refactor: logging: Various API improvements #34806

ajtowns commented at 4:45 PM on March 11, 2026: contributor

ShrinkDebugFile now takes the logging mutex for its entire run; though it's only called in init so shouldn't have any races in the first place.

Adds a NO_RATE_LIMIT tag that can be used with info/warning/error logs to avoid rate-limiting. This allows LogPrintLevel_ to be restricted to being an internal API.

The GetLogCategory function is moved out of the global namespace.

ShouldLog is split into separate ShouldDebugLog and ShouldTraceLog so that filtering checks are somewhat more enforced via function signature checks.

Redundant LogAcceptCategory function is removed.

More files are pointed at util/log.h instead of logging.h.

DrahtBot added the label Refactoring on Mar 11, 2026

DrahtBot commented at 4:46 PM on March 11, 2026: contributor

The following sections might be updated with supplementary metadata relevant to reviewers and maintainers.

Code Coverage & Benchmarks

For details see: https://corecheck.dev/bitcoin/bitcoin/pulls/34806.

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Conflicts

Reviewers, this pull request conflicts with the following ones:

#35205 (node,kernel: share dbcache default sizing by l0rinc)
#35201 (Refactor: Updated signMessage to use util::Expected and removed SigningResult::OK by kevkevinpal)
#35105 (Refactor: Updated TransactionError to use util::Expected and removed TransactionError:OK by kevkevinpal)
#35084 (ipc: Support for windows support by ryanofsky)
#35043 (refactor: Properly return from ThreadSafeQuestion signal + btcsignals follow-ups by maflcko)
#35037 (ipc: support per-address max-connections options on -ipcbind by enirox001)
#35011 (ci, iwyu: Fix warnings in src/script and treat them as errors by BrandonOdiwuor)
#34995 (ci, iwyu: Fix warnings in src/common and treat them as errors by hebasto)
#34909 (wallet, refactor: modularise wallet by extracting out legacy wallet migration by rkrux)
#34778 (logging: rewrite macros to add ratelimit option, avoid unused strprintf, clarify confusing errors by ryanofsky)
#34533 (wallet: resubmit transactions with private broadcast if enabled by vasild)
#34514 (refactor: remove unnecessary std::move for a few trivially copyable types by l0rinc)
#34075 (fees: Introduce Mempool Based Fee Estimation to reduce overestimation by ismaelsadeeq)
#34038 (logging: replace -loglevel with -trace, expose trace logging via RPC by ajtowns)
#33966 (refactor: disentangle miner startup defaults from runtime options by Sjors)
#33922 (mining: add getMemoryLoad() and track template non-mempool memory footprint by Sjors)
#33727 (zmq: Log bind error at Error level, abort startup on init error by isrod)
#33421 (node: add BlockTemplateCache by ismaelsadeeq)
#33117 (Interfaces: Expose UTXO Snapshot Loading and Add Progress Notifications by D33r-Gee)
#32387 (ipc: add windows support by ryanofsky)
#31260 (scripted-diff: Type-safe settings retrieval by ryanofsky)
#29256 (log, refactor: Allow log macros to accept context arguments by ryanofsky)

If you consider this pull request important, please also help to review the conflicting pull requests. Ideally, start with the one that should be merged first.

ajtowns commented at 5:08 PM on March 11, 2026: contributor

Split off from #34038

DrahtBot added the label Needs rebase on Mar 20, 2026

ajtowns force-pushed on Mar 20, 2026

DrahtBot removed the label Needs rebase on Mar 20, 2026

ajtowns force-pushed on Mar 24, 2026

DrahtBot added the label Needs rebase on Mar 31, 2026

ajtowns force-pushed on Apr 2, 2026

DrahtBot removed the label Needs rebase on Apr 2, 2026

DrahtBot added the label Needs rebase on Apr 9, 2026

ajtowns force-pushed on Apr 9, 2026

DrahtBot removed the label Needs rebase on Apr 9, 2026

DrahtBot added the label Needs rebase on Apr 23, 2026

util/stdmutex: Drop StdLockGuard 904c0d07bb

logging: Protect ShrinkDebugFile by m_cs

We should not be logging while shrinking the debug file, so make sure
that's true by using our mutex.

b408c2cde2

util/log: Provide util::log::NO_RATE_LIMIT to avoid rate limits aae93d033a

util/log: Rename LogPrintLevel_ into detail_ namespace

After the previous commit, LogPrintLevel_ is only used to implement
other macros.

8d1edeb3fa

logging: Move GetLogCategory into Logger class f7cdb5e36d

util/log, logging: Provide ShouldDebugLog and ShouldTraceLog instead of a generic ShouldLog 12035b9a73

scripted-diff: logging: Drop LogAcceptCategory

-BEGIN VERIFY SCRIPT-
sed -i 's/LogAcceptCategory(\(.*\), [a-zA-Z:]*::Level::Debug)/util::log::ShouldDebugLog(\1)/g' $(git grep -l LogAcceptCategory -- '*.cpp')
sed -i 's/LogAcceptCategory(\(.*\), [a-zA-Z:]*::Level::Trace)/util::log::ShouldTraceLog(\1)/g' $(git grep -l LogAcceptCategory -- '*.cpp')
sed -i '/Return true if log accepts specified category/,/^$/d' src/logging.h
-END VERIFY SCRIPT-

8bbf99479b

IWYU fixes

Add missing includes of logging.h in preparation for the next commit,
switching to util/log.h. Also removes some unnecessary util/check.h
includes that CI complains about.

2834ee6a23

logging: use util/log.h where possible

Replace usage of logging.h with util/log.h where it
suffices.

2077e57eb0

ajtowns force-pushed on Apr 23, 2026

DrahtBot removed the label Needs rebase on Apr 23, 2026

DrahtBot added the label CI failed on Apr 23, 2026

DrahtBot removed the label CI failed on Apr 23, 2026

sedited approved

sedited commented at 10:57 AM on May 11, 2026: contributor

lgtm ACK 2077e57eb0107acfeb09846899c7e7ae7f77014e

This is bit of a laundry list, and the conflicts are unfortunate, but better to get this done sooner rather than later.