Python | Add Logging to a Python Script

In this article, we will learn how to have scripts and simple programs to write diagnostic information to log files. Code #1 : Using the logging module to add logging to a simple program Python3 1==

import logging

def main():
    # Configure the logging system
    logging.basicConfig(filename ='app.log',
                        level = logging.ERROR)
    
    # Variables (to make the calls that follow work)
    hostname = 'www.python.org'
    item = 'spam'
    filename = 'data.csv'
    mode = 'r'
    
    # Example logging calls (insert into your program)
    logging.critical('Host %s unknown', hostname)
    logging.error("Couldn't find %r", item)
    logging.warning('Feature is deprecated')
    logging.info('Opening file %r, mode = %r', filename, mode)
    logging.debug('Got here')
    
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()

• The five logging calls (critical(), error(), warning(), info(), debug()) represent different severity levels in decreasing order.
• The level argument to basicConfig() is a filter. All messages issued at a level lower than this setting will be ignored.
• The argument to each logging operation is a message string followed by zero or more arguments. When making the final log message, the % operator is used to format the message string using the supplied arguments.

If you run the code above, the contents of the file app.log will be as follow -

CRITICAL:root:Host www.python.org unknown
ERROR:root:Could not find 'spam'

To change the output or level of output, change the parameters to the basicConfig() call as in the code given below - Code #2 : Python3 1==

logging.basicConfig( 
        filename = 'app.log', 
        level = logging.WARNING, 
        format = '%(levelname)s:%(asctime)s:%(message)s')

Output :

CRITICAL:2012-11-20 12:27:13, 595:Host www.python.org unknown
ERROR:2012-11-20 12:27:13, 595:Could not find 'spam'
WARNING:2012-11-20 12:27:13, 595:Feature is deprecated

The logging configuration is hardcoded directly into the program. To configure it from a configuration file, change the basicConfig() call to the following. Code #3 : Python3 1==

import logging
import logging.config

def main():
    # Configure the logging system
    logging.config.fileConfig('logconfig.ini')
    ...

Now make a configuration file that looks like this -

[loggers]
keys=root

[handlers]
keys=defaultHandler

[formatters]
keys=defaultFormatter

[logger_root]
level=INFO
handlers=defaultHandler
qualname=root

[handler_defaultHandler]
class=FileHandler
formatter=defaultFormatter
args=('app.log', 'a')

[formatter_defaultFormatter]
format=%(levelname)s:%(name)s:%(message)s

If you want to make changes to the configuration, you can simply edit the file as appropriate. Ignoring for the moment that there are about a million advanced configuration options for the logging module, this solution is quite sufficient for simple programs and scripts. Simply make sure to execute the basicConfig() call prior to making any logging calls, and the program will generate logging output.   Reference: https://docs.python.org/3/howto/logging-cookbook.html