Exceptions are hard to spot in the logs of build_runner

[rrousselGit]

Hello!

Let's play a came of "spot the error message":

dart run build_runner watch -d
Resolving dependencies in `/Users/remirousselet/dev/rrousselGit/riverpod`... 
Downloading packages... 
Got dependencies in `/Users/remirousselet/dev/rrousselGit/riverpod`.
Resolving dependencies in `/Users/remirousselet/dev/rrousselGit/riverpod`... 
Downloading packages... 
Got dependencies in `/Users/remirousselet/dev/rrousselGit/riverpod`.
4s riverpod_generator on 17 inputs: 14 output, 3 no-op; spent 3s sdk,             
   1s analyzing                                                                   
0s source_gen:combining_builder on 46 inputs: 14 same, 32 no-op                   
4s mockito:mockBuilder on 68 inputs: 20 skipped, 48 no-op; spent 4s analyzing     
1s freezed on 160 inputs: 100 skipped, 1 output, 59 no-op                         
                                                                                  
Failed to build with build_runner in 11s with warnings; wrote 29 outputs.         
                                                                                  
log output for riverpod_generator on test/integration/generated.dart              
E InvalidTypeException: The type is invalid and cannot be converted to code.      
log output for build_runner                                                       
W Root package config not readable, manual restarts will be needed after running  
  `pub upgrade`.                                                                  
  Deleting 15 declared outputs which already existed on disk.                     

In case you missed it, that the

E InvalidTypeException: The type is invalid and cannot be converted to code.

It's pretty hard to spot one line among many others.

Some ideas to improve this are:

• Use a different color to log user errors
• Format them with a header corresponding to the generator name. For example:
  [my_generator]: InvalidTypeException: The type is invalid and cannot be converted to code.
• List errors as the very last line of the logs, with a blank line separating errors from other logs

[davidmorgan]

Thanks for filing, happy to tweak this a bit.

Generally I don't like build warnings, one way to make errors more visible is to not have any warnings :) ... but that's more of a long term aspirational goal than a fix.

We can certainly add color, everything is in place to use ANSI color codes, I just thought I'd keep it as simple as possible to start with. The E could be red ... not sure how visible that would be, making the whole error red is probably too much.

Output is per generator and then one output for build_runner, an option would be to move all blocks with errors to the end:

log output for build_runner                                                       
W Root package config not readable, manual restarts will be needed after running  
  `pub upgrade`.                                                                  
  Deleting 15 declared outputs which already existed on disk.
log output for riverpod_generator on test/integration/generated.dart              
E InvalidTypeException: The type is invalid and cannot be converted to code.      

with a blank line as you suggest when there are preceding warnings, and maybe changing the header a bit, that starts to look quite good I think

log output for build_runner                                                       
W Root package config not readable, manual restarts will be needed after running  
  `pub upgrade`.                                                                  
  Deleting 15 declared outputs which already existed on disk.

failed riverpod_generator on test/integration/generated.dart              
E InvalidTypeException: The type is invalid and cannot be converted to code.      

riverpod_generator is already bolded, maybe "failed" is red+bolded...

[alex-medinsh]

Hi!

After upgrading to 2.5.0, I’ve also found myself spending more time trying to understand if the build actually succeeded.

Previously, the last line of the output always contained the message:

[INFO] Succeeded after 25.7s with 135 outputs (425 actions)

This quick glance at the first word in the last line was enough to determine if everything was working correctly. Additionally, all log levels were colour-coded, so simply checking for any red in the output provided a quick indication of success.

However, the current version of the output can look like this:

Building package executable… (2.5s)
Built build_runner:build_runner.
20s riverpod_generator on 201 inputs: 29 output, 172 no-op; spent 13s analysing, 4s sdk, 2s resolving                                                
0s source_gen:combining_builder on 201 inputs: 29 output, 172 no-op                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                     
Built with build_runner in 21s; wrote 58 outputs.                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                     
log output for build_runner                                                                                                                          
  Deleting 29 declared outputs which already existed on disk.   

The actual success message is now the third line from the end. Additionally, it starts with “built,” which doesn’t immediately catch my eye as quickly as “success,” so I sometimes have to spend time reviewing the entire output to ensure there are no errors.

[davidmorgan]

Hmmm I think I will just get rid of the "deleting ... declared outputs" warning, it's not actionable.

I only just figured out what's going on with the "package config not readable, manual restarts will be needed", it doesn't support workspaces. So that's a bug, I should be able to fix it.

So that will help :)

I played a bit with the output, currently I like this:

0s built_value_generator:built_value on 1001 inputs: 1001 skipped                                                                                                                                                                                            
1s source_gen:combining_builder on 1001 inputs: 1001 skipped; spent 1s tracking                                                                                                                                                                              

build_runner
  Some files were deleted. (Or some warning I didn't disable...)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
Failed to build with build_runner in 3s; wrote 0 outputs.                                                                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
lib/lib0001.dart built_value_generator:built_value messages                                                                                                                                                                                                
E 1:1: Expected a method, getter, setter or operator declaration.

So three things:

• simplified the block header, "log output for built_value_generator:built_value on lib/lib0001.dart" becomes "lib/lib0001.dart built_value_generator:built_value" so the filename is first
• blocks with only info/warnings are moved before the final build status, blocks with errors are moved after
• color highlighting: for blocks with errors, the filename and the E are bold red, so it's an attention-grabbing header + gives you the info I guess you want first most clearly: which file has the error

What do you think?

[davidmorgan]

This is released in build_runner 2.8.0, I'll close for now but please do re-open or file a new issue if you have further suggestions ... or if I broke something :)