Installation

Prerequisites

cl-log-kit targets SBCL and requires ASDF 3.3.1 or newer (a modern SBCL already bundles a recent-enough ASDF). The shipped cl-log-kit system is dependency-free — no third-party library is loaded at runtime.

Pick the path that matches how you use the library.

ASDF (manual clone)Nix flakeLocal checkout (contributors)

Clone the repository somewhere ASDF can find it, then load the system:

git clone https://github.com/nerima-lisp/cl-log-kit.git

(asdf:load-system "cl-log-kit")

ASDF finds the system if the clone is on CL_SOURCE_REGISTRY or under a directory ASDF already searches (e.g. ~/common-lisp/ or ~/.local/share/common-lisp/source/).

Build the packaged ASDF system directly:

nix build github:nerima-lisp/cl-log-kit

The build output's root is the ASDF source tree — result/cl-log-kit.asd sits at the top level. Reference cl-log-kit from your own flake as an input and append its store path to CL_SOURCE_REGISTRY:

CL_SOURCE_REGISTRY = "${cl-log-kit}//:${CL_SOURCE_REGISTRY:-}";

or, from the command line:

CL_SOURCE_REGISTRY="$(nix build github:nerima-lisp/cl-log-kit --print-out-paths --no-link)//:"

Clone the repository, then work inside the reproducible dev shell, which wires up the test-only dependencies automatically:

git clone https://github.com/nerima-lisp/cl-log-kit.git
cd cl-log-kit
nix develop                 # SBCL + CL_SOURCE_REGISTRY for cl-weave
                             # and cl-json-kit
nix run .#test               # run the test suite with a real timeout
nix flake check               # every CI entrypoint

run-tests.lisp and run-coverage.lisp also work without Nix — see Development for the direct CL_SOURCE_REGISTRY invocation. cl-log-kit/test requires cl-weave 1.0.0 or newer and cl-json-kit 1.0.0 or newer; the flake pins both, so only a hand-managed CL_SOURCE_REGISTRY can point at an older checkout.

Runtime Support

cl-log-kit is developed and tested against SBCL. The library itself has no third-party runtime dependencies, so it should load cleanly on any modern ASDF 3.3.1+ setup; SBCL is the only implementation the test suite and CI pipeline exercise. See Compatibility for the platforms the flake builds and the stability promise attached to the exported surface.

Package and Naming

Load the system, then :use the log-kit package:

(defpackage #:my-app
  (:use #:cl #:log-kit)
  (:shadowing-import-from #:log-kit #:log))
(in-package #:my-app)

log-kit shadows the common-lisp log symbol for its own log macro, the arbitrary-level general form behind log-debug/log-info/etc. That symbol is internal, so :use-ing log-kit alone leaves cl:log (the logarithm) accessible; the :shadowing-import-from line above is what makes log-kit's macro available under that name instead, and can be dropped if you only use the fixed-level macros.

Continue with Quick Start to build your first logger.