verbosity.rst

Verbosity Levels

The console has five verbosity levels. These are defined in the :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Console\\Output\\OutputInterface`:

Value	Meaning	Console option
OutputInterface::VERBOSITY_QUIET	Do not output any messages	-q or --quiet
OutputInterface::VERBOSITY_NORMAL	The default verbosity level	(none)
OutputInterface::VERBOSITY_VERBOSE	Increased verbosity of messages	-v
OutputInterface::VERBOSITY_VERY_VERBOSE	Informative non essential messages	-vv
OutputInterface::VERBOSITY_DEBUG	Debug messages	-vvv

It is possible to print a message in a command for only a specific verbosity level. For example:

// ...
class CreateUserCommand extends Command
{
    // ...

    public function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output)
    {
        $user = new User(...);

        $output->writeln(array(
            'Username: '.$input->getArgument('username'),
            'Password: '.$input->getArgument('password'),
        ));

        // the user class is only printed when the verbose verbosity level is used
        if ($output->getVerbosity() >= OutputInterface::VERBOSITY_VERBOSE) {
            $output->writeln('User class: '.get_class($user));
        }

        // alternatively you can pass the verbosity level to writeln()
        $output->writeln(
            'Will only be printed in verbose mode or higher',
            OutputInterface::VERBOSITY_VERBOSE
        );
    }
}

There are also more semantic methods you can use to test for each of the verbosity levels:

if ($output->isQuiet()) {
    // ...
}

if ($output->isVerbose()) {
    // ...
}

if ($output->isVeryVerbose()) {
    // ...
}

if ($output->isDebug()) {
    // ...
}

Note

These semantic methods are defined in the OutputInterface starting from Symfony 3.0. In previous Symfony versions they are defined in the different implementations of the interface (e.g. :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Console\\Output\\Output`) in order to keep backwards compatibility.

When the quiet level is used, all output is suppressed as the default :method:`Symfony\\Component\\Console\\Output\\Output::write` method returns without actually printing.

Tip

The MonologBridge provides a :class:`Symfony\\Bridge\\Monolog\\Handler\\ConsoleHandler` class that allows you to display messages on the console. This is cleaner than wrapping your output calls in conditions. For an example use in the Symfony Framework, see :doc:`/logging/monolog_console`.

Tip

The full exception stacktrace is printed if the VERBOSITY_VERBOSE level or above is used.