In XCode, is there a way to disable the timestamps that appear in the debugger console?

Question

XCode's debugger console makes it easy to see any debugging messages my app sends out using NSLog(), but it always sticks a timestamp prefix on them:

2009-08-30 04:54:48.128 MyApp[94652:a0f] some log message
2009-08-30 04:54:50.647 MyApp[94652:a0f] another log message
...

I have no use for this prefix, and it takes up a lot of room. I have a feeling it is hard-coded into Apple's logging system, but just in case there is a solution out there:

Can I have the debugger console show me log messages without the timestamp prefix?

Something like this would be perfect:

some log message
another log message
...

Answer 1

NSLog() is what is doing that, not the debugger console.

The easiest way to avoid it is to not use NSLog at all. You could use fprintf(), but that is a pain in that it doesn't support %@ format types.

I generally write a function for this:

void MyLog(NSString *format, ...) {
    va_list args;
    va_start(args, format);
    NSString *formattedString = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat: format
                                                  arguments: args];
    va_end(args);
    [[NSFileHandle fileHandleWithStandardOutput]
        writeData: [formattedString dataUsingEncoding: NSNEXTSTEPStringEncoding];
    [formattedString release];
}

Obviously, modify it to add a newline or use a shorter prefix, etc...

(Fixed the stray ctrl-b)