or equivalently, when its [EVENT-EXIT][type] is :ERROR or :NLX. ### Working with unreadable values The events recorded often need to be @READABLE. This is always required with FILE-JOURNALs, often with IN-MEMORY-JOURNALs, but never with PPRINT-JOURNALs. By choosing an appropriate identifier or string representation of the unreadable object to journal, this is not a problem in practice. JOURNALED provides the VALUES hook for this purpose. With EXTERNAL-EVENTs, whose outcome is replayed (see @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME), we also need to be able to reverse the transformation of VALUES, and this is what the REPLAY-VALUES argument of JOURNALED is for. Let's see a complete example. ``` (defclass user () ((id :initarg :id :reader user-id))) (defmethod print-object ((user user) stream) (print-unreadable-object (user stream :type t) (format stream "~S" (slot-value user 'id)))) (defvar *users* (make-hash-table)) (defun find-user (id) (gethash id *users*)) (defun add-user (id) (setf (gethash id *users*) (make-instance 'user :id id))) (defvar *user7* (add-user 7)) (defun get-message () (replayed (listen :values (values-> #'user-id) :replay-values (values<- #'find-user)) (values *user7* "hello"))) (jtrace user-id find-user get-message) (let ((bundle (make-file-bundle "/tmp/user-example/"))) (format t "Recording") (with-bundle (bundle) (get-message)) (format t "~%Replaying") (with-bundle (bundle) (get-message))) .. Recording .. (GET-MESSAGE) .. (USER-ID #<USER 7>) .. => 7 .. => #<USER 7>, "hello" .. Replaying .. (GET-MESSAGE) .. (FIND-USER 7) .. => #<USER 7>, T .. => #<USER 7>, "hello" ==> #<USER 7> => "hello" ``` The point of this example that for to be able to journal the return values of `GET-MESSAGE`, the `USER` object must be transformed to something @READABLE. On the `Recording` run, `(VALUES-> #'USER-ID)` replaces the user object with its id in the EVENT-OUTCOME recorded, but the original user object is returned. When `Replaying`, the journaled OUT-EVENT is replayed (see @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME): ``` (:OUT GET-MESSAGE :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (7 "hello")) ``` The user object is looked up according to :REPLAY-VALUES and is returned along with `"hello"`. - [function] VALUES-> &REST FNS A utility to create a function suitable as the VALUES argument of JOURNALED. The VALUES function is called with the list of values returned by the @BLOCK and returns a transformed set of values that may be recorded in a journal. While arbitrary transformations are allowed, `VALUES->` handles the common case of transforming individual elements of the list independently by calling the functions in FN with the values of the list of the same position. ``` (funcall (values-> #'1+) '(7 :something)) => (8 :SOMETHING) ``` Note how `#'1+` is applied only to the first element of the values list. The list of functions is shorter than the values list, so `:SOMETHING` is not transformed. A value can be left explicitly untransformed by specifying #'IDENTITY or NIL as the function: ``` (funcall (values-> #'1+ nil #'symbol-name) '(7 :something :another)) => (8 :SOMETHING "ANOTHER") ``` - [function] VALUES<- &REST FNS The inverse of `VALUES->`, this returns a function suitable as the REPLAY-VALUES argument of JOURNALED. It does pretty much what `VALUES->` does, but the function returned returns the transformed list as multiple values instead of as a list. ``` (funcall (values<- #'1-) '(8 :something)) => 7 => :SOMETHING ``` ### Utilities - [function] LIST-EVENTS &OPTIONAL (JOURNAL (RECORD-JOURNAL)) Return a list of all the events in the journal designated by JOURNAL. Calls SYNC-JOURNAL first, to make sure that all writes are taken into account. - [function] EVENTS-TO-FRAMES EVENTS Convert a flat list of events, such as those returned by LIST-EVENTS, to a nested list representing the @FRAMEs. Each frame is a list of the form `(<in-event> <nested-frames>* <out-event>?)`. Like in PRINT-EVENTS, EVENTS may be a JOURNAL. ``` (events-to-frames '((:in foo :args (1 2)) (:in bar :args (7)) (:leaf "leaf") (:out bar :values (8)) (:out foo :values (2)) (:in foo :args (3 4)) (:in bar :args (8)))) => (((:IN FOO :ARGS (1 2)) ((:IN BAR :ARGS (7)) (:LEAF "leaf") (:OUT BAR :VALUES (8))) (:OUT FOO :VALUES (2))) ((:IN FOO :ARGS (3 4)) ((:IN BAR :ARGS (8))))) ``` Note that, as in the above example, incomplete frames (those without an OUT-EVENT) are included in the output. - [function] EXPECTED-TYPE TYPE Return a function suitable as the CONDITION argument of JOURNALED, which returns the type of its single argument as a string if it is of TYPE, else NIL. ### Pretty-printing - [function] PRINT-EVENTS EVENTS &KEY STREAM Print EVENTS to STREAM as lists, starting a new line for each event and indenting them according to their nesting structure. EVENTS may be a JOURNAL, in which case LIST-EVENTS is called on it first. ``` (print-events '((:in log :args ("first arg" 2)) (:in versioned :version 1 :args (3)) (:out versioned :version 1 :values (42 t)) (:out log :condition "a :CONDITION outcome") (:in log-2) (:out log-2 :nlx nil) (:in external :version :infinity) (:out external :version :infinity :error ("ERROR" "an :ERROR outcome")))) .. .. (:IN LOG :ARGS ("first arg" 2)) .. (:IN VERSIONED :VERSION 1 :ARGS (3)) .. (:OUT VERSIONED :VERSION 1 :VALUES (42 T)) .. (:OUT LOG :CONDITION "a :CONDITION outcome") .. (:IN LOG-2) .. (:OUT LOG-2 :NLX NIL) .. (:IN EXTERNAL :VERSION :INFINITY) .. (:OUT EXTERNAL :VERSION :INFINITY :ERROR ("ERROR" "an :ERROR outcome")) => ; No value ``` - [function] PPRINT-EVENTS EVENTS &KEY STREAM (PRETTIFIER 'PRETTIFY-EVENT) Like PRINT-EVENTS, but produces terser, more human readable output. ``` (pprint-events '((:in log :args ("first arg" 2)) (:in versioned :version 1 :args (3)) (:leaf "This is a leaf, not a frame.") (:out versioned :version 1 :values (42 t)) (:out log :condition "a :CONDITION outcome") (:in log-2) (:out log-2 :nlx nil) (:in external :version :infinity) (:out external :version :infinity :error ("ERROR" "an :ERROR outcome")))) .. .. (LOG "first arg" 2) .. (VERSIONED 3) v1 .. This is a leaf, not a frame. .. => 42, T .. =C "a :CONDITION outcome" .. (LOG-2) .. =X .. (EXTERNAL) ext .. =E "ERROR" "an :ERROR outcome" => ; No value ``` The function given as the PRETTIFIER argument formats individual events. The above output was produced with PRETTIFY-EVENT. For a description of PRETTIFIER's arguments see PRETTIFY-EVENT. - [function] PRETTIFY-EVENT EVENT DEPTH STREAM Write EVENT to STREAM in a somewhat human-friendly format. This is the function PPRINT-JOURNAL, PPRINT-EVENTS, and @TRACING use by default. In addition to the basic example in PPRINT-EVENTS, @DECORATION on events is printed before normal, indented output like this: ``` (pprint-events '((:leaf "About to sleep" :time "19:57:00" :function "FOO"))) .. .. 19:57:00 FOO: About to sleep ``` DEPTH is the nesting level of the EVENT. Top-level events have depth 0. PRETTIFY-EVENT prints indents the output, after printing the decorations, by 2 spaces per depth. Instead of collecting events and then printing them, events can be pretty-printed to a stream as they generated. This is accomplished with @PPRINT-JOURNALS, discussed in detail later, in the following way: ``` (let ((journal (make-pprint-journal))) (with-journaling (:record journal) (journaled (foo) "Hello"))) .. .. (FOO) .. => "Hello" ``` Note that @PPRINT-JOURNALS are not tied to WITH-JOURNALING and are most often used for @LOGGING and @TRACING. ### Error handling - [condition] JOURNALING-FAILURE SERIOUS-CONDITION Signalled during the dynamic extent of WITH-JOURNALING when an error threatens to leave the journaling mechanism in an inconsistent state. These include I/O errors encountered reading or writing journals by WITH-JOURNALING, JOURNALED, LOGGED, WITH-REPLAY-FILTER, SYNC-JOURNAL, but also STORAGE-CONDITIONs, assertion failures, and errors calling JOURNALED's VALUES and CONDITION function arguments. Crucially, this does not apply to non-local exits from other code, such as JOURNALED @BLOCKs, whose error handling is largely unaltered (see @OUT-EVENTS and @REPLAY-FAILURES). In general, any @NON-LOCAL-EXIT from critical parts of the code is turned into a JOURNALING-FAILURE to protect the integrity of the RECORD-JOURNAL. The condition that caused the unwinding is in JOURNALING-FAILURE-EMBEDDED-CONDITION, or NIL if it was a pure @NON-LOCAL-EXIT like THROW. This is a SERIOUS-CONDITION, not to be handled within WITH-JOURNALING. After a JOURNALING-FAILURE, the journaling mechanism cannot be trusted anymore. The REPLAY-JOURNAL might have failed a read and be out-of-sync. The RECORD-JOURNAL may have missing events (or even half-written events with FILE-JOURNALs without SYNC, see @SYNCHRONIZATION-STRATEGIES), and further writes to it would risk replayability, which is equivalent to database corruption. Thus, upon signalling JOURNALING-FAILURE, JOURNAL-STATE is set to - :COMPLETED if the journal is in state :RECORDING or :LOGGING and the transition to :RECORDING was reflected in storage, - else it is set to :FAILED. After a JOURNALING-FAILURE, any further attempt within the affected WITH-JOURNALING to use the critical machinery mentioned above (JOURNALED, LOGGED, etc) resignals the same journal failure condition. As a consequence, the record journal cannot be changed and the only way to recover is to leave WITH-JOURNALING. This does not affect processing in other threads, which by design cannot write to the record journal. Note that in contrast with JOURNALING-FAILURE and REPLAY-FAILURE, which necessitate leaving WITH-JOURNALING to recover from, the other conditions - JOURNAL-ERROR, and STREAMLET-ERROR - are subclasses of [ERROR][condition] as the their handling need not be so heavy-handed. - [reader] JOURNALING-FAILURE-EMBEDDED-CONDITION JOURNALING-FAILURE (:EMBEDDED-CONDITION) - [condition] RECORD-UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME Signalled (with SIGNAL: this is not an [ERROR][condition]) by JOURNALED when a VERSIONED-EVENT or an EXTERNAL-EVENT had an UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME while in JOURNAL-STATE :RECORDING. Upon signalling this condition, JOURNAL-STATE is set to :LOGGING, thus no more events can be recorded that will affect replay of the journal being recorded. The event that triggered this condition is recorded in state :LOGGING, with its version downgraded. Since @REPLAY (except INVOKED) is built on the assumption that control flow is deterministic, an unexpected outcome is significant because it makes this assumption to hold unlikely. Also see REPLAY-UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME. - [condition] DATA-EVENT-LOSSAGE JOURNALING-FAILURE Signalled when a DATA-EVENT is about to be recorded in JOURNAL-STATE :MISMATCHED or :LOGGING. Since the data event will not be replayed that constitutes data loss. - [condition] JOURNAL-ERROR ERROR Signalled by WITH-JOURNALING, WITH-BUNDLE and by @LOG-RECORD. It is also signalled by the low-level streamlet interface (see @STREAMLETS-REFERENCE). - [condition] END-OF-JOURNAL JOURNAL-ERROR This might be signalled by the replay mechanism if WITH-JOURNALING's REPLAY-EOJ-ERROR-P is true. Unlike REPLAY-FAILUREs, this does not affect JOURNAL-STATE of RECORD-JOURNAL. At a lower level, it is signalled by READ-EVENT upon reading past the end of the JOURNAL if EOJ-ERROR-P. ## Logging Before we get into the details, here is a self contained example that demonstrates typical use. ``` (defvar *communication-log* nil) (defvar *logic-log* nil) (defvar *logic-log-level* 0) (defun call-with-connection (port fn) (framed (call-with-connection :log-record *communication-log* :args `(,port)) (funcall fn))) (defun fetch-data (key) (let ((value 42)) (logged ((and (<= 1 *logic-log-level*) *logic-log*)) "The value of ~S is ~S." key value) value)) (defun init-logging (&key (logic-log-level 1)) (let* ((stream (open "/tmp/xxx.log" :direction :output :if-does-not-exist :create :if-exists :append)) (journal (make-pprint-journal :stream (make-broadcast-stream (make-synonym-stream '*standard-output*) stream)))) (setq *communication-log* journal) (setq *logic-log* journal) (setq *logic-log-level* logic-log-level))) (init-logging) (call-with-connection 8080 (lambda () (fetch-data :foo))) .. .. (CALL-WITH-CONNECTION 8080) .. The value of :FOO is 42. .. => 42 => 42 (setq *logic-log-level* 0) (call-with-connection 8080 (lambda () (fetch-data :foo))) .. .. (CALL-WITH-CONNECTION 8080) .. => 42 => 42 (ignore-errors (call-with-connection 8080 (lambda () (error "Something unexpected.")))) .. .. (CALL-WITH-CONNECTION 8080) .. =E "SIMPLE-ERROR" "Something unexpected." ``` ##### Default to muffling Imagine a utility library called glib. ``` (defvar *glib-log* nil) (defvar *patience* 1) (defun sl33p (seconds) (logged (*glib-log*) "Sleeping for ~As." seconds) (sleep (* *patience* seconds))) ``` Glib follows the recommendation to have a special variable globally bound to NIL by default. The value of `*GLIB-LOG*` is the journal to which glib log messages will be routed. Since it's NIL, the log messages are muffled, and to record any log message, we need to change its value. ##### Routing logs to a journal Let's send the logs to a PPRINT-JOURNAL: ``` (setq *glib-log* (make-pprint-journal :log-decorator (make-log-decorator :time t))) (sl33p 0.01) .. .. 