[Bug]: Error formatter not working as shown in README example

[NazCodeland]

The problem

I tried using the example shown in the README for the Error Format and I get this error:

module.exports = format((einfo, { stack }) => {
                                  ^

TypeError: Cannot destructure property 'stack' of 'undefined' as it is undefined.
    at Format.transform (C:\projectDirecotry\node_modules\logform\errors.js:14:35)
    at Object.<anonymous> (C:\projectDirectory\app.js:6:27)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1205:14)
    at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1259:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1068:32)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:909:12)
    at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (node:internal/modules/run_main:82:12)
    at node:internal/main/run_main_module:23:47

Node.js v19.1.0

What version of Logform presents the issue?

2.4.2

What version of Node are you using?

19.1.0

If this worked in a previous version of Logform, which was it?

No response

Minimum Working Example

const { format } = require('logform');
const { errors } = format;

const errorsFormat = errors({ stack: true })

const info = errorsFormat.transform(new Error('Oh no!'));

console.log(info);
// Error: Oh no!
//     at repl:1:13
//     at ContextifyScript.Script.runInThisContext (vm.js:50:33)
//     at REPLServer.defaultEval (repl.js:240:29)
//     at bound (domain.js:301:14)
//     at REPLServer.runBound [as eval] (domain.js:314:12)
//     at REPLServer.onLine (repl.js:468:10)
//     at emitOne (events.js:121:20)
//     at REPLServer.emit (events.js:211:7)
//     at REPLServer.Interface._onLine (readline.js:282:10)
//     at REPLServer.Interface._line (readline.js:631:8)

Additional information

No response

🔎 Search Terms

Error Formatter

[wbt]

I'm a little confused here: does the comment show what you actually see? Is that different than what you expect?

[NazCodeland]

The code block in "The problem" section is the error that I am getting when I try to run the code given for the Error Formatter in the README, which I copy and pasted in the "Minimum Working Example" section. Hope that answers your question.

[tom-wild-moose]

Ran into the same issue.
We ended up having to pass the error object twice (as both "info" and "opts"), i.e. errorsFormat.transform(error, error).
Pretty bizarre, but seems to work:

[hugo-daclon]

Got the same issue, I also saw a lot of related issues (#77 #80 #238).

For me I checked the logging functions (Logger.error, Logger.info...) and found out we could pass an infoObject: object as the parameter, it looks like, though I'm not sure, its type should be a Partial<TransformableInfo>. As such, passing a { message: myError } object as the param seems to work just fine :

import { config, createLogger, format, transports } from 'winston'
createLogger({
  levels: config.syslog.levels,
  level: 'debug',
  transports: new transports.Console({
    format: format.combine(
      format.errors({ stack: true }),
      format.printf((info) => {
        console.log(info)
        return ''
      })
    ),
  }),
})

const critError = new Error('critError', { cause: new Error('cause') })

logger.crit('Critical error happened:', critError)
logger.crit('Critical error happened:', { error: critError })
logger.crit({ message: critError })
logger.crit(critError)
logger.log('info', critError)

Here are the results without commenting the format.errrors({ stack: true }), line:

{
  level: 'crit',
  message: 'Critical error happened: critError',
  stack: 'Error: critError\n' +
    '    at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:19)\n' +
    '    at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)\n' +
    '    at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)\n' +
    '    at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5)',
  cause: Error: cause
      at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:51)
      at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
      at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
      at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5),
  [Symbol(level)]: 'crit',
  [Symbol(splat)]: [
    Error: critError
        at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:19)
        at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
        at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
        at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5) {
      [cause]: Error: cause
          at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:51)
          at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
          at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
          at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5)
    }
  ],
  [Symbol(message)]: '{"cause":{},"level":"crit","message":"Critical error happened: critError","stack":"Error: critError\\n    at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:19)\\n    at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)\\n    at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)\\n    at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5)"}'
}

