a function that examines the js call stack to find information about the caller

trace.js

  /**
  * examines the call stack (if available) and returns a string
  * indicating the file and line number of the n'th previous ancestor call.
  * this works in chrome, and should work in nodejs as well.  
  *
  * @param n : int (default: n=1) - the number of calls to trace up the
  *   stack from the current call.  `n=0` gives you your current file/line.
  *  `n=1` gives the file/line that called you.
  */
  function traceCaller(n) {
    if( isNaN(n) || n<0) n=1;
    n+=1;
    var s = (new Error()).stack
      , a=s.indexOf('\n',5);
    while(n--) {
      a=s.indexOf('\n',a+1);
      if( a<0 ) { a=s.lastIndexOf('\n',s.length); break;}
    }
    b=s.indexOf('\n',a+1); if( b<0 ) b=s.length;
    a=Math.max(s.lastIndexOf(' ',b), s.lastIndexOf('/',b));
    b=s.lastIndexOf(':',b);
    s=s.substring(a+1,b);
    return s;
  }