Deprecate

Easily maintain your codebase by exposing an easy and concise way to mark methods as deprecated.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'deprecate'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install deprecate

Usage

Basic Usage

Simply call deprecate with the method name you want to deprecate:

class MyClass
  def old_method
    "This method still works but is deprecated"
  end
  
  def new_method
    "This is the new way"
  end
  
  # Mark old_method as deprecated and suggest new_method
  deprecate :old_method, :new_method
end

obj = MyClass.new
obj.old_method  # Works but prints deprecation warning
# => DEPRECATION WARNING: old_method is deprecated (use new_method instead). Called from example.rb:15

Without Replacement Suggestion

class MyClass
  def legacy_method
    "Going away soon"
  end
  
  # Mark as deprecated without suggesting replacement
  deprecate :legacy_method
end

obj = MyClass.new
obj.legacy_method  # Prints: DEPRECATION WARNING: legacy_method is deprecated. Called from example.rb:10

Configuration

Configure deprecation behavior globally:

Deprecate.configure do |config|
  config[:output_stream] = File.open('deprecations.log', 'a')  # Log to file instead of stderr
  config[:message_format] = "WARNING: %{method} is deprecated%{replacement}"  # Custom message format
  config[:show_caller] = false  # Don't show caller location
  config[:warn_once] = false    # Warn every time, not just once per method
end

Configuration Options

:output_stream - Where to send warnings (default: $stderr)
:message_format - Message template with %{method}, %{replacement}, %{caller} placeholders
:show_caller - Include caller location in warnings (default: true)
:warn_once - Only warn once per deprecated method (default: true)

Resetting Warnings

Clear the "warned once" tracking to see warnings again:

Deprecate.reset_warnings!

Method Visibility

The gem preserves the original method's visibility (public, protected, private):

class MyClass
  private
  
  def secret_method
    "private stuff"
  end
  
  deprecate :secret_method
  
  public
  
  def call_secret
    secret_method  # This works and shows deprecation warning
  end
end

obj = MyClass.new
obj.call_secret      # Works
obj.secret_method    # Still raises NoMethodError (method remains private)

Contributing

Fork it ( https://github.com/twilightcoders/deprecate/fork )
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
Create a new Pull Request

deprecate

Development