2020-08-31T12:45:23.827172+02:00: Sleeping for 0.01s. ``` That's a bit too wordy. For this tutorial, let's stick to less verbose output: ``` (setq *glib-log* (make-pprint-journal)) (sl33p 0.01) .. .. Sleeping for 0.01s. ``` To log to a file: ``` (setq *glib-log* (make-pprint-journal :stream (open "/tmp/glib.log" :direction :output :if-does-not-exist :create :if-exists :append))) ``` ##### Capturing logs in WITH-JOURNALING's RECORD-JOURNAL If we were recording a journal for replay and wanted to include glib logs in the journal, we would do something like this: ``` (with-journaling (:record t) (let ((*glib-log* :record)) (sl33p 0.01) (journaled (non-glib-stuff :version 1))) (list-events)) => ((:LEAF "Sleeping for 0.01s.") (:IN NON-GLIB-STUFF :VERSION 1) (:OUT NON-GLIB-STUFF :VERSION 1 :VALUES (NIL))) ``` We could even `(SETQ *GLIB-LOG* :RECORD)` to make it so that glib messages are included by default in the RECORD-JOURNAL. In this example, the special `*GLIB-LOG*` acts like a log category for all the log messages of the glib library (currently one). ##### Rerouting a category Next, we route `*GLIB-LOG*` to wherever `*APP-LOG*` is pointing by binding `*GLIB-LOG*` *to the symbol* `*APP-LOG*` (see @LOG-RECORD). ``` (defvar *app-log* nil) (let ((*glib-log* '*app-log*)) (setq *app-log* nil) (logged (*glib-log*) "This is not written anywhere.") (setq *app-log* (make-pprint-journal :pretty nil)) (sl33p 0.01)) .. .. (:LEAF "Sleeping for 0.01s.") ``` Note how pretty-printing was turned off and we see the LEAF-EVENT generated by LOGGED in its raw plist form. ##### Conditional routing Finally, to make routing decisions conditional we need to change `SL33P`: ``` (defvar *glib-log-level* 1) (defun sl33p (seconds) (logged ((and (<= 2 *glib-log-level*) *glib-log*)) "Sleeping for ~As." (* *patience* seconds)) (sleep seconds)) ;;; Check that it all works: (let ((*glib-log-level* 1) (*glib-log* (make-pprint-journal))) (format t "~%With log-level ~A" *glib-log-level*) (sl33p 0.01) (setq *glib-log-level* 2) (format t "~%With log-level ~A" *glib-log-level*) (sl33p 0.01)) .. .. With log-level 1 .. With log-level 2 .. Sleeping for 0.01s. ``` ##### Nested log contexts LOGGED is for single messages. JOURNALED, or in this example FRAMED, can provide nested context: ``` (defun callv (var value symbol &rest args) "Call SYMBOL-FUNCTION of SYMBOL with VAR dynamically bound to VALUE." (framed ("glib:callv" :log-record *glib-log* :args `(,var ,value ,symbol ,@args)) (progv (list var) (list value) (apply (symbol-function symbol) args)))) (callv '*print-base* 2 'print 10) .. .. ("glib:callv" *PRINT-BASE* 2 PRINT 10) .. 1010 .. => 10 => 10 (let ((*glib-log-level* 2)) (callv '*patience* 7 'sl33p 0.01)) .. .. ("glib:callv" *PATIENCE* 7 SL33P 0.01) .. Sleeping for 0.07s. .. => NIL ``` ### Customizing logs Customizing the output format is possible if we don't necessarily expect to be able to read the logs back programmatically. There is an example in @TRACING, which is built on @PPRINT-JOURNALS. Here, we discuss how to make logs more informative. - [glossary-term] decoration JOURNAL-LOG-DECORATOR adds additional data to LOG-EVENTs as they are written to the journal. This data is called decoration and it is to capture the context in which the event was triggered. See MAKE-LOG-DECORATOR for a typical example. Decorations, since they can be on LOG-EVENTs only, do not affect @REPLAY. Decorations are most often used with @PRETTY-PRINTING. - [accessor] JOURNAL-LOG-DECORATOR JOURNAL (:LOG-DECORATOR = NIL) If non-NIL, a function to add @DECORATION to LOG-EVENTs before they are written to a journal. The only allowed transformation is to *append* a plist to the event, which is a plist itself. The keys can be anything. - [function] MAKE-LOG-DECORATOR &KEY THREAD TIME REAL-TIME RUN-TIME Return a function suitable as JOURNAL-LOG-DECORATOR that may add the name of the thread, a timestamp, the internal real-time or run-time (both in seconds) to events. THREAD, TIME, REAL-TIME and RUN-TIME are @BOOLEAN-VALUED-SYMBOLs. ``` (funcall (make-log-decorator :thread t :time t :real-time t :run-time t) (make-leaf-event :foo)) => (:LEAF :FOO :TIME "2020-08-31T13:38:58.129178+02:00" :REAL-TIME 66328.82 :RUN-TIME 98.663 :THREAD "worker") ``` ### Log record WITH-JOURNALING and WITH-BUNDLE control replaying and recording within their dynamic extent, which is rather a necessity because @REPLAY needs to read the events in the same order as the JOURNALED @BLOCKs are being executed. However, LOG-EVENTs do not affect replay so we can allow more flexibility in routing them. The LOG-RECORD argument of JOURNALED and LOGGED controls where LOG-EVENTs are written both within WITH-JOURNALING and without. The algorithm to determine the target journal is this: 1. If LOG-RECORD is :RECORD, then `(RECORD-JOURNAL)` is returned. 2. If LOG-RECORD is NIL, then it is returned. 3. If LOG-RECORD is a JOURNAL, then it is returned. 4. If LOG-RECORD is symbol (other than NIL), then the SYMBOL-VALUE of that symbol is assigned to LOG-RECORD and we go to step 1. If the return value is NIL, then the event will not be written anywhere, else it is written to the journal returned. This is reminiscent of SYNONYM-STREAMs, also in that it is possible end up in cycles in the resolution. For this reason, the algorithm stop with a JOURNAL-ERROR after 100 iterations. ##### Interactions Events may be written to LOG-RECORD even without an enclosing WITH-JOURNALING, and it does not affect the JOURNAL-STATE. However, it is a JOURNAL-ERROR to write to a :COMPLETED journal (see JOURNAL-STATE). When multiple threads log to the same journal it is guaranteed that individual events are written atomically, but frames from different threads do not necessarily nest. To keep the log informative, the name of thread may be added to the events as @DECORATION. Also see notes on thread @SAFETY. ### Logging with LEAF-EVENTs - [macro] LOGGED (&OPTIONAL (LOG-RECORD :RECORD)) FORMAT-CONTROL &REST FORMAT-ARGS LOGGED creates a single LEAF-EVENT whose name is the string constructed by FORMAT. For example: ``` (with-journaling (:record t) (logged () "Hello, ~A." "world") (list-events)) => ((:LEAF "Hello, world.")) ``` LEAF-EVENTs are LOG-EVENTs with no separate in- and out-events. They have an EVENT-NAME and no other properties. Use LOGGED for point-in-time textual log messages, and JOURNALED with VERSION NIL (i.e. FRAMED) to provide context. Also see @LOG-RECORD. ## Tracing JTRACE behaves similarly to CL:TRACE, but deals @NON-LOCAL-EXITs gracefully. ##### Basic tracing ``` (defun foo (x) (sleep 0.12) (1+ x)) (defun bar (x) (foo (+ x 2)) (error "xxx")) (jtrace foo bar) (ignore-errors (bar 1)) .. .. (BAR 1) .. (FOO 3) .. => 4 .. =E "SIMPLE-ERROR" "xxx" ``` ##### Log-like output It can also include the name of the originating thread and timestamps in the output: ``` (let ((*trace-thread* t) (*trace-time* t)) (ignore-errors (bar 1))) .. .. 2020-09-02T19:58:19.415204+02:00 worker: (BAR 1) .. 2020-09-02T19:58:19.415547+02:00 worker: (FOO 3) .. 2020-09-02T19:58:19.535766+02:00 worker: => 4 .. 2020-09-02T19:58:19.535908+02:00 worker: =E "SIMPLE-ERROR" "xxx" ``` ##### Profiler-like output ``` (let ((*trace-real-time* t) (*trace-run-time* t)) (ignore-errors (bar 1))) .. .. #16735.736 !68.368: (BAR 1) .. #16735.736 !68.369: (FOO 3) .. #16735.857 !68.369: => 4 .. #16735.857 !68.369: =E "SIMPLE-ERROR" "xxx" ``` ##### Customizing the content and the format If these options are insufficient, the content and the format of the trace can be customized: ``` (let ((*trace-journal* (make-pprint-journal :pretty '*trace-pretty* :prettifier (lambda (event depth stream) (format stream "~%Depth: ~A, event: ~S" depth event)) :stream (make-synonym-stream '*error-output*) :log-decorator (lambda (event) (append event '(:custom 7)))))) (ignore-errors (bar 1))) .. .. Depth: 0, event: (:IN BAR :ARGS (1) :CUSTOM 7) .. Depth: 1, event: (:IN FOO :ARGS (3) :CUSTOM 7) .. Depth: 1, event: (:OUT FOO :VALUES (4) :CUSTOM 7) .. Depth: 0, event: (:OUT BAR :ERROR ("SIMPLE-ERROR" "xxx") :CUSTOM 7) ``` In the above, *TRACE-JOURNAL* was bound locally to keep the example from wrecking the global default, but the same effect could be achieved by `SETF`ing PPRINT-JOURNAL-PRETTIFIER, PPRINT-JOURNAL-STREAM and JOURNAL-LOG-DECORATOR. - [macro] JTRACE &REST NAMES Like CL:TRACE, JTRACE takes a list of symbols. When functions denoted by those NAMES are invoked, their names, arguments and outcomes are printed in human readable form to *TRACE-OUTPUT*. These values may not be @READABLE, JTRACE does not care. The format of the output is the same as that of PPRINT-EVENTS. Behind the scenes, JTRACE encapsulates the global functions with NAMES in wrapper that behaves as if `FOO` in the example above was defined like this: ``` (defun foo (x) (framed (foo :args `(,x) :log-record *trace-journal*) (1+ x))) ``` If JTRACE is invoked with no arguments, it returns the list of symbols currently traced. On Lisps other than SBCL, where a function encapsulation facility is not available or it is not used by Journal, JTRACE simply sets SYMBOL-FUNCTION. This solution loses the tracing encapsulation when the function is recompiled. On these platforms, `(JTRACE)` also retraces all functions that should be traced, but aren't. The main advantage of JTRACE over CL:TRACE is the ability to trace errors, not just normal return values. As it is built on JOURNALED, it can also detect - somewhat heuristically - THROWs and similar. - [macro] JUNTRACE &REST NAMES Like CL:UNTRACE, JUNTRACE makes it so that the global functions denoted by the symbols NAMES are no longer traced by JTRACE. When invoked with no arguments, it untraces all traced functions. - [variable] *TRACE-PRETTY* T If *TRACE-PRETTY* is true, then JTRACE produces output like PPRINT-EVENTS, else it's like PRINT-EVENTS. - [variable] *TRACE-THREAD* NIL Controls whether to decorate the trace with the name of the originating thread. See MAKE-LOG-DECORATOR. - [variable] *TRACE-TIME* NIL Controls whether to decorate the trace with a timestamp. See MAKE-LOG-DECORATOR. - [variable] *TRACE-REAL-TIME* NIL Controls whether to decorate the trace with the internal real-time. See MAKE-LOG-DECORATOR. - [variable] *TRACE-RUN-TIME* NIL Controls whether to decorate the trace with the internal run-time. See MAKE-LOG-DECORATOR. - [variable] *TRACE-JOURNAL* #\<PPRINT-JOURNAL :NEW\> The JOURNAL where JTRACE writes LOG-EVENTs. By default it is a PPRINT-JOURNAL that sets up a SYNONYM-STREAM to *TRACE-OUTPUT* and sends its output there. It pays attention to *TRACE-PRETTY*, and its log decorator is affected by *TRACE-TIME* and *TRACE-THREAD*. However, by changing JOURNAL-LOG-DECORATOR and PPRINT-JOURNAL-PRETTIFIER content and output can be customized. ### Slime integration [Slime](https://common-lisp.net/project/slime/) by default binds `C-c C-t` to toggling CL:TRACE. To integrate JTRACE into Slime, add the following ELisp snippet to your Emacs initialization file or load `src/journal.el`: ```elisp (defun slime-toggle-jtrace-fdefinition (spec) "Toggle JTRACE." (interactive (list (slime-read-from-minibuffer "j(un)trace: " (slime-symbol-at-point)))) (message "%s" (slime-eval ;; Silently fail if Journal is not loaded. `(cl:when (cl:find-package :journal) (cl:funcall (cl:find-symbol (cl:symbol-name :swank-toggle-jtrace) :journal) ,spec))))) (define-key slime-mode-map (kbd "C-c C-j") 'slime-toggle-jtrace-fdefinition) (define-key