Does --log-level work correctly for anyone?

[pdimens]

Description

I'm trying to use --log-level warning to restrict the log output to, well, just warnings or worse, but it's not working the way I expect it to:

quarto render test.qmd --log test.log --log-level warning --quiet

This will result in an empty log file, despite the QMD document having a clear error that terminates it variable <- asdfga

However, if forcing the output as a json stream, the resulting json says all the printed text of the error are INFO rather than warnings, errors, critical, etc.

quarto render test.qmd --log test.log --log-format json-stream --quiet

(this is taken from another file being rendered, so the output isn't 1:1 with the example below, but the point remains the same)

{"msg":"\u001b[31m\n\nprocessing file: variants.normalized.qmd\n\u001b[39m","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"1/39                    \n","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"2","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"/","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"39","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"  ","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"\n","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"3","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"/","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"39","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"                    ","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"\n","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"4","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"/39   \n","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"\u001b[31mError:\n! object 'sdfsdfsdfsdfsdf' not found\n\u001b[39m","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"\u001b[31m\nQuitting from variants.normalized.qmd:22-27 \n\u001b[39m","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}
{"msg":"\u001b[31mExecution halted\n\u001b[39m","level":20,"levelName":"INFO","loggerName":"default"}

If I'm reading this correctly, is it possible that all the messages are incorrectly flagged as INFO? This would explain the unexpected logging behavior.

example file

--
title: "TEST"
format:
  html:
    toc: true
---


```{r do_thing}
1+1
variable <- asdfga
```

[mcanouil]

Note that your example is not a valid or working example.

I think you are mistaken about the log from the engine/code and the log from Quarto.

Note that in Quarto labels are to be written using YAML syntax, i.e., there is nothing but the language inside the brackets.
You should also avoid _ in labels, especially if you intend to use format: pdf.

```{r}
#| label: do_thing
1+1
variable <- asdfga
```

In your document, there are no Quarto warnings or errors.
It's an R error, which you can control via the engine.
Render he following for example:

---
title: "Reproducible Quarto Document"
format: html
---

```{r}
#| label: do_thing
#| error: true
1+1
variable <- asdfga
```

The default in knitr will not keep the error output.

What you see in Quarto log is an output from knitr, not an error:

processing file: index.qmd
1/3           
2/3 [do_thing]
Error:
! object 'asdfga' not found

Quitting from index.qmd:6-10 [do_thing]
Execution halted

Maybe Quarto could catch "Execution halted" to raise a Quarto error. This would also need to happen for the other engines.

[pdimens]

Thank you for the clarification. Is there a way to configure the quarto call to essentially only output warning/error info into a log file (or stderr), either from knitr or quarto itself?

[mcanouil]

Actually, for Jupyter, the kernel error is retrieved as an error on Quarto side:

---
title: "Reproducible Quarto Document"
format: html
---

```{python}
#| label: do-thing
variable + asdfga
```

{
  "msg": "\n\nAn error occurred while executing the following cell:\n------------------\nvariable + asdfga\n------------------\n\n\n\u001b[31m---------------------------------------------------------------------------\u001b[39m\n\u001b[31mNameError\u001b[39m                                 Traceback (most recent call last)\n\u001b[36mCell\u001b[39m\u001b[36m \u001b[39m\u001b[32mIn[5]\u001b[39m\u001b[32m, line 1\u001b[39m\n\u001b[32m----> \u001b[39m\u001b[32m1\u001b[39m \u001b[43mvariable\u001b[49m + asdfga\n\n\u001b[31mNameError\u001b[39m: name 'variable' is not defined\n",
  "level": 40,
  "levelName": "ERROR",
  "loggerName": "default"
}
{
  "msg": "[non-error-thrown] undefined\n\nStack trace:\n    at Command.handleError (https://deno.land/x/[email protected]/command/command.ts:2202:11)\n    at Command.parseCommand (https://deno.land/x/[email protected]/command/command.ts:1782:12)\n    at eventLoopTick (ext:core/01_core.js:178:7)\n    at async quarto (file:///Users/mcanouil/Projects/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/src/quarto.ts:193:5)\n    at async file:///Users/mcanouil/Projects/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/src/quarto.ts:225:5\n    at async file:///Users/mcanouil/Projects/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/src/core/main.ts:45:14\n    at async mainRunner (file:///Users/mcanouil/Projects/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/src/core/main.ts:47:5)\n    at async file:///Users/mcanouil/Projects/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/src/quarto.ts:215:3",
  "level": 40,
  "levelName": "ERROR",
  "loggerName": "default"
}

[mcanouil]

I've opened an issue to improve the situation for engine: knitr:

• Catch errors from engine: knitr for logging in Quarto #12799

[mcanouil]

Note that warnings are not caught for any engines.