CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonloggingprintingpython-logging
webminal.org
webminal.org

Reputation: 47316

redirect prints to log file

Okay. I have completed my first python program.It has around 1000 lines of code. During development I placed plenty of print statements before running a command using os.system() say something like,

print "running command",cmd
os.system(cmd)

Now I have completed the program. I thought about commenting them but redirecting all these unnecessary print (i can't remove all print statements - since some provide useful info for user) into a log file will be more useful? Any tricks or tips.

Upvotes: 53

Views: 159429

Answers (10)

Jeff Luyet
Jeff Luyet

Reputation: 502

def log(txt):
    f = open(__file__ + '.log', "a")
    f.write(txt + '\r\n')
    f.close()

Usage:

log('Hello World!')

Example:

python3 helloworld.py

Will append to file ./helloworld.py.log. If file doesn't exist, it will create it.

Upvotes: 0

Sanjay Sheel
Sanjay Sheel

Reputation: 97

there are many way to write output into the '.log' file

Logging is a means of tracking events it happen when some file runs. Is also indicate that certain events have occurred.

import logging
logging.basicConfig(filename='example.log', encoding='utf-8', level=logging.DEBUG)
logging.debug('This is debug message')
logging.info('This is information message')
logging.warning('This is warning message')
logging.error('This is warning message')

another method to use to reduce all that thing sinple what ever you print to the console that all will be saved to the ''log'' file

python abc.py > abc.log

by using this method you can write everything to the log file

Upvotes: 3

Christopher Adams
Christopher Adams

Reputation: 1300

Just a note about append vs write mode. Change filemode to "w" if you would like it to replace log file. I also had to comment out the stream. Then using logging.info() was outputting to file specified. 

if __name__ == '__main__':
    LOG_FORMAT = '%(asctime)s:%(levelname)s ==> %(message)s'
    logging.basicConfig(
        level=logging.INFO,
        filename="logfile",
        filemode="w",
        format=LOG_FORMAT
        #stream=sys.stdout
    )

Upvotes: 0

AisZuk
AisZuk

Reputation: 61

You can create a log file and prepare it for writing. Then create a function:

def write_log(*args):
    line = ' '.join([str(a) for a in args])
    log_file.write(line+'\n')
    print(line)

and then replace your print() function name with write_log()

Upvotes: 6

Michael
Michael

Reputation: 3608

Python lets you capture and assign sys.stdout - as mentioned - to do this:

import sys
old_stdout = sys.stdout

log_file = open("message.log","w")

sys.stdout = log_file

print "this will be written to message.log"

sys.stdout = old_stdout

log_file.close()

Upvotes: 76

user180100
user180100

Reputation:

You should take a look at python logging module

EDIT: Sample code:

import logging

if __name__ == "__main__":
    logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG, filename="logfile", filemode="a+",
                        format="%(asctime)-15s %(levelname)-8s %(message)s")
    logging.info("hello")

Produce a file named "logfile" with content:

2012-10-18 06:40:03,582 INFO     hello

Upvotes: 66

Mike Graham
Mike Graham

Reputation: 76793

  • Next time, you'll be happier if instead of using print statements at all you use the logging module from the start. It provides the control you want and you can have it write to stdout while that's still where you want it.

  • Many people here have suggested redirecting stdout. This is an ugly solution. It mutates a global and—what's worse—it mutates it for this one module's use. I would sooner make a regex that changes all print foo to print >>my_file, foo and set my_file to either stdout or an actual file of my choosing.

    • If you have any other parts of the application that actually depend on writing to stdout (or ever will in the future but you don't know it yet), this breaks them. Even if you don't, it makes reading your module look like it does one thing when it actually does another if you missed one little line up top.
    • Chevron print is pretty ugly, but not nearly as ugly as temporarily changing sys.stdout for the process.
    • Very technically speaking, a regex replacement isn't capable of doing this right (for example, it could make false positives if you are inside of a multiline string literal). However, it's apt to work, just keep an eye on it.

  • os.system is virtually always inferior to using the subprocess module. The latter needn't invoke the shell, doesn't pass signals in a way that usually is unwanted, and can be used in a non-blocking manner.

Upvotes: 13

Anurag Uniyal
Anurag Uniyal

Reputation: 88855

You can redirect replace sys.stdout with any object which has same interface as sys.stdout, in that object's write you can print to terminal and to file too. e.g. see this recipe http://code.activestate.com/recipes/119404-print-hook/

Upvotes: 2

blokeley
blokeley

Reputation: 7065

A simple way to redirect stdout and stderr using the logging module is here: How do I duplicate sys.stdout to a log file in python?

Upvotes: 2

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

Reputation: 799520

Putting your own file-like in sys.stdout will let you capture the text output via print.

Upvotes: 1

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