slime-repl-mode-map (kbd "C-c C-j") 'slime-toggle-jtrace-fdefinition) ``` Since JTRACE lacks some features of CL:TRACE, most notably that of tracing non-global functions, it is assigned a separate binding, `C-c C-j`. ## Replay During replay, code is executed normally with special rules for @BLOCKs. There are two modes for dealing with blocks: replaying the code or replaying the outcome. When code is replayed, upon entering and leaving a block, the events generated are matched to events read from the journal being replayed. If the events don't match, a REPLAY-FAILURE is signaled which marks the record journal as having failed the replay. This is intended to make sure that the state of the program during the replay matches the state at the time of recording. In the other mode, when the outcome is replayed, a block may not be executed at all, but its recorded outcome is reproduced (e.g. the recorded return values are returned). Replay can be only be initiated with WITH-JOURNALING (or its close kin WITH-BUNDLE). After the per-event processing described below, when WITH-JOURNALING finishes, it might signal REPLAY-INCOMPLETE if there are unprocessed non-log events left in the replay journal. Replay is deemed successful or failed depending on whether all events are replayed from the replay journal without a REPLAY-FAILURE. A journal that records events from a successful replay can be used in place of the journal that was replayed, and so on. The logic of replacing journals with their successful replays is automated by @BUNDLES. WITH-JOURNALING does not allow replay from journals that were failed replays themselves. The mechanism, in terms of which tracking success and failure of replays is implemented, revolves around [JOURNAL-STATE][type] and [EVENT-VERSION][type]s, which we discuss next. - [type] JOURNAL-STATE JOURNAL's state, with respect to replay, is updated during WITH-JOURNALING. This possible states are: - **:NEW**: This journal was just created, but never recorded to. - **:REPLAYING**: Replaying events has started, some events may have been replayed successfuly, but there are more, non-log events to replay. - **:MISMATCHED**: There was a REPLAY-FAILURE. In this state, VERSIONED-EVENTs generated are downgraded to LOG-EVENTs, EXTERNAL-EVENTs and INVOKED trigger a DATA-EVENT-LOSSAGE. - **:RECORDING**: All events from the replay journal were successfully replayed and now new events are being recorded without being matched to the replay journal. - **:LOGGING**: There was a RECORD-UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME. In this state, VERSIONED-EVENTs generated are downgraded to LOG-EVENTs, EXTERNAL-EVENTs and INVOKED trigger a DATA-EVENT-LOSSAGE. - **:FAILED**: The journal is to be discarded. It encountered a JOURNALING-FAILURE or a REPLAY-FAILURE without completing the replay and reaching :RECORDING. - **:COMPLETED**: All events were successfully replayed and WITH-JOURNALING finished or a JOURNALING-FAILURE occurred while :RECORDING or :LOGGING. The state transitions are: :NEW -> :REPLAYING (on entering WITH-JOURNALING) :REPLAYING -> :MISMATCHED (on REPLAY-FAILURE) :REPLAYING -> :FAILED (on REPLAY-INCOMPLETE) :REPLAYING -> :FAILED (on JOURNALING-FAILURE) :REPLAYING -> :RECORDING (on successfully replaying all events) :MISMATCHED -> :FAILED (on leaving WITH-JOURNALING) :RECORDING -> :LOGGING (on RECORD-UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME) :RECORDING/:LOGGING -> :COMPLETED (on leaving WITH-JOURNALING) :RECORDING/:LOGGING -> :COMPLETED (on JOURNALING-FAILURE) :NEW is the starting state. It is a JOURNAL-ERROR to attempt to write to journals in :COMPLETED. Note that once in :RECORDING, the only possible terminal state is :COMPLETED. ### Journaled for replay The following arguments of JOURNALED control behaviour under replay. - VERSION: see [EVENT-VERSION][type] below. - INSERTABLE controls whether VERSIONED-EVENTs and EXTERNAL-EVENTs may be replayed with the *insert* replay strategy (see @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY). Does not affect LOG-EVENTs, that are always \_insert\_ed. Note that inserting EXTERNAL-EVENTs while :REPLAYING is often not meaningful (e.g. asking the user for input may lead to a REPLAY-FAILURE). See PEEK-REPLAY-EVENT for an example on how to properly insert these kinds of EXTERNAL-EVENTs. - REPLAY-VALUES, a function or NIL, may be called with EVENT-OUTCOME when replaying and :VERSION :INFINITY. NIL is equivalent to VALUES-LIST. See `VALUES<-` for an example. - REPLAY-CONDITION, a function or NIL, may be called with EVENT-OUTCOME (the return value of the function provided as :CONDITION) when replaying and :VERSION is :INFINITY. NIL is equivalent to the ERROR function. Replaying conditions is cumbersome and best avoided. - [variable] *FORCE-INSERTABLE* NIL The default value of the INSERTABLE argument of JOURNALED for VERSIONED-EVENTs. Binding this to T allows en-masse structural upgrades in combination with WITH-REPLAY-FILTER. Does not affect EXTERNAL-EVENTs. See @UPGRADES-AND-REPLAY. - [type] EVENT-VERSION An event's version is either NIL, a positive fixnum, or :INFINITY, which correspond to LOG-EVENTs, VERSIONED-EVENTs, and EXTERNAL-EVENTs, respectively, and have an increasingly strict behaviour with regards to @REPLAY. All EVENTs have versions. The versions of the in- and out-events belonging to the same @FRAME are the same. - [type] LOG-EVENT Events with [EVENT-VERSION][type] NIL called log events. During @REPLAY, they are never matched to events from the replay journal, and log events in the replay do not affect events being recorded either. These properties allow log events to be recorded in arbitrary journals with JOURNALED's LOG-RECORD argument. The convenience macro FRAMED is creating frames of log-events, while the LOGGED generates a log-event that's a LEAF-EVENT. - [type] VERSIONED-EVENT Events with a positive integer [EVENT-VERSION][type] are called versioned events. In @REPLAY, they undergo consistency checks unlike LOG-EVENTs, but the rules for them are less strict than for EXTERNAL-EVENTs. In particular, higher versions are always considered compatible with lower versions, they become an *upgrade* in terms of the @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY, and versioned events can be inserted into the record without a corresponding REPLAY-EVENT with JOURNALED's INSERTABLE. If a VERSIONED-EVENT has an UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME, RECORD-UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME is signalled. - [type] EXTERNAL-EVENT Events with [EVENT-VERSION][type] :INFINITY are called external events. They are like VERSIONED-EVENTs whose version was bumped all the way to infinity, which rules out easy, non-matching upgrades. Also, they are never inserted to the record without a matching replay event (see @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY). In return for these restrictions, external events can be replayed without running the corresponding @BLOCK (see @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME). This allows their out-event variety, called DATA-EVENTs, to be non-deterministic. Data events play a crucial role in @PERSISTENCE. If an EXTERNAL-EVENT has an UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME, RECORD-UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME is signalled. Built on top of JOURNALED, the macros below record a pair of @IN-EVENTS and @OUT-EVENTS, but differ in how they are replayed and the requirements on their @BLOCKs. The following table names the type of EVENT produced (`Event`), how @IN-EVENTS are replayed (`In-e.`), whether the block is always run (`Run`), how @OUT-EVENTS are replayed (`Out-e.`), whether the block must be deterministic (`Det`) or side-effect free (`SEF`). | | Event | In-e. | Run | Out-e. | Det | SEF | |----------+-----------+--------+-----+--------+-----+-----| | FRAMED | log | skip | y | skip | n | n | | CHECKED | versioned | match | y | match | y | n | | REPLAYED | external | match | n | replay | n | y | | INVOKED | versioned | replay | y | match | y | n | Note that the replay-replay combination is not implemented because there is nowhere to return values from replay-triggered functions. - [macro] FRAMED (NAME &KEY LOG-RECORD ARGS VALUES CONDITION) &BODY BODY A wrapper around JOURNALED to produce @FRAMEs of LOG-EVENTs. That is, VERSION is always NIL, and some irrelevant arguments are omitted. The related LOGGED creates a single LEAF-EVENT. With FRAMED, BODY is always run and no REPLAY-FAILUREs are triggered. BODY is not required to be deterministic and it may have side-effects. - [macro] CHECKED (NAME &KEY (VERSION 1) ARGS VALUES CONDITION INSERTABLE) &BODY BODY A wrapper around JOURNALED to produce @FRAMEs of VERSIONED-EVENTs. VERSION defaults to 1. CHECKED is for ensuring that supposedly deterministic processing does not veer off the replay. With CHECKED, BODY - which must be deterministic - is always run and REPLAY-FAILUREs are triggered when the events generated do not match the events in the replay journal. BODY may have side-effects. For further discussion of determinism, see REPLAYED. - [macro] REPLAYED (NAME &KEY ARGS VALUES CONDITION INSERTABLE REPLAY-VALUES REPLAY-CONDITION) &BODY BODY A wrapper around JOURNALED to produce @FRAMEs of EXTERNAL-EVENTs. VERSION is :INFINITY. REPLAYED is for primarily for marking and isolating non-deterministic processing. With REPLAYED, the IN-EVENT is checked for consistency with the replay (as with CHECKED), but BODY is not run (assuming it has a recorded EXPECTED-OUTCOME) and the outcome in the OUT-EVENT is reproduced (see @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME). For this scheme to work, REPLAYED requires its BODY to be side-effect free, but it may be non-deterministic. - [glossary-term] Invoked Invoked refers to functions and blocks defined by DEFINE-INVOKED or FLET-INVOKED. Invoked frames may be recorded in response to asynchronous events, and at replay the presence of its in-event triggers the execution of the function associated with the name of the event. On one hand, FRAMED, CHECKED, REPLAYED or plain JOURNALED have @IN-EVENTS that are always predictable from the code and the preceding events. The control flow - on the level of recorded frames - is deterministic in this sense. On the other hand, Invoked encodes in its IN-EVENT what function to call next, introducing non-deterministic control flow. By letting events choose the code to run, Invoked resembles typical [Event Sourcing][event-sourcing] frameworks. When Invoked is used exclusively, the journal becomes a sequence of events. In contrast, JOURNALED and its wrappers put code first, and the journal will be a projection of the call tree. - [macro] DEFINE-INVOKED FUNCTION-NAME ARGS (NAME &KEY (VERSION 1) INSERTABLE) &BODY BODY DEFINE-INVOKED is intended for recording asynchronous function invocations like event or signal handlers. It defines a function that records VERSIONED-EVENTs with ARGS set to the actual arguments. At replay, it is invoked whenever the recorded IN-EVENT becomes the REPLAY-EVENT. DEFUN and CHECKED rolled into one, DEFINE-INVOKED defines a top-level function with FUNCTION-NAME and ARGS (only simple positional arguments are allowed) and wraps CHECKED with NAME, the same ARGS and INSERTABLE around BODY. Whenever an IN-EVENT becomes the REPLAY-EVENT and it has a DEFINE-INVOKED defined with the name of the event, then FUNCTION-NAME is invoked with EVENT-ARGS. While BODY's return values are recorded as usual, the defined function returns no values to make it less likely to affect control flow in a way that's not possible to reproduce when the function is called by the replay mechanism. ``` (defvar *state*) (define-invoked foo (x) ("foo") (setq *state* (1+ x))) (define-invoked bar (x) ("bar") (setq *state* (+ 2 x))) (if (zerop (random 2)) (foo 0) (bar 1)) ``` The above can be alternatively implemented with REPLAYED explicitly encapsulating the non-determinism: ``` (let ((x (replayed (choose) (random 2)))) (if (zerop x) (checked (foo :args `(,x)) (setq *state* (1+ x))) (checked (bar :args `(,x)) (setq *state* (+ 2 x))))) ``` - [macro] FLET-INVOKED DEFINITIONS &BODY BODY Like DEFINE-INVOKED, but with FLET instead of DEFUN. The event name and the function are associated in the dynamic extent of BODY. WITH-JOURNALING does not change the bindings. The example in