Suppress cout output from pcl registration

Question

From this question: Redirecting function output to /dev/null I have tried to employ the following code:

 std::ofstream catchPCLStream("/dev/null");
 std::streambuf *originalOutputBuffer = std::cout.rdbuf();
 std::cout.rdbuf(catchPCLStream.rdbuf());
 std::cerr.rdbuf(catchPCLStream.rdbuf());

 icp_.align(dataCloudTransformedByIcp_, icpInternalUpdatePose_);

 std::cout.rdbuf(originalOutputBuffer);
 std::cerr.rdbuf(originalOutputBuffer);

But I still get a huge amount of output from the registration library:

[pcl::IterativeClosestPoint::computeTransformation] Not enough correspondences found. Relax your threshold parameters.

Is there something different about this output that stops it from being caught by this? Is it not going to cout or cerr?

Have you tried `std::cout.rdbuf(0);` before calling your function? — Cyclonecode, Jun 05 '14 at 23:36
@KristerAndersson It continues to print. even with `std::cout.rdbuf(0/Null/nullptr)` — Fantastic Mr Fox, Jun 05 '14 at 23:40
@KristerAndersson I am redirecting both. It continues to print to the screen. — Fantastic Mr Fox, Jun 05 '14 at 23:42
@0x499602D2 My program is not but it is possible that the printing by pcl could be? — Fantastic Mr Fox, Jun 05 '14 at 23:42
@0x499602D2 perhaps pcl provides a method to suppress error output? Otherwise I have found where my particular thing prints, I could edit the source code, although i would absolutely prefer not to. — Fantastic Mr Fox, Jun 05 '14 at 23:47
@0x499602D2 it looks like there is an option to disable output here: http://pixinsight.com/developer/pcl/doc/html/classpcl_1_1Exception.html#a5274e2316874e55665f93bf4c3de1416 but i am getting a cant find header when i include `pcl/Exception.h` — Fantastic Mr Fox, Jun 05 '14 at 23:52
Check the folder for where you're including the files. Do you see `Exception.h` anywhere? — David G, Jun 05 '14 at 23:54
@0x499602D2 yeah i am looking, doesnt appear, im not sure where to find this file? — Fantastic Mr Fox, Jun 05 '14 at 23:56
Actually now from grepping it doesnt look like `DisableConsoleOutput` appears anywhere in my pcl include files. Maybe it has been replaced? I also cant access the pcl website for some reason atm — Fantastic Mr Fox, Jun 06 '14 at 00:00
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/55166/discussion-between-ben-and-0x499602d2). — Fantastic Mr Fox, Jun 06 '14 at 00:24

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 06 '14 at 01:27

Due to the multi-threaded nature of PCL, the standard pipe cout and cerr away wont work. Instead you need to use the in-built functions provided by PCL to turn off the console printing.

Using the command:

pcl::console::setVerbosityLevel(pcl::console::L_ALWAYS)

Will turn everything off. There are also other levels and more information can be found on the pcl::console namespace page:

http://docs.pointclouds.org/trunk/a02895.html#a1c1202ab693383b98842cb4f72ae625c

Suppress cout output from pcl registration

1 Answers1