Ruby – share logger instance among module/classes

I like to have a logger method available in my classes, but I don’t like sprinkling @logger = Logging.logger in all my initializers. Usually, I do this:

module Logging
  # This is the magical bit that gets mixed into your classes
  def logger
    Logging.logger
  end

  # Global, memoized, lazy initialized instance of a logger
  def self.logger
    @logger ||= Logger.new(STDOUT)
  end
end

Then, in your classes:

class Widget
  # Mix in the ability to log stuff ...
  include Logging

  # ... and proceed to log with impunity:
  def discombobulate(whizbang)
    logger.warn "About to combobulate the whizbang"
    # commence discombobulation
  end
end

Because the Logging#logger method can access the instance that the module is mixed into, it is trivial to extend your logging module to record the classname with log messages:

module Logging
  def logger
    @logger ||= Logging.logger_for(self.class.name)
  end

  # Use a hash class-ivar to cache a unique Logger per class:
  @loggers = {}

  class << self
    def logger_for(classname)
      @loggers[classname] ||= configure_logger_for(classname)
    end

    def configure_logger_for(classname)
      logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
      logger.progname = classname
      logger
    end
  end
end

Your Widget now logs messages with its classname, and didn’t need to change one bit 🙂