DEFINE-INVOKED can be rewritten as: ``` (let ((state nil)) (flet-invoked ((foo (x) ("foo") (setq state (1+ x))) (bar (x) ("bar") (setq state (+ 2 x)))) (if (zerop (random 2)) (foo 0) (bar 1)))) ``` ### Bundles Consider replaying the same code repeatedly, hoping to make progress in the processing. Maybe based on the availability of external input, the code may error out. After each run, one has to decide whether to keep the journal just recorded or stick with the replay journal. A typical solution to this would look like this: ``` (let ((record nil)) (loop (setq record (make-in-memory-journal)) (with-journaling (:record record :replay replay) ...) (when (and ;; RECORD is a valid replay of REPLAY ... (eq (journal-state record) :completed) ;; ... and is also significantly different from it ... (journal-diverged-p record)) ;; so use it for future replays. (setq replay record)))) ``` This is pretty much what bundles automate. The above becomes: ``` (let ((bundle (make-in-memory-bundle))) (loop (with-bundle (bundle) ...))) ``` With FILE-JOURNALs, the motivating example above would be even more complicated, but FILE-BUNDLEs work the same way as IN-MEMORY-BUNDLEs. - [macro] WITH-BUNDLE (BUNDLE) &BODY BODY This is like WITH-JOURNALING where the REPLAY-JOURNAL is the last successfully completed one in BUNDLE, and the RECORD-JOURNAL is a new one created in BUNDLE. When WITH-BUNDLE finishes, the record journal is in JOURNAL-STATE :FAILED or :COMPLETED. To avoid accumulating useless data, the new record is immediately deleted when WITH-BUNDLE finishes if it has not diverged from the replay journal (see JOURNAL-DIVERGENT-P). Because :FAILED journals are always divergent in this sense, they are deleted instead based on whether there is already a previous failed journal in the bundle and the new record is identical to that journal (see IDENTICAL-JOURNALS-P). It is a JOURNAL-ERROR to have concurrent or nested WITH-BUNDLEs on the same bundle. ### The replay strategy The replay process for both @IN-EVENTS and @OUT-EVENTS starts by determining how the generated event (the *new* event from now on) shall be replayed. Roughly, the decision is based on the NAME and VERSION of the new event and the REPLAY-EVENT (the next event to be read from the replay). There are four possible strategies: - **match**: A new in-event must match the replay event in its ARGS. See @MATCHING-IN-EVENTS for details. A new out-event must match the replay event's EXIT and OUTCOME, see @MATCHING-OUT-EVENTS. - **upgrade**: The new event is not matched to any replay event, but an event is consumed from the replay journal. This happens if next new event has the same name as the replay event, but its version is higher. - **insert**: The new event is not matched to any replay event, and no events are consumed from the replay journal, which may be empty. This is always the case for new LOG-EVENTs and when there are no more events to read from the replay journal (unless REPLAY-EOJ-ERROR-P). For VERSIONED-EVENTs, it is affected by setting JOURNALED's INSERTABLE to true (see @JOURNALED-FOR-REPLAY). The out-event's strategy is always *insert* if the strategy for the corresponding in-event was *insert*. - Also, END-OF-JOURNAL, REPLAY-NAME-MISMATCH and REPLAY-VERSION-DOWNGRADE may be signalled. See the algorithm below details. The strategy is determined by the following algorithm, invoked whenever an event is generated by a journaled @BLOCK: 1. Log events are not matched to the replay. If the new event is a log event or a REPLAY-FAILURE has been signalled before (i.e. the record journal's JOURNAL-STATE is :MISMATCHED), then **insert** is returned. 2. Else, log events to be read in the replay journal are skipped, and the next unread, non-log event is peeked at (without advancing the replay journal). - **end of replay**: If there are no replay events left, then: - If REPLAY-EOJ-ERROR-P is NIL in WITH-JOURNALING (the default), **insert** is returned. - If REPLAY-EOJ-ERROR-P is true, then **`END-OF-JOURNAL`** is signalled. - **mismatched name**: Else, if the next unread replay event's name is not EQUAL to the name of the new event, then: - For VERSIONED-EVENTs, **REPLAY-NAME-MISMATCH** is signalled if INSERTABLE is NIL, else **insert** is returned. - For EXTERNAL-EVENTs, **REPLAY-NAME-MISMATCH** is signalled. - **matching name**: Else, if the name of the next unread event in the replay journal is EQUAL to the name of new event, then it is chosen as the *replay* event. - If the replay event's version is higher than the new event's version, then **REPLAY-VERSION-DOWNGRADE** is signalled. - If the two versions are equal, then **match** is returned. - If the new event's version is higher, then **upgrade** is returned. Where :INFINITY is considered higher than any integer and equal to itself. In summary: | new event | end-of-replay | mismatched name | matching name | |-----------+-------------------+-------------------+---------------| | Log | insert | insert | insert | | Versioned | insert/eoj-error | insert/name-error | match-version | | External | insert/eoj-error | insert/name-error | match-version | Version matching (`match-version` above) is based which event has a higher version: | replay event | = | new event | |-----------------+-------+-----------| | downgrade-error | match | upgrade | - [glossary-term] replay event The replay event is the next event to be read from REPLAY-JOURNAL which is not to be skipped. There may be no replay event if there are no more unread events in the replay journal. An event in the replay journal is skipped if it is a LOG-EVENT or there is a WITH-REPLAY-FILTER with a matching :SKIP. If :SKIP is in effect, the replay event may be indeterminate. Events from the replay journal are read when they are `:MATCH`ed or `:UPGRADE`d (see @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY), when nested events are echoed while @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME, or when there is an INVOKED defined with the same name as the replay event. The replay event is available via PEEK-REPLAY-EVENT. ### Matching in-events If the replay strategy is *match*, then, for in-events, the matching process continues like this: - If the [EVENT-ARGS][] are not EQUAL, then **`REPLAY-ARGS-MISMATCH`** signalled. - At this point, two things might happen: - For VERSIONED-EVENTs, the @BLOCK will be executed as normal and its outcome will be matched to the REPLAY-EVENT (see @MATCHING-OUT-EVENTS). - For EXTERNAL-EVENTs, the corresponding replay OUT-EVENT is looked at. If there is one, meaning that the frame finished with an EXPECTED-OUTCOME, then its outcome will be replayed (see @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME). If the OUT-EVENT is missing, then EXTERNAL-EVENTs behave like VERSIONED-EVENTs, and the @BLOCK is executed. #### Replaying the outcome So, if an in-event is triggered that matches the replay, EVENT-VERSION is :INFINITY, then normal execution is altered in the following manner: - The journaled @BLOCK is not executed. - To keep execution and the replay journal in sync, events of frames nested in the current one are skipped over in the replay journal. - All events (including LOG-EVENTs) skipped over are echoed to the record journal. This serves to keep a trail of what happened during the original recording. Note that functions corresponding to INVOKED frames are called when their IN-EVENT is skipped over. - The out-event corresponding to the in-event being processed is then read from the replay journal and is recorded again (to allow recording to function properly). To be able to reproduce the outcome in the replay journal, some assistance may be required from REPLAY-VALUES and REPLAY-CONDITION: - If the REPLAY-EVENT has normal return (i.e. EVENT-EXIT :VALUES), then the recorded return values (in EVENT-OUTCOME) are returned immediately as in `(VALUES-LIST (EVENT-OUTCOME REPLAY-EVENT))`. If REPLAY-VALUES is specified, it is called instead of VALUES-LIST. See @WORKING-WITH-UNREADABLE-VALUES for an example. - Similarly, if the replay event has unwound with an expected condition (has EVENT-EXIT :CONDITION), then the recorded condition (in EVENT-OUTCOME) is signalled as IN `(ERROR (EVENT-OUTCOME REPLAY-EVENT))`. If REPLAY-CONDITION is specified, it is called instead of ERROR. REPLAY-CONDITION must not return normally. WITH-REPLAY-FILTER's NO-REPLAY-OUTCOME can selectively turn off replaying the outcome. See @TESTING-ON-MULTIPLE-LEVELS, for an example. ### Matching out-events If there were no @REPLAY-FAILURES during the matching of the IN-EVENT, and the conditions for @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME were not met, then the @BLOCK is executed. When the outcome of the block is determined, an OUT-EVENT is triggered and is matched to the replay journal. The matching of out-events starts out as in @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY with checks for EVENT-NAME and [EVENT-VERSION][function]. If the replay strategy is *insert* or *upgrade*, then the out-event is written to RECORD-JOURNAL, consuming an event with a matching name from the REPLAY-JOURNAL in the latter case. If the strategy is *match*, then: - If the new event has an UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME, then **REPLAY-UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME** is signalled. Note that the replay event always has an EXPECTED-OUTCOME due to the handling of RECORD-UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME. - If the new event has an EXPECTED-OUTCOME, then unless the new and REPLAY-EVENT's EVENT-EXITs are `EQ` and their EVENT-OUTCOMEs are EQUAL, **REPLAY-OUTCOME-MISMATCH** is signalled. - Else, the replay event is consumed and the new event is written the RECORD-JOURNAL. Note that @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY for the in-event and the out-event of the same @FRAME may differ if the corresponding out-event is not present in REPLAY-JOURNAL, which may be the case when the recording process failed hard without unwinding properly, or when an UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME triggered the transition to JOURNAL-STATE :LOGGING. ### Replay failures - [condition] REPLAY-FAILURE SERIOUS-CONDITION A common superclass (never signalled itself) for all kinds of mismatches between the events produced and the replay journal. Signalled only in JOURNAL-STATE :REPLAYING and only once per WITH-JOURNALING. If a REPLAY-FAILURE is signalled for an EVENT, then the event will be recorded, but RECORD-JOURNAL will transition to JOURNAL-STATE :MISMATCHED. Like JOURNALING-FAILURE, this is a serious condition because it is to be handled outside the enclosing WITH-JOURNALING. If a REPLAY-FAILURE were to be handled inside the WITH-JOURNALING, keep in mind that in :MISMATCHED, replay always uses the *insert* replay strategy (see @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY). - [reader] REPLAY-FAILURE-NEW-EVENT REPLAY-FAILURE (:NEW-EVENT) - [reader] REPLAY-FAILURE-REPLAY-EVENT REPLAY-FAILURE (:REPLAY-EVENT) - [reader] REPLAY-FAILURE-REPLAY-JOURNAL REPLAY-FAILURE (= '(REPLAY-JOURNAL)) - [condition] REPLAY-NAME-MISMATCH REPLAY-FAILURE Signaled when the new event's and REPLAY-EVENT's EVENT-NAME are not EQUAL. The REPLAY-FORCE-INSERT, REPLAY-FORCE-UPGRADE restarts are provided. - [condition] REPLAY-VERSION-DOWNGRADE REPLAY-FAILURE Signaled when the new event and the REPLAY-EVENT have the same EVENT-NAME, but the new event has a lower version. The REPLAY-FORCE-UPGRADE restart is provided. - [condition] REPLAY-ARGS-MISMATCH REPLAY-FAILURE Signaled when the new event's and REPLAY-EVENT's EVENT-ARGS are not EQUAL. The REPLAY-FORCE-UPGRADE restart is provided. - [condition] REPLAY-OUTCOME-MISMATCH REPLAY-FAILURE Signaled when the new event's and REPLAY-EVENT's EVENT-EXIT and/or EVENT-OUTCOME are not EQUAL. The REPLAY-FORCE-UPGRADE restart is provided. - [condition] REPLAY-UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME REPLAY-FAILURE Signaled when the new event has an UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME. Note that the REPLAY-EVENT always has an EXPECTED-OUTCOME due to the logic of RECORD-UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME. No restarts are provided. - [condition] REPLAY-INCOMPLETE REPLAY-FAILURE Signaled if there are unprocessed non-log events in REPLAY-JOURNAL when WITH-JOURNALING finishes and the body of