TruncatedStacktraces.jl: Truncated and Simpler Stacktraces for the Julia Programming Language

Don't you wish Julia stacktraces were simpler? Introducing TruncatedStacktraces.jl! The purpose of this package is to give package authors a single uniform system for implementing truncation of type printing in stack traces.

Enabling TruncatedStacktraces.jl

TruncatedStacktraces.jl is currently disabled by default, as it causes invalidations which will slow down package loading.

It can be enabled using Preferences.jl. To enable it, create a LocalPreferences.toml with the following entry:

[TruncatedStacktraces]
disable = false

Alternatively, you can generate the LocalPreferences.toml using:

using Preferences, UUIDs

using TruncatedStacktraces
Preferences.set_preferences!(TruncatedStacktraces, "disable" => false)

# OR if you don't want to load TruncatedStacktraces.jl

Preferences.set_preferences!(UUID("781d530d-4396-4725-bb49-402e4bee1e77"), "disable" => false)

In either case, you need to reload your packages (depending on TruncatedStacktraces) for the change to take effect.

TruncatedStacktraces is known to create invalidations, to remove these simply set the preference to disable it!

Users: How to Interact with TruncatedStacktraces.jl

If a package you are using is making use of TruncatedStacktraces.jl, you will see shorter stack traces. Everything is easier to read by default! This looks like:

 [14] initialize!(integrator::ODEIntegrator{true, Tsit5{Static.False, …}, Vector{Float64}, Float64, …}, cache::Tsit5Cache{Vector{Float64}, …})
    @ OrdinaryDiffEq C:\Users\accou\.julia\packages\OrdinaryDiffEq\0Pm1I\src\perform_step\low_order_rk_perform_step.jl:766

But if you want to see the type in full glory, say to share with developers on Discourse, then you can opt to show the entire stacktrace via simply running:

TruncatedStacktraces.VERBOSE[] = true

then if you run the code to error again, it will print out exactly what everyone wants to read:

 [14] initialize!(integrator::OrdinaryDiffEq.ODEIntegrator{Tsit5{typeof(OrdinaryDiffEq.trivial_limiter!), typeof(OrdinaryDiffEq.trivial_limiter!), Static.False}, true, Vector{Float64}, Nothing, Float64, SciMLBase.NullParameters, Float64, Float64, Float64, Float64, Vector{Vector{Float64}}, ODESolution{Float64, 2, Vector{Vector{Float64}}, Nothing, Nothing, Vector{Float64}, Vector{Vector{Vector{Float64}}}, ODEProblem{Vector{Float64}, Tuple{Float64, Float64}, true, SciMLBase.NullParameters, ODEFunction{true, SciMLBase.AutoSpecialize, FunctionWrappersWrappers.FunctionWrappersWrapper{Tuple{FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{Float64}, Vector{Float64}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, Float64}}, FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, Float64}}, FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, Vector{Float64}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}}, FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}}}, false}, LinearAlgebra.UniformScaling{Bool}, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, typeof(SciMLBase.DEFAULT_OBSERVED), Nothing, Nothing}, Base.Pairs{Symbol, Union{}, Tuple{}, NamedTuple{(), Tuple{}}}, SciMLBase.StandardODEProblem}, Tsit5{typeof(OrdinaryDiffEq.trivial_limiter!), typeof(OrdinaryDiffEq.trivial_limiter!), Static.False}, OrdinaryDiffEq.InterpolationData{ODEFunction{true, SciMLBase.AutoSpecialize, FunctionWrappersWrappers.FunctionWrappersWrapper{Tuple{FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{Float64}, Vector{Float64}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, Float64}}, FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, Float64}}, FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, Vector{Float64}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}}, FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}}}, false}, LinearAlgebra.UniformScaling{Bool}, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, typeof(SciMLBase.DEFAULT_OBSERVED), Nothing, Nothing}, Vector{Vector{Float64}}, Vector{Float64}, Vector{Vector{Vector{Float64}}}, OrdinaryDiffEq.Tsit5Cache{Vector{Float64}, Vector{Float64}, Vector{Float64}, typeof(OrdinaryDiffEq.trivial_limiter!), typeof(OrdinaryDiffEq.trivial_limiter!), Static.False}}, DiffEqBase.DEStats, Nothing}, ODEFunction{true, SciMLBase.AutoSpecialize, FunctionWrappersWrappers.FunctionWrappersWrapper{Tuple{FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{Float64}, Vector{Float64}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, Float64}}, FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, Float64}}, FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, Vector{Float64}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}}, FunctionWrappers.FunctionWrapper{Nothing, Tuple{Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, Vector{ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}, SciMLBase.NullParameters, ForwardDiff.Dual{ForwardDiff.Tag{DiffEqBase.OrdinaryDiffEqTag, Float64}, Float64, 1}}}}, false}, LinearAlgebra.UniformScaling{Bool}, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, typeof(SciMLBase.DEFAULT_OBSERVED), Nothing, Nothing}, OrdinaryDiffEq.Tsit5Cache{Vector{Float64}, Vector{Float64}, Vector{Float64}, typeof(OrdinaryDiffEq.trivial_limiter!), typeof(OrdinaryDiffEq.trivial_limiter!), Static.False}, OrdinaryDiffEq.DEOptions{Float64, Float64, Float64, Float64, PIController{Rational{Int64}}, typeof(DiffEqBase.ODE_DEFAULT_NORM), typeof(LinearAlgebra.opnorm), Nothing, CallbackSet{Tuple{}, Tuple{}}, typeof(DiffEqBase.ODE_DEFAULT_ISOUTOFDOMAIN), typeof(DiffEqBase.ODE_DEFAULT_PROG_MESSAGE), typeof(DiffEqBase.ODE_DEFAULT_UNSTABLE_CHECK), DataStructures.BinaryHeap{Float64, DataStructures.FasterForward}, DataStructures.BinaryHeap{Float64, DataStructures.FasterForward}, Nothing, Nothing, Int64, Tuple{}, Tuple{}, Tuple{}}, Vector{Float64}, Float64, Nothing, OrdinaryDiffEq.DefaultInit}, cache::OrdinaryDiffEq.Tsit5Cache{Vector{Float64}, Vector{Float64}, Vector{Float64}, typeof(OrdinaryDiffEq.trivial_limiter!), typeof(OrdinaryDiffEq.trivial_limiter!), Static.False})
    @ OrdinaryDiffEq C:\Users\accou\.julia\packages\OrdinaryDiffEq\0Pm1I\src\perform_step\low_order_rk_perform_step.jl:766

