To install, simply do

julia> ]

(v1.x) pkg> add ToggleableAsserts

at the julia prompt.

ToggleableAsserts

Suppose we have a function with an assertion we only want to be on while debugging:

using ToggleableAsserts

function foo(u, v)
    @toggled_assert length(u) == length(v)
    1
end

We can now make sure our assertions work:

julia> foo([1, 2], [1])
ERROR: AssertionError: length(u) == length(v)
Stacktrace:
 [1] foo(::Array{Int64,1}, ::Array{Int64,1}) at ./REPL[1]:2
 [2] top-level scope at REPL[2]:1

and also turn them off

julia> toggle(false)
[ Info: Toggleable asserts turned off.

julia> foo([1, 2], [1])
1

Once assertions are turned off, any function depending on them is recompiled with the assertions removed. For instance, the LLVM code for foo now simply returns 1 without any bounds checking at runtime:

julia> @code_llvm foo([1,2], [1])
;  @ REPL[1]:2 within `foo'
define i64 @julia_foo_16854(%jl_value_t addrspace(10)* nonnull align 16 dereferenceable(40), %jl_value_t addrspace(10)* nonnull align 16 dereferenceable(40)) {
top:
  ret i64 1
}

Just like the standard @assert macro, you can add custom error text to a @toggled_assert:

julia> @toggled_assert iseven(3) "3 is an odd number!"
ERROR: AssertionError: 3 is an odd number!
Stacktrace:
 [1] top-level scope at REPL[21]:1

Safety

If you try to set toggle outside of the global scope, you may suffer world-age issues until you return to the global scope. e.g.

julia> function bar()
           toggle(false)
           foo([1, 2], [1])
           toggle(true)
           foo([1, 2], [1])    
       end
bar (generic function with 1 method)

julia> bar()
[ Info: Toggleable asserts turned off.
[ Info: Toggleable asserts turned on.
1

julia> foo([1, 2], [1])
ERROR: AssertionError: length(u) == length(v)
Stacktrace:
 [1] foo(::Array{Int64,1}, ::Array{Int64,1}) at ./REPL[45]:2
 [2] top-level scope at REPL[48]:1

Hence, it should be preferred to only use toggle in the global scope.

Attribution

This isn't my idea, I just packaged it up. The idea came from this Julia Discourse thread