Debug arrays from hook_cron?

Question

Does anybody know of the proper way to debug objects from within hook_cron? I'm trying to set up a task that periodically deletes backups from my private folder, but I can't properly debug arrays that I define in my module. I've tried both the object log and devel debug log modules, but neither of them are properly working for me at the moment, so I feel completely stuck on how to access the information I need.

I've tried running kint() directly, but I'm assuming that doesn't work because it's not running on a page load but in the middle of the cron task.

EDIT: Ended up solving this particular piece of the issue, but am having errors doing some of the deletion as addressed in another issue.

Answer 1

You might want to try a module like Ultimate Cron that allows you to run individual cron jobs, outside of cron.php. This will allow you to use kint() and see the output.

Answer 2

I ended up using Ultimate Cron to run my specific cron task on demand, but used a method other than kint() to print my info. I ended up setting my info to a variable $folders and using the following to print the information in a text file: file_put_contents("$private_path/folders.txt", print_r($folders, true))

Answer 3

It is possible to log an array in dblog :

Drupal::logger('my_cron_task')->notice('<pre><code>' . print_r($myArray, TRUE) . '</code></pre>');

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Other way is to debug with cli, so in your hook_cron() you print your array ...

print_r($myArray);

... then you launch your cron task from your cli with drush :

drush cron

Answer 4

echo are displayed with drush on hook_cron.

A quick but not complete solution could be to echo flat array using this way. It could do the trick depending of your need.