Beautiful. You can turn it back into the not beautiful short stacktrace with the command:

TruncatedStacktraces.VERBOSE[] = false

How to Opt A Package Into TruncatedStacktraces.jl

Opting into TruncatedStacktraces.jl is easy: for every type that you want to omit the printing of something, use the macro TruncatedStacktraces.@truncate_stacktrace like:

TruncatedStacktraces.@truncate_stacktrace ODEProblem 3 1 2

where 3 1 2 gives the order of the types to print, with indices corresponding to the original type. For example, on a type MyType{T1,T2,T3,T4}, this will change the stacktrace printing to default to MyType{T3,T1,T2,…}.

For any new error exception you add to your package, make sure to include the note from TruncatedStacktraces.jl on how to effect the type printing. This is done by adding println(io, VERBOSE_MSG) to the bottom of any error message.

Default values

TruncatedStacktraces.VERBOSE[] defaults to false for non-CI workflows and to true for CI jobs.
TruncatedStacktraces.DISABLE defaults to true.

How It's Implemented

This is done by writing an overload on Base.show on the DataType which is conditional on TruncatedStacktraces.VERBOSE[]. For example, the following does this for the SciMLBase.ODEProblem:

@static if !TruncatedStacktraces.DISABLE
function Base.show(io::IO,
                   t::Type{<:ODEProblem{uType, tType, isinplace}}) where {uType, tType, isinplace}
    if TruncatedStacktraces.VERBOSE[]
        invoke(show, Tuple{IO, Type}, io, t)
    else
        print(io, "ODEProblem{$isinplace,$uType,$tType,…}")
    end
end
end

FAQ: Why is this not in Base Julia?

There are attempts like JuliaLang/julia#48444, but no one agrees on what exactly to do and how to make it perfect. So until people agree, we can use this solution as a nice hack that gets the job done 90%.

Related Projects

Check out https://github.com/BioTurboNick/AbbreviatedStackTraces.jl which doesn't change type printing but instead the number of calls which are shown.