WITH-JOURNALING returned normally, which is to prevent this condition to cancel an ongoing unwinding. No restarts are provided. - [restart] REPLAY-FORCE-INSERT This restart forces @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY to be :INSERT, overriding REPLAY-NAME-MISMATCH. This is intended for upgrades, and extreme care must be taken not to lose data. - [restart] REPLAY-FORCE-UPGRADE This restart forces @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY to be :UPGRADE, overriding REPLAY-NAME-MISMATCH, REPLAY-VERSION-DOWNGRADE, REPLAY-ARGS-MISMATCH, REPLAY-OUTCOME-MISMATCH. This is intended for upgrades, and extreme care must be taken not to lose data. ### Upgrades and replay The replay mechanism is built on the assumption that the tree of @FRAMEs is the same when the code is replayed as it was when the replay journal was originally recorded. Thus, non-deterministic control flow poses a challenge, but non-determinism can be isolated with EXTERNAL-EVENTs. However, when the code changes, we might find the structure of frames in previous recordings hard to accommodate. In this case, we might decide to alter the structure, giving up some of the safety provided by the replay mechanism. There are various tools at our disposal to control this tradeoff between safety and flexibility: - We can insert individual frames with JOURNALED's INSERTABLE, upgrade frames by bumping JOURNALED's VERSION, and filter frames with WITH-REPLAY-FILTER. This option allows for the most consistency checks. - The REPLAY-FORCE-UPGRADE and REPLAY-FORCE-INSERT restarts allow overriding @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY, but their use requires great care to be taken. - Or we may decide to keep the bare minimum of the replay journal around, and discard everything except for EXTERNAL-EVENTs. This option is equivalent to (let ((*force-insertable* t)) (with-replay-filter (:skip '((:name nil))) 42)) - Rerecording the journal without replay might be another option if there are no EXTERNAL-EVENTs to worry about. - Finally, we can rewrite the replay journal using the low-level interface (see @STREAMLETS-REFERENCE). In this case, extreme care must be taken not to corrupt the journal (and lose data) as there are no consistency checks to save us. With that, let's see how WITH-REPLAY-FILTER works. - [macro] WITH-REPLAY-STREAMLET (VAR) &BODY BODY Open REPLAY-JOURNAL for reading with WITH-OPEN-JOURNAL set the READ-POSITION on it to the event next read by the @REPLAY mechanism (which is never a LOG-EVENT). The low-level @READING-FROM-STREAMLETS api is then available to inspect the contents of the replay. It is an error if REPLAY-JOURNAL is NIL. - [function] PEEK-REPLAY-EVENT Return the REPLAY-EVENT to be read from REPLAY-JOURNAL. This is roughly equivalent to ``` (when (replay-journal) (with-replay-streamlet (streamlet) (peek-event streamlet)) ``` except PEEK-REPLAY-EVENT takes into account WITH-REPLAY-FILTER :MAP, and it may return `(:INDETERMINATE)` if WITH-REPLAY-FILTER :SKIP is in effect and what events are to be skipped cannot be decided until the next in-event generated by the code. Imagine a business process for paying an invoice. In the first version of this process, we just pay the invoice: ``` (replayed (pay)) ``` We have left the implementation of PAY blank. In the second version, we need to get an approval first: ``` (when (replayed (get-approval) (= (random 2) 0)) (replayed (pay))) ``` Replaying a journal produced by the first version of the code with the second version would run into difficulties because inserting EXTERNAL-EVENTs is tricky. We have to first decide how to handle the lack of approval in the first version. Here, we just assume the processes started by the first version get approval automatically. The implementation is based on a dummy `PROCESS` block whose version is bumped when the payment process changes and is inspected at the start of journaling. When v1 is replayed with v2, we introduce an INSERTABLE, versioned `GET-APPROVAL` block that just returns T. When replaying the code again, still with v2, the `GET-APPROVAL` block will be upgraded to :INFINITY. ``` (let ((bundle (make-in-memory-bundle))) ;; First version of the payment process. Just pay. (with-bundle (bundle) (checked (process :version 1)) (replayed (pay))) ;; Second version of the payment process. Only pay if approved. (loop repeat 2 do (with-bundle (bundle) (let ((replay-process-event (peek-replay-event))) (checked (process :version 2)) (when (if (and replay-process-event (< (event-version replay-process-event) 2)) ;; This will be upgraded to :INFINITY the second ;; time around the LOOP. (checked (get-approval :insertable t) t) (replayed (get-approval) (= (random 2) 0))) (replayed (pay))))))) ``` - [macro] WITH-REPLAY-FILTER (&KEY MAP SKIP NO-REPLAY-OUTCOME) &BODY BODY WITH-REPLAY-FILTER performs journal upgrade during replay by allowing events to be transformed as they are read from the replay journal or skipped if they match some patterns. For how to add new blocks in a code upgrade, see JOURNALED's :INSERTABLE argument. In addition, it also allows some control over @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME. - MAP: A function called with an event read from the replay journal which returns a transformed event. See @EVENTS-REFERENCE. MAP takes effect before before SKIP. - SKIP: In addition to filtering out LOG-EVENTs (which always happens during replay), filter out all events that belong to descendant frames that match any of its SKIP patterns. Filtered out events are never seen by JOURNALED as it replays events. SKIP patterns are of the format `(&KEY NAME VERSION<)`, where VERSION< is a valid [EVENT-VERSION][type], and NAME may be NIL, which acts as a wildcard. SKIP is for when JOURNALED @BLOCKs are removed from the code, which would render replaying previously recorded journals impossible. Note that, for reasons of safety, it is not possible to filter EXTERNAL-EVENTs. - NO-REPLAY-OUTCOME is a list of EVENT-NAMEs. @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME is prevented for frames with EQUAL names. See @TESTING-ON-MULTIPLE-LEVELS for an example. WITH-REPLAY-FILTER affects only the immediately enclosing WITH-JOURNALING. A WITH-REPLAY-FILTER nested within another in the same WITH-JOURNALING inherits the SKIP patterns of its parent, to which it adds its own. The MAP function is applied to before the parent's MAP. Examples of SKIP patterns: ``` ;; Match events with name FOO and version 1, 2, 3 or 4 (:name foo :version< 5) ;; Match events with name BAR and any version (:name bar :version< :infinity) ;; Same as the previous (:name bar) ;; Match all names (:name nil) ;; Same as the previous () ``` Skipping can be thought of as removing nodes of the tree of frames, connecting its children to its parent. The following example removes frames `J1` and `J2` from around `J3`, the `J1` frame from within `J3`, and the third `J1` frame. ``` (let ((journal (make-in-memory-journal))) ;; Record trees J1 -> J2 -> J3 -> J1, and J1. (with-journaling (:record journal) (checked (j1) (checked (j2) (checked (j3) (checked (j1) 42)))) (checked (j1) 7)) ;; Filter out all occurrences of VERSIONED-EVENTs named J1 and ;; J2 from the replay, leaving only J3 to match. (with-journaling (:replay journal :record t :replay-eoj-error-p t) (with-replay-filter (:skip '((:name j1) (:name j2))) (checked (j3) 42)))) ``` ## Testing Having discussed the @REPLAY mechanism, next are @TESTING and @PERSISTENCE, which rely heavily on replay. Suppose we want to unit test user registration. Unfortunately, the code communicates with a database service and also takes input from the user. A natural solution is to create [mocks][mock-object] for these external systems to unshackle the test from the cumbersome database dependency and to allow it to run without user interaction. We do this below by wrapping external interaction in JOURNALED with :VERSION :INFINITY (see @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME). ``` (defparameter *db* (make-hash-table)) (defun set-key (key value) (replayed ("set-key" :args `(,key ,value)) (format t "Updating db~%") (setf (gethash key *db*) value) nil)) (defun get-key (key) (replayed ("get-key" :args `(,key)) (format t "Query db~%") (gethash key *db*))) (defun ask-username () (replayed ("ask-username") (format t "Please type your username: ") (read-line))) (defun maybe-win-the-grand-prize () (checked ("maybe-win-the-grand-prize") (when (= 1000000 (hash-table-count *db*)) (format t "You are the lucky one!")))) (defun register-user (username) (unless (get-key username) (set-key username `(:user-object :username ,username)) (maybe-win-the-grand-prize))) ``` Now we write a test that records these interactions in a file when it's run for the first time. ``` (define-file-bundle-test (test-user-registration :directory (asdf:system-relative-pathname :journal "test/registration/")) (let ((username (ask-username))) (register-user username) (assert (get-key username)) (register-user username) (assert (get-key username)))) ;; Original recording: everything is executed JRN> (test-user-registration) Please type your username: joe Query db Updating db Query db Query db Query db => NIL ``` On reruns, none of the external stuff is executed. The return values of the external JOURNALED blocks are replayed from the journal: ``` ;; Replay: all external interactions are mocked. JRN> (test-user-registration) => NIL ``` Should the code change, we might want to upgrade carefully (see @UPGRADES-AND-REPLAY) or just rerecord from scratch: ``` JRN> (test-user-registration :rerecord t) Please type your username: joe Query db Updating db Query db Query db Query db => NIL ``` Thus satisfied that our test runs, we can commit the journal file in the bundle into version control. Its contents are: ``` (:IN "ask-username" :VERSION :INFINITY) (:OUT "ask-username" :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES ("joe" NIL)) (:IN "get-key" :VERSION :INFINITY :ARGS ("joe")) (:OUT "get-key" :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (NIL NIL)) (:IN "set-key" :VERSION :INFINITY :ARGS ("joe" (:USER-OBJECT :USERNAME "joe"))) (:OUT "set-key" :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (NIL)) (:IN "maybe-win-the-grand-prize" :VERSION 1) (:OUT "maybe-win-the-grand-prize" :VERSION 1 :VALUES (NIL)) (:IN "get-key" :VERSION :INFINITY :ARGS ("joe")) (:OUT "get-key" :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES ((:USER-OBJECT :USERNAME "joe") T)) (:IN "get-key" :VERSION :INFINITY :ARGS ("joe")) (:OUT "get-key" :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES ((:USER-OBJECT :USERNAME "joe") T)) (:IN "get-key" :VERSION :INFINITY :ARGS ("joe")) (:OUT "get-key" :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES ((:USER-OBJECT :USERNAME "joe") T)) ``` Note that when this journal is replayed, new VERSIONED-EVENTs are required to match the replay. So after the original recording, we can check by eyeballing that the record represents a correct execution. Then on subsequent replays, even though `MAYBE-WIN-THE-GRAND-PRIZE` sits behind `REGISTER-USER` and is hard to test with ASSERTs, the replay mechanism verifies that it is called only for new users. This record-and-replay style of testing is not the only possibility: direct inspection of a journal with the low-level events api (see @EVENTS-REFERENCE) can facilitate checking non-local invariants. - [macro] DEFINE-FILE-BUNDLE-TEST (NAME &KEY DIRECTORY (EQUIVALENTP T)) &BODY BODY Define a function with NAME for record-and-replay testing. The function's BODY is executed in a WITH-BUNDLE to guarantee replayability. The bundle in question is a FILE-BUNDLE created in DIRECTORY. The function has a single keyword argument, RERECORD. If RERECORD is true, the bundle is deleted with DELETE-FILE-BUNDLE to start afresh. Furthermore, if BODY returns normally, and it is a replay of a previous run, and EQUIVALENTP, then it is ASSERTed that the record and replay journals are EQUIVALENT-REPLAY-JOURNALS-P. If this check fails, RECORD-JOURNAL is discarded when the function returns. In addition to the replay consistency, this checks that no inserts or upgrades were performed (see @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY). ### Testing on multiple levels Nesting REPLAYEDs (that is, @FRAMEs of EXTERNAL-EVENTs) is not obviously useful since the outer REPLAYED will be replayed by outcome, and the inner one will be just echoed to the record journal. However, if we turn off @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME for the outer, the inner will be replayed. This is useful for testing layered communication. For example, we might have written code that takes input from an external system (READ-LINE) and does some complicated processing (READ-FROM-STRING) before returning the input in a form suitable for further processing. Suppose we wrap REPLAYED around READ-FROM-STRING for @PERSISTENCE because putting it around READ-LINE would expose low-level protocol details in the journal, making protocol changes difficult. However, upon realizing that READ-FROM-STRING was not the best tool for the job and switching to PARSE-INTEGER, we want to test by replaying all previously recorded journals. For this, we prevent the outer REPLAYED from being replayed by outcome with WITH-REPLAY-FILTER: ``` (let ((bundle (make-in-memory-bundle))) ;; Original with READ-FROM-STRING (with-bundle (bundle) (replayed ("accept-number") (values (read-from-string (replayed ("input-number") (read-line)))))) ;; Switch to PARSE-INTEGER and test by replay. (with-bundle (bundle) (with-replay-filter (:no-replay-outcome '("accept-number")) (replayed ("accept-number") ;; 1+ is our bug. (values (1+ (parse-integer (replayed ("input-number") (read-line))))))))) ``` The inner `input-number` block is replayed by outcome, and PARSE-INTEGER is called with the string READ-LINE returned in the original invocation. The outcome of the outer `accept-number` block checked as if it was a VERSIONED-EVENT and we get a REPLAY-OUTCOME-MISMATCH due to the bug. ## Persistence ### Persistence tutorial Let's write a simple game. ``` (defun play-guess-my-number () (let ((my-number (replayed (think-of-a-number) (random 10)))) (format t "~%I thought of a number.