{
  error: Error: critError
      at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:19)
      at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
      at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
      at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5) {
    [cause]: Error: cause
        at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:51)
        at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
        at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
        at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5)
  },
  level: 'crit',
  message: 'Critical error happened:',
  [Symbol(level)]: 'crit',
  [Symbol(splat)]: [ { error: [Error] } ],
  [Symbol(message)]: '{"error":{},"level":"crit","message":"Critical error happened:"}'
}

{
  message: 'critError',
  level: 'crit',
  stack: 'Error: critError\n' +
    '    at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:19)\n' +
    '    at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)\n' +
    '    at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)\n' +
    '    at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5)',
  [Symbol(level)]: 'crit',
  [Symbol(message)]: 'critError'
}

{
  level: 'crit',
  [Symbol(level)]: 'crit',
  [Symbol(message)]: '{"level":"crit"}'
}

{
  level: 'crit',
  [Symbol(level)]: 'crit',
  [Symbol(message)]: '{"level":"crit"}'
}

And with the line commented :

{
  level: 'crit',
  message: 'Critical error happened: critError',
  stack: 'Error: critError\n' +
    '    at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:19)\n' +
    '    at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)\n' +
    '    at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)\n' +
    '    at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5)',
  cause: Error: cause
      at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:51)
      at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
      at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
      at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5),
  [Symbol(level)]: 'crit',
  [Symbol(splat)]: [
    Error: critError
        at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:19)
        at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
        at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
        at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5) {
      [cause]: Error: cause
          at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:51)
          at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
          at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
          at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5)
    }
  ],
  [Symbol(message)]: '{"cause":{},"level":"crit","message":"Critical error happened: critError","stack":"Error: critError\\n    at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:19)\\n    at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)\\n    at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)\\n    at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5)"}'
}

{
  error: Error: critError
      at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:19)
      at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
      at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
      at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5) {
    [cause]: Error: cause
        at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:51)
        at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
        at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
        at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5)
  },
  level: 'crit',
  message: 'Critical error happened:',
  [Symbol(level)]: 'crit',
  [Symbol(splat)]: [ { error: [Error] } ],
  [Symbol(message)]: '{"error":{},"level":"crit","message":"Critical error happened:"}'
}

{
  message: Error: critError
      at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:19)
      at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
      at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
      at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5) {
    [cause]: Error: cause
        at <anonymous> (/workspace/src/shared/logger.ts:62:51)
        at ModuleJob.run (node:internal/modules/esm/module_job:329:25)
        at async onImport.tracePromise.__proto__ (node:internal/modules/esm/loader:644:26)
        at async asyncRunEntryPointWithESMLoader (node:internal/modules/run_main:117:5)
  },
  level: 'crit',
  [Symbol(level)]: 'crit',
  [Symbol(message)]: '{"level":"crit","message":{}}'
}

{
  level: 'crit',
  [Symbol(level)]: 'crit',
  [Symbol(message)]: '{"level":"crit"}'
}

{
  level: 'crit',
  [Symbol(level)]: 'crit',
  [Symbol(message)]: '{"level":"crit"}'
}

Here are the conclusions :

1. In the first case, format.errors({ stack: true }) doesn't do anything. (Do note that, either way, the error's message was appended to the end of the Critical error happened.)
2. The second case is the same in terms of format.errors({ stack: true })'s impact, but this time, because the error was encapsulated inside an object its message wasn't appended.
3. The third case is the only one that has visible differences:
   • When using format.errors({ stack:true }), it works as designed : the stack object is taken into account, the message is correct, but do note that [Symbol(message)] is now just the error's message and not a JSON { "level": "crit", "message": "critError" } like the rest of the messages would be. Also, even though the stack property was added to the info object, it's not added to [Symbol(message)] so it won't be printed without explicitly saying so with format.simple() format.json(), format.prettyPrint() or format.printf().
   • when you don't use format.errors({ stack: true }), the message will be of type Error, and will be printed as a {} by default (because of how JSON.stringify() works).
4. As for the fourth and fifth cases, which are essentially the same call, the Error seems to be lost into the void.

As the errors formatter does not seem to have a lot of impact, I won't be using it (mainly because I don't want to call my logging functions like the third option). Instead, I'll continue passing the options as metadata (like in the first or second cases), and print it nicely with a custom printf.