Logging

Introduction to the Log Interface

Cement defines the Log Interface, as well as the default LoggingLogHandler that implements the interface. This handler is built on top of the Logging module which is included in the Python standard library.

Cement often includes multiple handler implementations of an interface that may or may not have additional features or functionality than the interface requires. The documentation below only references usage based on the interface and default handler (not the full capabilities of an implementation).

Cement Extensions That Provide Log Handlers

• Logging

• Colorlog

API References:

• Cement Core Log Module

• Cement Logging Extension

Configuration

Application Meta Options

The following options under App.Meta modify configuration handling:

Option	Description
log_handler	The handler that implements the log interface.

Logging Messages

The following shows logging to each of the defined log levels.

Example: Log Levels

from cement import App

with App('myapp') as app:
    app.run()

    ​# log messages to different levels
    app.log.debug('This is a debug message.')
    app.log.info('This is an info message.')​
    app.log.warning('This is a warning message.')
    app.log.error('This is an error message.')
    app.log.fatal('This is a fatal message.')​

The above is displayed in order of severity. If the log level is set to INFO, you will receive all info messages and above including WARNING, ERROR, and FATAL. However, you will not receive DEBUG level messages. The same goes for a log level of WARNING, where you will receive WARNING, ERROR, and FATAL but you will not receive INFO, or DEBUG level messages.

Changing Log Level

The log level defaults to INFO, but can be set via LoggingLogHandler.Meta.config_defaults or setting the level under the log handlers section of the application configuration:

Example: Changing Log Level

myapp.py

from cement import App, init_defaults

CONFIG = init_defaults('myapp', 'log.logging')
CONFIG['log.logging']['level'] = 'WARNING'

class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        config_defaults = CONFIG

~/.myapp.conf

[myapp]

# ...

[log.logging]
level = WARNING

Cement also includes a --debug command line option by default. This triggers App.Meta.debug and sets the log level to DEBUG.

Logging to Console

The default log handler configuration enables logging messages to console.

Example: Logging to Console

from cement import App

with App('myapp') as app:
    app.run()

    # log messages to different levels
    app.log.debug('This is a debug message')
    app.log.info('This is an info message')
    app.log.warning('This is an warning message')
    app.log.error('This is an error message')
    app.log.fatal('This is a fatal message')

cli

Console logging can be disabled by setting to_console to False in either the application defaults, or under the [log.logging] section of the applications configuration file.

Logging to File

File logging is disabled by default but can be enabled by setting the file setting under the [log.logging] section of the application configuration.

Example: Logging to File

myapp.py

from cement import App, init_defaults

CONFIG = init_defaults('myapp', 'log.logging')
CONFIG['log.logging']['file'] = '/path/to/file.log'

class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        config_defaults = CONFIG

~/.myapp.conf

[myapp]
# ...

[log.logging]
file = /path/to/file.log

Tips on Debugging

The following is specific to the default LoggingLogHandler, and is not an requirement of the logging interface.

Logging to app.log.debug() is pretty straightforward. However, adding an additional parameter for the namespace can greatly increase insight into where that log is happening. The namespace defaults to the application name which you will see in every log like this:

2012-07-30 18:05:11,357 (DEBUG) myapp : This is my message

For debugging, it might be more useful to change this to __name__:

app.log.debug('This is my info message', __name__)

Which looks like:

2012-07-30 18:05:11,357 (DEBUG) myapp.somepackage.test : This is my message

Or even more verbose, you might prefer adding something like __file__ and the function or class method:

app.log.debug('This is my info message', '%s : my_func()' % __file__)

Which would look like:

2012-07-30 18:05:11,357 (DEBUG) myapp/somepackage/test.py : my_func() : This is my message

Creating a Log Handler

All interfaces in Cement can be overridden with your own implementation. This can be done either by sub-classing LogHandler itself, or by sub-classing an existing extension's handlers in order to alter their functionality.

Example: Creating a Log Handler

myapp.py

from cement import App
from cement.core.log import LogHandler

class MyLogHandler(LogHandler):
    class Meta:
        label = 'my_log_handler'

    # do something to implement the interface

class MyApp(App):
    class Meta:
        label = 'myapp'
        log_handler = 'my_log_handler'
        handlers = [
            MyLogHandler,
        ]