~%") (loop for i upfrom 0 do (write-line "Guess my number:") (let ((guess (replayed (read-guess) (values (parse-integer (read-line)))))) (format t "You guessed ~D.~%" guess) (when (= guess my-number) (checked (game-won :args `(,(1+ i)))) (format t "You guessed it in ~D tries!" (1+ i)) (return)))))) (defparameter *the-evergreen-game* (make-in-memory-bundle)) ``` ##### Original recording Unfortunately, the implementation is lacking in the input validation department. In the transcript below, PARSE-INTEGER fails with `junk in string` when the user enters `not a number`: ``` CL-USER> (handler-case (with-bundle (*the-evergreen-game*) (play-guess-my-number)) (error (e) (format t "Oops. ~A~%" e))) I thought of a number. Guess my number: 7 ; real user input You guessed 7. Guess my number: not a number ; real user input Oops. junk in string "not a number" ``` ##### Replay and extension Instead of fixing this bug, we just restart the game from the beginning, @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME of external interactions marked with REPLAYED: ``` CL-USER> (with-bundle (*the-evergreen-game*) (play-guess-my-number)) I thought of a number. Guess my number: You guessed 7. Guess my number: ; New recording starts here 5 ; real user input You guessed 5. Guess my number: 4 ; real user input You guessed 4. Guess my number: 2 ; real user input You guessed 2. You guessed it in 4 tries! ``` ##### It's evergreen We can now replay this game many times without any user interaction: ``` CL-USER> (with-bundle (*the-evergreen-game*) (play-guess-my-number)) I thought of a number. Guess my number: You guessed 7. Guess my number: You guessed 5. Guess my number: You guessed 4. Guess my number: You guessed 2. You guessed it in 4 tries! ``` ##### The generated events This simple mechanism allows us to isolate external interactions and write tests in record-and-replay style based on the events produced: ``` CL-USER> (list-events *the-evergreen-game*) ((:IN THINK-OF-A-NUMBER :VERSION :INFINITY) (:OUT THINK-OF-A-NUMBER :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (2)) (:IN READ-GUESS :VERSION :INFINITY) (:OUT READ-GUESS :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (7)) (:IN READ-GUESS :VERSION :INFINITY :ARGS NIL) (:OUT READ-GUESS :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (5)) (:IN READ-GUESS :VERSION :INFINITY :ARGS NIL) (:OUT READ-GUESS :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (4)) (:IN READ-GUESS :VERSION :INFINITY :ARGS NIL) (:OUT READ-GUESS :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (2)) (:IN GAME-WON :VERSION 1 :ARGS (4)) (:OUT GAME-WON :VERSION 1 :VALUES (NIL))) ``` In fact, being able to replay this game at all already checks it through the `GAME-WON` event that the number of tries calculation is correct. In addition, thus being able to reconstruct the internal state of the program gives us persistence by replay. If instead of a IN-MEMORY-BUNDLE, we used a FILE-BUNDLE, the game would have been saved on disk without having to write any code for saving and loading the game state. ##### Discussion Persistence by replay, also known as [Event Sourcing][event-sourcing], is appropriate when the external interactions are well-defined and stable. Storing events shines in comparison to persisting state when the control flow is too complicated to be interrupted and resumed easily. Resuming execution in deeply nested function calls is fraught with such peril that it is often easier to flatten the program into a state machine, which is as pleasant as manually managing [continuations][continuation]. [continuation]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation In contrast, the Journal library does not favour certain styles of control flow, and only requires that non-determinism is packaged up in REPLAYED, which allows it to reconstruct the state of the program from the recorded events at any point during its execution and resume from there. ### Synchronization to storage In the following, we explore how journals can serve as a persistence mechanism and the guarantees they offer. The high-level summary is that journals with SYNC can serve as a durable and consistent storage medium. The other two [ACID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACID) properties, atomicity and isolation, do not apply because Journal is single-client and does not need transactions. - [glossary-term] aborted execution Aborted execution is when the operating system or the application crashes, calls `abort()`, is killed by a `SIGKILL` signal or there is a power outage. Synchronization guarantees are defined in face of aborted execution and do not apply to hardware errors, Lisp or OS bugs. - [glossary-term] data event Data events are the only events that may be non-deterministic. They record information which could change if the same code were run multiple times. Data events typically correspond to interactions with the user, servers or even the random number generator. Due to their non-determinism, they are the only parts of the journal not reproducible by rerunning the code. In this sense, only data events are not redundant with the code and whether other events are persisted does not affect durability. There are two kinds of data events: - An EXTERNAL-EVENT that is also an OUT-EVENT. - The IN-EVENT of an INVOKED function, which lies outside the normal, deterministic control flow. #### Synchronization strategies When a journal or bundle is created (see MAKE-IN-MEMORY-JOURNAL, MAKE-FILE-JOURNAL, MAKE-IN-MEMORY-BUNDLE, MAKE-FILE-BUNDLE), the SYNC option determines when - as a RECORD-JOURNAL - the recorded events and JOURNAL-STATE changes are persisted durably. For FILE-JOURNALs, persisting means calling something like `fsync()`, while for IN-MEMORY-JOURNALs, a user defined function is called to persist the data. - NIL: Never synchronize. A FILE-JOURNAL's file may be corrupted on ABORTED-EXECUTION. In IN-MEMORY-JOURNALs, SYNC-FN is never called. - T: This is the *no data loss* setting with minimal synchronization. It guarantees *consistency* (i.e. no corruption) and *durability* up to the most recent DATA-EVENT written in JOURNAL-STATE :RECORDING or for the entire record journal in states :FAILED and :COMPLETED. :FAILED or :COMPLETED is guaranteed when leaving WITH-JOURNALING at the latest. - Values other than NIL and T are reserved for future extensions. Using them triggers a JOURNAL-ERROR. #### Synchronization with in-memory journals Unlike FILE-JOURNALs, IN-MEMORY-JOURNALs do not have any built-in persistent storage backing them, but with SYNC-FN, persistence can be tacked on. If non-NIL, SYNC-FN must be a function of a single argument, an IN-MEMORY-JOURNAL. SYNC-FN is called according to @SYNCHRONIZATION-STRATEGIES, and upon normal return the journal must be stored durably. The following example saves the entire journal history when a new DATA-EVENT is recorded. Note how `SYNC-TO-DB` is careful to overwrite `*DB*` only if it is called with a journal that has not failed the replay (as in @REPLAY-FAILURES) and is sufficiently different from the replay journal as determined by JOURNAL-DIVERGENT-P. ``` (defparameter *db* ()) (defun sync-to-db (journal) (when (and (member (journal-state journal) '(:recording :logging :completed)) (journal-divergent-p journal)) (setq *db* (journal-events journal)) (format t "Saved ~S~%New events from position ~S~%" *db* (journal-previous-sync-position journal)))) (defun make-db-backed-record-journal () (make-in-memory-journal :sync-fn 'sync-to-db)) (defun make-db-backed-replay-journal () (make-in-memory-journal :events *db*)) (with-journaling (:record (make-db-backed-record-journal) :replay (make-db-backed-replay-journal)) (replayed (a) 2) (ignore-errors (replayed (b) (error "Whoops")))) .. Saved #((:IN A :VERSION :INFINITY) .. (:OUT A :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (2))) .. New events from position 0 .. Saved #((:IN A :VERSION :INFINITY) .. (:OUT A :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (2)) .. (:IN B :VERSION :INFINITY) .. (:OUT B :ERROR ("SIMPLE-ERROR" "Whoops"))) .. New events from position 2 .. ``` In a real application, external events often involve unreliable or high-latency communication. In the above example, block `B` signals an error, say, to simulate some kind of network condition. Now a new journal *for replay* is created and initialized with the saved events and the whole process is restarted. ``` (defun run-with-db () (with-journaling (:record (make-db-backed-record-journal) :replay (make-db-backed-replay-journal)) (replayed (a) (format t "A~%") 2) (replayed (b) (format t "B~%") 3))) (run-with-db) .. B .. Saved #((:IN A :VERSION :INFINITY) .. (:OUT A :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (2)) .. (:IN B :VERSION :INFINITY) .. (:OUT B :VERSION :INFINITY :VALUES (3))) .. New events from position 0 .. => 3 ``` Note that on the rerun, block `A` is not executed because external events are replayed simply by reproducing their outcome, in this case returning 2. See @REPLAYING-THE-OUTCOME. Block `B`, on the other hand, was rerun because it had an UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME the first time around. This time it ran without error, a DATA-EVENT was triggered and SYNC-FN invoked. If we were to invoke the now completed `RUN-WITH-DB` again, it would simply return 3 without ever invoking SYNC-FN: ``` (run-with-db) => 3 ``` With JOURNAL-REPLAY-MISMATCH, SYNC-FN can be optimized to to reuse the sequence of events in the replay journal up until the point of divergence. #### Synchronization with file journals For FILE-JOURNALs, SYNC determines when the events written to the RECORD-JOURNAL and its JOURNAL-STATE will be persisted durably in the file. Syncing to the file involves two calls to `fsync()`, and is not cheap. Syncing events to files is implemented as follows. - When the journal file is created, its parent directory is immediately fsynced to make sure that the file will not be lost on ABORTED-EXECUTION. - When an event is about to be written the first time after file creation or after a sync, a transaction start marker is written to the file. - Any number of events may be subsequently written until syncing is deemed necessary (see @SYNCHRONIZATION-STRATEGIES). - At this point, `fsync()` is called to flush all event data and state changes to the file, and the transaction start marker is *overwritten* with a transaction completed marker and another `fsync()` is performed. - When reading back this file (e.g. for replay), an open transaction