Avoid information messages in the output (coming from package comment)

Question

I am using the package comment extensively and it produces a lot of information messages I don't want to read anymore. How can I get rid of them? (presumably, I would still like to receive warnings and errors, but not any of the messages that start with "Excluding".)

I've tried using the package silence but maybe it only addresses actual warning/errors and not pure information messages?

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{silence}
\WarningsOff[comment]
\ErrorsOff[comment]
\WarningFilter{comment}{Excluding}

\usepackage{comment}

\excludecomment{hint}

\begin{document}
Zero
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\end{document}

How can I avoid the MWE above displaying all these "Excluding 'hint' comment." messages in the output?

(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo)) (/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/silence/silence.sty) (/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/comment/comment.sty Excluding comment 'comment') Excluding comment 'hint' (./test.aux) (/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/omscmr.fd) Excluding 'hint' comment. Excluding 'hint' comment. Excluding 'hint' comment. Excluding 'hint' comment. Excluding 'hint' comment. Excluding 'hint' comment. [1{/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-var/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}] (./test.aux) )</usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmbx10.pfb></usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr10.pfb></usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmsy10.pfb>          

Answer 1

As noted in the comment below the question you can redefine the comment definitions to remove the \message commands. You can patch a command using the etoolbox package, which provides the command \patchcmd with five arguments, first the command that you want to patch, then the part of the command that you want to modify, then the replacement text, then code to execute if the patch is succesful and as last argument code to execute if the patch fails. The final two arguments can be empty. In this case you want to replace the \message command with nothing.

MWE:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{comment}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\patchcmd{\excludecomment}{\message{Excluding '#1' comment.}}{}{}{}
\excludecomment{hint}

\begin{document}
Zero
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\end{document}

Result:

Document Class: article 2014/09/29 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo))
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/comment/comment.sty
Excluding comment 'comment')
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/etoolbox/etoolbox.sty)
Excluding comment 'hint' (./excludemsg.aux) [1{/var/lib/texmf/fonts/map/pdftex/
updmap/pdftex.map}] (./excludemsg.aux) )</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/ty
pe1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr10.pfb>
Output written on excludemsg.pdf (1 page, 10669 bytes).

Alternatively, you can rewrite the macro to allow for an optional switch to display the message for some environments and not for others.

MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{comment}
\usepackage{ifthen}

\renewcommand\excludecomment[2][]{\message{Excluding comment '#2'}%
    \ifthenelse{\equal{#1}{msg}}{%
    \csarg\def{#2}{\endgroup \message{Excluding '#2' comment.}%
        \begingroup
           \DefaultCutFileName \def\ProcessCutFile{}%
           \def\ThisComment####1{}\ProcessComment{#2}}%
    }{%
    \csarg\def{#2}{\endgroup %
        \begingroup
           \DefaultCutFileName \def\ProcessCutFile{}%
           \def\ThisComment####1{}\ProcessComment{#2}}%
    }
    \csarg\def{After#2Comment}{\CloseAndInputCutFile \endgroup}
    \CommentEndDef{#2}}

\excludecomment{hint}
\excludecomment[msg]{otherhint}

\begin{document}
Zero
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\begin{otherhint}
  One
\end{otherhint}
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\begin{hint}
  One
\end{hint}
\begin{otherhint}
  One
\end{otherhint}
\end{document}

Result (the hint environments are not mentioned but the otherhint environments are):

Document Class: article 2014/09/29 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo))
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/comment/comment.sty
Excluding comment 'comment')
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/ifthen.sty)
Excluding comment 'hint' Excluding comment 'otherhint' (./excludemsg.aux)
Excluding 'otherhint' comment. Excluding 'otherhint' comment. [1{/var/lib/texmf
/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}] (./excludemsg.aux) )</usr/share/texlive/t
exmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr10.pfb>
Output written on excludemsg.pdf (1 page, 10669 bytes).