c++ - Implementing a no-op std::ostream

Question

I'm looking at making a logging class which has members like Info, Error etc that can configurably output to console, file, or to nowhere.

For efficiency, I would like to avoid the overhead of formatting messages that are going to be thrown away (ie info messages when not running in a verbose mode). If I implement a custom std::streambuf that outputs to nowhere, I imagine that the std::ostream layer will still do all the formatting. Can anyone suggest a way to have a truly "null" std::ostream that avoids doing any work at all on the parameters passed to it with <<?

Answer 1

A swift google came up with this example which may be of use. I offer no guarantees, except that it compiles and runs :-)

#include <streambuf>
#include <ostream>

template <class cT, class traits = std::char_traits<cT> >
class basic_nullbuf: public std::basic_streambuf<cT, traits> {
    typename traits::int_type overflow(typename traits::int_type c)
    {
        return traits::not_eof(c); // indicate success
    }
};

template <class cT, class traits = std::char_traits<cT> >
class basic_onullstream: public std::basic_ostream<cT, traits> {
    public:
        basic_onullstream():
        std::basic_ios<cT, traits>(&m_sbuf),
        std::basic_ostream<cT, traits>(&m_sbuf)
        {
            init(&m_sbuf);
        }

    private:
        basic_nullbuf<cT, traits> m_sbuf;
};

typedef basic_onullstream<char> onullstream;
typedef basic_onullstream<wchar_t> wonullstream;

int main() {
    onullstream os;
    os << 666;
}