marker is treated as the end of file. Note that this implementation assumes that after writing the start transaction marker a crash cannot leave any kind of garbage bytes around: it must leave zeros. This is not true for all filesytems. For example, ext3/ext4 with `data=writeback` [can leave garbage around][ext4-writeback]. [ext4-writeback]: https://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Ext3_Data=Ordered_vs_Data=Writeback_mode ## Safety ##### Thread safety Changes to journals come in two varieties: adding an event and changing the JOURNAL-STATE. Both are performed by JOURNALED only unless the low-level streamlet interface is used (see @STREAMLETS-REFERENCE). Using JOURNALED wrapped in a WITH-JOURNALING, WITH-BUNDLE, or @LOG-RECORD without WITH-JOURNALING is thread-safe. - Every journal is guaranteed to have at most a single writer active at any time. Writers are WITH-JOURNALING and WITH-BUNDLE, but also any journals used as LOG-RECORD (unless that journal is the RECORD-JOURNAL) have a log writer stored in the journal object. - WITH-JOURNALING and WITH-BUNDLE have dynamic extent as writers, but log writers of journals have indefinite extent: once a journal is used as a LOG-RECORD there remains a writer. - Attempting to create a second writer triggers a JOURNAL-ERROR. - Writing to the same journal via LOG-RECORD from multiple threads concurrently is possible since this doesn't create multiple writers. It is ensured with locking that events are written atomically. Frames can be interleaved, but these are LOG-EVENTs, so this does not affect replay. - The juggling of replay and record journals performed by WITH-BUNDLE is also thread-safe. - It is ensured that there is at most one FILE-JOURNAL object in the same Lisp image is backed by the same file. - Similarly, there is at most FILE-BUNDLE object for a directory. ##### Process safety Currently, there is no protection against multiple OS processes writing the same FILE-JOURNAL or FILE-BUNDLE. ##### Signal safety Journal is *designed* to be @ASYNC-UNWIND safe, but *not reentrant*. Interrupts are disabled only for the most critical cleanup forms. If a thread is killed without unwinding, that constitutes ABORTED-EXECUTION, so guarantees about @SYNCHRONIZATION apply, but JOURNAL objects written by the thread are not safe to access, and the Lisp should probably be restarted. ## Events reference Events are normally triggered upon entering and leaving the dynamic extent of a JOURNALED @BLOCK (see @IN-EVENTS and @OUT-EVENTS) and also by LOGGED. Apart from being part of the low-level substrate of the Journal library, working with events directly is sometimes useful when writing tests that inspect recorded events. Otherwise, skip this entire section. All EVENTs have EVENT-NAME and EVENT-VERSION, which feature prominently in @THE-REPLAY-STRATEGY. After the examples in @IN-EVENTS and @OUT-EVENTS, the following example is a reminder of how events look in the simplest case. ``` (with-journaling (:record t) (journaled (foo :version 1 :args '(1 2)) (+ 1 2)) (logged () "Oops") (list-events)) => ((:IN FOO :VERSION 1 :ARGS (1 2)) (:OUT FOO :VERSION 1 :VALUES (3)) (:LEAF "Oops")) ``` So a JOURNALED @BLOCK generates an IN-EVENT and an OUT-EVENT, which are simple property lists. The following reference lists these properties, there semantics and the functions to read them. - [type] EVENT An event is either an IN-EVENT, an OUT-EVENT or a LEAF-EVENT. - [function] EVENT= EVENT-1 EVENT-2 Return whether EVENT-1 and EVENT-2 represent the same event. In- and out-events belonging to the same @FRAME are *not* the same event. EVENT-OUTCOME is not compared when EVENT-EXIT is :ERROR to avoid undue dependence on implementation specific string representations. This function is useful in conjunction with MAKE-IN-EVENT and MAKE-OUT-EVENT to write tests. - [function] EVENT-NAME EVENT The name of an event can be of any type. It is often a symbol or a string. When replaying, names may be compared with EQUAL. All EVENTs have names. The names of the in- and out-events belonging to the same @FRAME are the same. ### Event versions - [function] EVENT-VERSION EVENT Return the version of EVENT of type EVENT-VERSION. - [function] LOG-EVENT-P EVENT See if EVENT is a LOG-EVENT. - [function] VERSIONED-EVENT-P EVENT See if EVENT is a VERSIONED-EVENT. - [function] EXTERNAL-EVENT-P EVENT See if EVENT is an EXTERNAL-EVENT. ### In-events - [type] IN-EVENT IN-EVENTs are triggered upon entering the dynamic extent of a JOURNALED @BLOCK. IN-EVENTs have EVENT-NAME, [EVENT-VERSION][function], and EVENT-ARGS. See @IN-EVENTS for a more introductory treatment. - [function] IN-EVENT-P EVENT See if EVENT is a IN-EVENT. - [function] MAKE-IN-EVENT &KEY NAME VERSION ARGS Create an IN-EVENT with NAME, VERSION (of type EVENT-VERSION) and ARGS as its EVENT-NAME, [EVENT-VERSION][function] and EVENT-ARGS. - [function] EVENT-ARGS IN-EVENT Return the arguments of IN-EVENT, normally populated with the ARGS form in JOURNALED. ### Out-events - [type] OUT-EVENT OUT-EVENTs are triggered upon leaving the dynamic extent of the JOURNALED @BLOCK. OUT-EVENTs have EVENT-NAME, [EVENT-VERSION][function], [EVENT-EXIT][function] and EVENT-OUTCOME. See @OUT-EVENTS for a more introductory treatment. - [function] OUT-EVENT-P EVENT See if EVENT is an OUT-EVENT. - [function] MAKE-OUT-EVENT &KEY NAME VERSION EXIT OUTCOME Create an OUT-EVENT with NAME, VERSION (of type EVENT-VERSION), EXIT (of type EVENT-EXIT), and OUTCOME as its EVENT-NAME, [EVENT-VERSION][function], [EVENT-EXIT][function] and EVENT-OUTCOME. - [function] EVENT-EXIT OUT-EVENT Return how the journaled @BLOCK finished. See [EVENT-EXIT][type] for the possible types. - [function] EXPECTED-OUTCOME-P OUT-EVENT See if OUT-EVENT has an EXPECTED-OUTCOME. - [function] UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME-P OUT-EVENT See if OUT-EVENT has an UNEXPECTED-OUTCOME. - [function] EVENT-OUTCOME OUT-EVENT Return the outcome of the @FRAME (or loosely speaking of a @BLOCK) to which OUT-EVENT belongs. ### Leaf-events - [type] LEAF-EVENT Leaf events are triggered by LOGGED. Unlike IN-EVENTs and OUT-EVENTs, which represent a @FRAME, leaf events stand alone and thus cannot have children. They are also the poorest of their kind: they only have an EVENT-NAME. Their VERSION is always NIL, which makes them LOG-EVENTs. - [function] LEAF-EVENT-P EVENT See if EVENT is a LEAF-EVENT. - [function] MAKE-LEAF-EVENT NAME Create a LEAF-EVENT with NAME. ## Journals reference In @JOURNAL-BASICS, we covered the bare minimum needed to work with journals. Here we go into the details. - [class] JOURNAL A journal is, conceptually, a sequence of events. JOURNAL is an abstract base class. In case of FILE-JOURNALs, the events are stored in a file, while for IN-MEMORY-JOURNALs, they are in a Lisp array. When a journal is opened, it is possible to perform I/O on it (see @STREAMLETS-REFERENCE), which is normally taken care of by WITH-JOURNALING. For this reason, the user's involvement with journals normally only consists of creating and using them in WITH-JOURNALING. - [reader] JOURNAL-STATE JOURNAL (:STATE) Return the state of JOURNAL, which is of type [JOURNAL-STATE][TYPE]. - [reader] JOURNAL-SYNC JOURNAL (:SYNC = NIL) The SYNC argument specified at instantiation. See @SYNCHRONIZATION-STRATEGIES. - [function] SYNC-JOURNAL &OPTIONAL (JOURNAL (RECORD-JOURNAL)) Durably persist all preceding writes made to JOURNAL during an enclosing WITH-JOURNALING or via LOG-RECORD from any thread. Writes made in a WITH-JOURNALING in another thread are not persisted. The changes in question are WRITE-EVENT calls and state changes. This is a noop JOURNAL-SYNC is NIL. This function is safe to call from any thread. - [reader] JOURNAL-REPLAY-MISMATCH JOURNAL (= NIL) If JOURNAL-DIVERGENT-P, then this is a list of two elements: the READ-POSITIONs in the RECORD-JOURNAL and REPLAY-JOURNAL of the first events that were different (ignoring LOG-EVENTs). It is NIL, otherwise. - [function] JOURNAL-DIVERGENT-P JOURNAL See if WITH-JOURNALING recorded any event so far in this journal which was not EQUAL to its REPLAY-EVENT or it had no corresponding replay event. This completely ignores LOG-EVENTs in both journals being compared, and is updated continuously during @REPLAY. It plays a role in WITH-BUNDLE deciding when a journal is important enough to keep, and also in @SYNCHRONIZATION-WITH-IN-MEMORY-JOURNALS. The position of the first mismatch that is available via JOURNAL-REPLAY-MISMATCH. ### Comparing journals After replay finished (i.e. WITH-JOURNALING completed), we can ask the question whether there were any changes produced. This is answered in the strictest sense by IDENTICAL-JOURNALS-P, and somewhat more functionally by EQUIVALENT-REPLAY-JOURNALS-P. Also see JOURNAL-DIVERGENT-P. - [generic-function] IDENTICAL-JOURNALS-P JOURNAL-1 JOURNAL-2 Compare two journals in a strict sense: whether they have the same JOURNAL-STATE and the lists of their events (as in LIST-EVENTS) are EQUAL. - [generic-function] EQUIVALENT-REPLAY-JOURNALS-P JOURNAL-1 JOURNAL-2 See if two journals are equivalent when used the for REPLAY in WITH-JOURNALING. EQUIVALENT-REPLAY-JOURNALS-P is like IDENTICAL-JOURNALS-P, but it ignores LOG-EVENTs and allows events with EVENT-EXIT :ERROR to differ in their outcomes, which may very well be implementation specific, anyway. Also, it considers two groups of states as different :NEW, :REPLAYING, :MISMATCHED, :FAILED vs :RECORDING, :LOGGING, COMPLETED. The rest of section is about concrete subclasses of [JOURNAL][class]. ### In-memory journals - [class] IN-MEMORY-JOURNAL JOURNAL IN-MEMORY-JOURNALs are backed by a non-persistent, Lisp array of events. Much quicker than FILE-JOURNALs, they are ideal for smallish journals persisted manually (see @SYNCHRONIZATION-WITH-IN-MEMORY-JOURNALS for an example). They are also useful for writing tests based on what events were generated. They differ from FILE-JOURNALs in that events written to IN-MEMORY-JOURNALs are not serialized (and deserialized on replay) with the following consequences for the objects recorded by JOURNALED (i.e. its NAME, ARGS arguments, but also the return VALUES of the block, or the value returned by CONDITION): - These objects need not be @READABLE. - Their identity (`EQ`ness) is not lost. - They must **must not be mutated** in any way. - [function] MAKE-IN-MEMORY-JOURNAL &KEY (EVENTS NIL EVENTSP) STATE (SYNC NIL SYNCP) SYNC-FN By default, creates an empty IN-MEMORY-JOURNAL in JOURNAL-STATE :NEW, which is suitable for recording. To make a replay journal, use :STATE :COMPLETED with some sequence of EVENTS: ``` (make-in-memory-journal :events '((:in foo :version 1)) :state :completed) ``` If the EVENTS argument is provided, then STATE defaults to :NEW, else to :COMPLETED. SYNC determines when SYNC-FN will be invoked on the RECORD-JOURNAL. SYNC defaults to T if SYNC-FN, else to NIL. For a description of possible values, see @SYNCHRONIZATION-STRATEGIES. For more discussion, see @SYNCHRONIZATION-WITH-IN-MEMORY-JOURNALS. - [reader] JOURNAL-EVENTS IN-MEMORY-JOURNAL (:EVENTS) A sequence of events in the journal. Not to be mutated by client code. - [reader] JOURNAL-PREVIOUS-SYNC-POSITION IN-MEMORY-JOURNAL (= 0) The length of JOURNAL-EVENTS at the time of the most recent invocation of SYNC-FN. ### File journals - [class] FILE-JOURNAL JOURNAL A FILE-JOURNAL is a journal whose contents and JOURNAL-STATE are persisted in a file. This is the [JOURNAL][class] subclass with out-of-the-box persistence, but see @FILE-BUNDLES for a more full-featured solution for repeated @REPLAYs. Since serialization in FILE-JOURNALs is built on top of Lisp READ and WRITE, everything that JOURNALED records in events (i.e. its NAME, ARGS arguments, but also the return VALUES of the block, or the value returned by CONDITION) must be @READABLE. File journals are human-readable, and editable by hand with some care. When editing, the following needs to be remembered: - The first character of the file represents its JOURNAL-STATE. It is a `#\Space` (for state :NEW, :REPLAYING, :MISMATCHED and :FAILED), or a `#\Newline` (for state :RECORDING, :LOGGING and :COMPLETED). - If the journal has SYNC (see @SYNCHRONIZATION-STRATEGIES), then in between events, there may be `#\Del` (also called `#\Rubout`) or `#\Ack` characters (CHAR-CODE 127 and 6). `#\Del` marks the end of the journal contents which may be