Sometimes you need to trace all invoked methods in your program. Earlier there was a set_trace_func tool that was very slow and not convenient. Fortunately, starting from Ruby 2.0 we have another one – TracePoint API which aims to replace it. Strictly speaking, the TracePoint API is simply an Object-Oriented wrapper around the now obsolete Kernel#set_trace_func.
Please have a look at small example. I’ve got idea of usage here and modify it for my needs.
So, we’ll create a simple middleware in our Rails App:
# lib/trace_point.rb
class TracePoint
class Middleware
def initialize(app)
@app = app
end
def call(env)
stats = []
trace = TracePoint.new(:call) do |tp|
if /app//.match(tp.path)
stats << "#{tp.path} -> #{tp.defined_class} # #{tp.method_id}"
end
end
trace.enable
response = @app.call(env)
trace.disable
puts "Start of #{env}"
stats.uniq.each {|elem| puts elem.slice(elem.index("/app/")..-1)}
puts "End of #{env}"
response
end
end
end
… one line goes to our config/application.rb
# config/application.rb require_relative '../lib/trace_point' ... config.middleware.insert_before(ActionDispatch::Static, TracePoint::Middleware)
And — voilà — you’ve got a detailed list of all invoked classes and methods of your Rails App in order they were called. You can modify code for your purpose to get more clean trace for your needs.
Where to use it – it’s up to you. E.g. it can help you to conquer the world make a detailed list of methods for test coverage or will be useful during debugging.
