stoic-trace-cockpit 2021.9.2

Stoic Trace Cockpit

Stoic Trace Framework

Why "stoic-trace-cockpit"?

I develop Django applications since 2009. Nevertheless sometimes I don't understand what is going on. I would like to see what the Python interpreter is doing while processing my http request.

With "trace" I mean an output similar to set -x in the bash shell. Every line should be visible, with a flexible include/exclude filter.

With "cockpit" I mean a web-interface. You can enable and disable the tracing without touching source code.

The Stoic Trace Cockpit is meant to be useful during development and live on production.

It is developed with and for the Django web framework.

Status: Alpha

Up to now this project is just starting.

Models

There are two database models which are both part of the Django-Admin.

TraceConfig

With a TraceConfig you can configure which requests and which modules you want to trace.

TraceLog

If a http request matches a TraceConfig, then it gets traced by the middleware and the result gets stored in a TraceLog.

In the TraceLog you see which Python source code lines where executed during processing the request.

Install

If you have a Django project, and you want use it inside your existing project:

pip install stoic-trace-cockpit

If you want use a new virtual environment, then this installs the Stoic Trace Cockpit and a small test project:

python3 -m venv stc-env
cd stc-env/
. bin/activate
pip install -U pip wheel
pip install -e git+ssh://[e-mail]/guettli/stoic-trace-cockpit.git#egg=stoic-trace-cockpit
cp src/stoic-trace-cockpit/.env.example src/stoic-trace-cockpit/.env
echo '. $VIRTUAL_ENV/src/stoic-trace-cockpit/.env' >> bin/activate
echo 'export $(cut -d= -f1 $VIRTUAL_ENV/src/stoic-trace-cockpit/.env)' >> bin/activate

. bin/activate

cd src/stoic-trace-cockpit/

python setup-development-environment.py

# You need to have PostgreSQL installed
# Create user "stoic-trace-cockpit" with password "stoic-trace-cockpit":
sudo runuser -u postgres -- createuser -s -P stoic-trace-cockpit

createdb $PGDATABASE
manage.py migrate

The migration create a user "anonymous" (for not authorized users) and "admin" (with password "admin").

Configure

If you use the dummy-project, then you can skip this.

If you use Stoic Trace Cockpit in your existing Django project, then add this to settings.INSTALLED_APPS:

    'trace_cockpit',
    'ordered_model',

Add this to MIDDLEWARE:

    'trace_cockpit.middleware.TraceMiddleware',

A good place for it is below "AuthenticationMiddleware", because you migh twant to trace http-request for a particular user. This is only possible if request.user already exists.

Why "stoic"?

Why "stoic"? The audiobook "Was ich noch sagen wollte" (Helmut Schmidt) introduced me to Stoicism. Since then, I embrace his guideline "serenity and dutifulness".

Imagine it is 15. April 1912, and you are on the RMS Titanic which is slowly sinking into the cold North Atlantic Ocean.

The best thing you can do is to take your music instrument and play some lovely and relaxing tones with your friends.

There are things which are inside your circle of influence and things which are outside your circle of influence.

Naming convention

See: https://github.com/guettli/django-htmx-fun

Guidelines

See: https://github.com/guettli/programming-guidelines