read back: it's kind of an uncommitted-transaction marker for the events that follow it. `#\Ack` characters, of which there may be many in the file, mark the sequence of events until the next marker of either kind as valid (or committed). `#\Ack` characters are ignored when reading the journal. Thus, when editing a file, don't change the first character and leave the `#\Del` character, if any, where it is. Also see @SYNCHRONIZATION-WITH-FILE-JOURNALS. - [function] MAKE-FILE-JOURNAL PATHNAME &KEY SYNC Return a FILE-JOURNAL backed by the file with PATHNAME. The file is created when the journal is opened for writing. For a description of SYNC, see @SYNCHRONIZATION-STRATEGIES. If there is already an existing FILE-JOURNAL backed by the same file, then that object is returned. If the existing object has different options (e.g. it has SYNC T while the SYNC argument is NIL here), then a JOURNAL-ERROR is signalled. If there is already an existing FILE-JOURNAL backed by the same file, the JOURNAL-STATE is not :NEW, but the file doesn't exist, then the existing object is **invalidated**: attempts to write will fail with JOURNAL-ERROR. If the existing journal object is being written, then invalidation fails with a JOURNAL-ERROR. After invalidation, a new FILE-JOURNAL object is created. - [reader] PATHNAME-OF FILE-JOURNAL (:PATHNAME) The pathname of the file backing the journal. ### Pretty-printing journals - [class] PPRINT-JOURNAL JOURNAL When an event is written to a PPRINT-JOURNAL it writes that event to a stream in a customizable format. They are intended for producing prettier output for @LOGGING and @TRACING, but they do not support reads so they cannot be used as a REPLAY-JOURNAL, or in LIST-EVENTS, for example. On the other hand, events written to PPRINT-JOURNALs need not be @READABLE. - [function] MAKE-PPRINT-JOURNAL &KEY (STREAM (MAKE-SYNONYM-STREAM '\*STANDARD-OUTPUT\*)) (PRETTY T) (PRETTIFIER 'PRETTIFY-EVENT) LOG-DECORATOR Creates a PPRINT-JOURNAL. - [accessor] PPRINT-JOURNAL-STREAM PPRINT-JOURNAL (:STREAM = \*STANDARD-OUTPUT\*) The stream where events are dumped. May be set any time to another STREAM. - [accessor] PPRINT-JOURNAL-PRETTY PPRINT-JOURNAL (:PRETTY = T) Whether to use PPRINT-JOURNAL-PRETTIFIER or write events in as the property lists they are. A @BOOLEAN-VALUED-SYMBOL. - [accessor] PPRINT-JOURNAL-PRETTIFIER PPRINT-JOURNAL (:PRETTIFIER = 'PRETTIFY-EVENT) A function like PRETTIFY-EVENT that writes its an event to a stream. Only used when PPRINT-JOURNAL-PRETTY, this is the output format customization knob. Also see @DECORATIONs. ## Bundles reference In @BUNDLES, we covered the repeated replay problem that WITH-BUNDLE automates. Here we provide a reference for the bundle classes. - [class] BUNDLE This is an abstract base class. Direct subclasses are IN-MEMORY-BUNDLE and FILE-BUNDLE. A BUNDLE consists of a sequence of journals which are all reruns of the same code, hopefully making more and more progress towards completion. These journals are @REPLAYs of the previous successful one, extending it with new events. Upon replay (see WITH-BUNDLE), the latest journal in the bundle in JOURNAL-STATE :COMPLETED plays the role of the replay journal, and a new journal is added to the bundle for recording. If the replay succeeds, this new journal eventually becomes :COMPLETED and takes over the role of the replay journal for future replays until another replay succeeds. When the bundle is created and it has no journals yet, the replay journal is an empty, completed one. - [accessor] MAX-N-FAILED BUNDLE (:MAX-N-FAILED = 1) If MAX-N-FAILED is non-NIL, and the number of journals of [JOURNAL-STATE][type] :FAILED in the bundle exceeds its value, then some journals (starting with the oldest) are deleted. - [accessor] MAX-N-COMPLETED BUNDLE (:MAX-N-COMPLETED = 1) If MAX-N-COMPLETED is non-NIL, and the number of journals of [JOURNAL-STATE][type] :COMPLETED in the bundle exceeds its value, then some journals (starting with the oldest) are deleted. ### In-memory bundles - [class] IN-MEMORY-BUNDLE BUNDLE An IN-MEMORY-BUNDLE is a BUNDLE that is built on IN-MEMORY-JOURNALs. IN-MEMORY-BUNDLEs have limited utility as a persistence mechanism and are provided mainly for reasons of symmetry and for testing. See @SYNCHRONIZATION-WITH-IN-MEMORY-JOURNALS for an example of how to achieve persistence without bundles. - [function] MAKE-IN-MEMORY-BUNDLE &KEY (MAX-N-FAILED 1) (MAX-N-COMPLETED 1) SYNC SYNC-FN Create a new IN-MEMORY-BUNDLE with [MAX-N-FAILED][(accessor bundle)] and [MAX-N-COMPLETED][(accessor bundle)]. SYNC and SYNC-FN are passed on to MAKE-IN-MEMORY-JOURNAL. ### File bundles - [class] FILE-BUNDLE BUNDLE A FILE-BUNDLE is a BUNDLE that is built on FILE-JOURNALs. It provides easy replay-based persistence. - [reader] DIRECTORY-OF FILE-BUNDLE (:DIRECTORY) The directory where the files backing the FILE-JOURNALs in the FILE-BUNDLE are kept. - [function] MAKE-FILE-BUNDLE DIRECTORY &KEY (MAX-N-FAILED 1) (MAX-N-COMPLETED 1) SYNC Return a FILE-BUNDLE object backed by FILE-JOURNALs in DIRECTORY. See [MAX-N-FAILED][(accessor bundle)] and [MAX-N-COMPLETED][(accessor bundle)]. For a description of SYNC, see @SYNCHRONIZATION-STRATEGIES. If there is already a FILE-BUNDLE with the same directory (according to TRUENAME), return that object is returned if it has the same MAX-N-FAILED, MAX-N-COMPLETED and SYNC options, else JOURNAL-ERROR is signalled. - [function] DELETE-FILE-BUNDLE DIRECTORY Delete all journal files (`*.jrn`) from DIRECTORY. Delete the directory if empty after the journal files were deleted, else signal an error. Existing FILE-BUNDLE objects are not updated, so MAKE-FILE-JOURNAL with FORCE-RELOAD may be required. ## Streamlets reference This section is relevant mostly for implementing new kinds of JOURNALs in addition to FILE-JOURNALs and IN-MEMORY-JOURNALs. In normal operation, STREAMLETs are not worked with directly. ### Opening and closing - [class] STREAMLET A STREAMLET is a handle to perform I/O on a JOURNAL. The high-level stuff (WITH-JOURNALING, JOURNALED, etc) is built on top of streamlets. - [reader] JOURNAL STREAMLET (:JOURNAL) The JOURNAL that was passed to OPEN-STREAMLET. This is the journal STREAMLET operates on. - [generic-function] OPEN-STREAMLET JOURNAL &KEY DIRECTION Return a STREAMLET suitable for performing I/O on JOURNAL. DIRECTION (defaults to :INPUT) is one of :INPUT, :OUTPUT, :IO and it has the same purpose as the similarly named argument of CL:OPEN. - [generic-function] CLOSE-STREAMLET STREAMLET Close STREAMLET, which was returned by OPEN-STREAMLET. After closing, STREAMLET may not longer be used for IO. - [generic-function] MAKE-STREAMLET-FINALIZER STREAMLET Return NIL or a function of no arguments suitable as a finalizer for STREAMLET. That is, the function closes STREAMLET, but holds no reference to it. This is intended for streamlets which are not dynamic-extent, so using WITH-OPEN-JOURNAL is not appropriate. - [generic-function] OPEN-STREAMLET-P STREAMLET Return true if STREAMLET is open. STREAMLETs are open until they have been explicitly closed with CLOSE-STREAMLET. - [function] INPUT-STREAMLET-P STREAMLET See if STREAMLET was opened for input (the DIRECTION argument of OPEN-STREAMLET was :INPUT or :IO). - [function] OUTPUT-STREAMLET-P STREAMLET See if STREAMLET was opened for input (the DIRECTION argument of OPEN-STREAMLET was :OUTPUT or :IO). - [macro] WITH-OPEN-JOURNAL (VAR JOURNAL &KEY (DIRECTION :INPUT)) &BODY BODY This is like WITH-OPEN-FILE. Open the journal designated by JOURNAL (see TO-JOURNAL) with OPEN-STREAMLET, passing DIRECTION along, and bind VAR to the resulting STREAMLET. Call CLOSE-STREAMLET after BODY finishes. If JOURNAL is NIL, then VAR is bound to NIL and no streamlet is created. - [condition] STREAMLET-ERROR ERROR Like CL:STREAM-ERROR: failures regarding trying to perform I/O on a closed STREAMLET or of the wrong DIRECTION. Actual I/O errors are *not* encapsulated in STREAMLET-ERROR. ### Reading from streamlets - [generic-function] READ-EVENT STREAMLET &OPTIONAL EOJ-ERROR-P Read the event at the current read position from STREAMLET and move the read position to the event after. If there are no more events, signal END-OF-JOURNAL or return NIL depending on EOJ-ERROR-P. Signals STREAMLET-ERROR if STREAMLET is not INPUT-STREAMLET-P or not OPEN-STREAMLET-P. - [generic-function] READ-POSITION STREAMLET Return an integer that identifies the position of the next event to be read from STREAMLET. `SETF`able, see SET-READ-POSITION. - [generic-function] SET-READ-POSITION STREAMLET POSITION Set the read position of STREAMLET to POSITION, which must have been acquired from READ-POSITION. - [macro] SAVE-EXCURSION (STREAMLET) &BODY BODY Save READ-POSITION of STREAMLET, execute BODY, and make sure to restore the saved read position. - [generic-function] PEEK-EVENT STREAMLET Read the next event from STREAMLET without changing the read position, or return NIL if there is no event to be read. - [method] PEEK-EVENT (STREAMLET STREAMLET) This is a slow default implementation, which relies on SAVE-EXCURSION and READ-EVENT. ### Writing to streamlets - [generic-function] WRITE-EVENT EVENT STREAMLET Write EVENT to STREAMLET. Writing always happens at the end of STREAMLET's journal regardless of the READ-POSITION and the read position is not changed. Signals STREAMLET-ERROR if STREAMLET is not OUTPUT-STREAMLET-P or not OPEN-STREAMLET-P. - [method] WRITE-EVENT EVENT (JOURNAL JOURNAL) For convenience, it is possible to write directly to a JOURNAL, in which case the journal's internal output streamlet is used. This internal streamlet is opened for :OUTPUT and may be used by LOG-RECORD. - [generic-function] WRITE-POSITION STREAMLET Return an integer that identifies the position of the next event to be written to STREAMLET. - [generic-function] REQUEST-COMPLETED-ON-ABORT STREAMLET Make it so that upon ABORTED-EXECUTION STREAMLET's JOURNAL will be in JOURNAL-STATE :COMPLETED when loaded fresh (e.g. FILE-JOURNAL from a file). Any previously written events must be persisted before making this change. Before REQUEST-COMPLETED-ON-ABORT is called, a journal must be reloaded in state :FAILED. It is permissible to defer carrying out this request until the next SYNC-STREAMLET call. If the request was carried out, return true. If it was deferred, return NIL. - [generic-function] SYNC-STREAMLET STREAMLET Durably persist the effects of all preceding WRITE-EVENT calls made via STREAMLET to its journal and any deferred REQUEST-COMPLETED-ON-ABORT in this order. ## Glossary - [glossary-term] async-unwind If an asynchronous event, say a `SIGINT` triggered by `C-c`, is delivered to a thread running Lisp or foreign code called from Lisp, a Lisp condition is typically signalled. If the handler for this condition unwinds the stack, then we have an asynchronous unwind. Another example is BT:INTERRUPT-THREAD which, as it can execute arbitrary code, may unwind the stack in the target thread. - [glossary-term] boolean-valued symbol Imagine writing two STREAMs with a spaghetti of functions and wanting to have pretty-printed output on one of them. Unfortunately, binding *PRINT-PRETTY* to T will affect writes to both streams. A solution is to have streams look up their own print-pretty flag with `(SYMBOL-VALUE (STREAM-PRETTY-PRINT STREAM))` and have the caller specify the dynamic variable they want: ``` (defvar *print-pretty-1* nil) (setf (stream-print-pretty stream-1) '*print-pretty-1*) (let ((*print-pretty-1* t)) (spaghetti stream-1 stream-2)) ``` Note that if the default `STREAM-PRINT-PRETTY` is `'*PRINT-PRETTY*`, then we have the normal Common Lisp behaviour. Setting `STREAM-PRINT-PRETTY` to NIL or T also works, because they are self-evaluating. If not by CL:STREAMs, boolean-valued symbols are used by MAKE-LOG-DECORATOR and PPRINT-JOURNALs. - [glossary-term] non-local exit This is a term from the Common Lisp ANSI standard. If a form does not return normally, but control is transferred via `GO`, RETURN, RETURN-FROM or THROW, then it is said to have performed a non-local exit. This definition of a non-local exit includes EVENT-EXIT :CONDITION, :ERROR and :NLX. - [glossary-term] readable In Common Lisp, readable objects are those that can be printed readably. Anything written to stream-based journals needs to be readable. * * * ###### \[generated by [MGL-PAX](https://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax)\]