logzero: Python logging made easy

Robust and effective logging for Python 2 and 3.

Logo

Features

Installation

Install logzero with pip:

$ pip install -U logzero

If you don’t have pip installed, this Python installation guide can guide you through the process.

You can also install logzero from the public Github repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/metachris/logzero.git
$ cd logzero
$ python setup.py install

Example usage

You can use logzero like this (logs only to the console by default):

from logzero import logger

logger.debug("hello")
logger.info("info")
logger.warning("warn")
logger.error("error")

# This is how you'd log an exception
try:
    raise Exception("this is a demo exception")
except Exception as e:
    logger.exception(e)

# JSON logging
import logzero
logzero.json()

logger.info("JSON test")

# Start writing into a logfile
logzero.logfile("/tmp/logzero-demo.log")

If this was a file called demo.py, the output will look like this:

Demo output in color

Logging to files

You can add logging to a (rotating) logfile like this:

import logzero
from logzero import logger

# non-rotating logfile
logzero.logfile("/tmp/logfile.log")

# rotating logfile
logzero.logfile("/tmp/rotating-logfile.log", maxBytes=1e6, backupCount=3)

# log messages
logger.info("This log message goes to the console and the logfile")

JSON logging

JSON logging can be enabled for the default logger with logzero.json(), or with setup_logger(json=True) for custom loggers:

# Configure the default logger to output JSON
>>> logzero.json()
>>> logger.info("test")
{"asctime": "2020-10-21 10:42:45,808", "filename": "<stdin>", "funcName": "<module>", "levelname": "INFO", "levelno": 20, "lineno": 1, "module": "<stdin>", "message": "test", "name": "logzero_default", "pathname": "<stdin>", "process": 76179, "processName": "MainProcess", "threadName": "MainThread"}

# Configure a custom logger to output JSON
>>> my_logger = setup_logger(json=True)
>>> my_logger.info("test")
{"asctime": "2020-10-21 10:42:45,808", "filename": "<stdin>", "funcName": "<module>", "levelname": "INFO", "levelno": 20, "lineno": 1, "module": "<stdin>", "message": "test", "name": "logzero_default", "pathname": "<stdin>", "process": 76179, "processName": "MainProcess", "threadName": "MainThread"}

The logged JSON object has these fields:

{
    "asctime": "2020-10-21 10:43:40,765",
    "filename": "test.py",
    "funcName": "test_this",
    "levelname": "INFO",
    "levelno": 20,
    "lineno": 9,
    "module": "test",
    "message": "info",
    "name": "logzero",
    "pathname": "_tests/test.py",
    "process": 76204,
    "processName": "MainProcess",
    "threadName": "MainThread"
}

An exception logged with logger.exception(e) has these:

{
    "asctime": "2020-10-21 10:43:25,193",
    "filename": "test.py",
    "funcName": "test_this",
    "levelname": "ERROR",
    "levelno": 40,
    "lineno": 17,
    "module": "test",
    "message": "this is a demo exception",
    "name": "logzero",
    "pathname": "_tests/test.py",
    "process": 76192,
    "processName": "MainProcess",
    "threadName": "MainThread",
    "exc_info": "Traceback (most recent call last):\n  File \"_tests/test.py\", line 15, in test_this\n    raise Exception(\"this is a demo exception\")\nException: this is a demo exception"
}

Advanced usage examples

Here are more examples which show how to use logfiles, custom formatters and setting a minimum loglevel.

Outcome Method
Set a minimum log level logzero.loglevel(..)
Add logging to a logfile logzero.logfile(..)
Setup a rotating logfile logzero.logfile(..)
Disable logging to a logfile logzero.logfile(None)
JSON logging logzero.json(…)
Log to syslog logzero.syslog(…)
Use a custom formatter logzero.formatter(..) 
import logging
import logzero
from logzero import logger

# This log message goes to the console
logger.debug("hello")

# Set a minimum log level
logzero.loglevel(logzero.INFO)

# Set a logfile (all future log messages are also saved there)
logzero.logfile("/tmp/logfile.log")

# Set a logfile (all future log messages are also saved there), but disable the default stderr logging
logzero.logfile("/tmp/logfile.log", disableStderrLogger=True)

# You can also set a different loglevel for the file handler
logzero.logfile("/tmp/logfile.log", loglevel=logzero.ERROR)

# Set a rotating logfile (replaces the previous logfile handler)
logzero.logfile("/tmp/rotating-logfile.log", maxBytes=1000000, backupCount=3)

# Disable logging to a file
logzero.logfile(None)

# Enable JSON log format
logzero.json()

# Disable JSON log format
logzero.json(False)

# Log to syslog, using default logzero logger and 'user' syslog facility
logzero.syslog()

# Log to syslog, using default logzero logger and 'local0' syslog facility
logzero.syslog(facility=SysLogHandler.LOG_LOCAL0)

# Set a custom formatter
formatter = logging.Formatter('%(name)s - %(asctime)-15s - %(levelname)s: %(message)s');
logzero.formatter(formatter)

# Log some variables
logger.info("var1: %s, var2: %s", var1, var2)

Custom logger instances

Instead of using the default logger you can also setup specific logger instances with logzero.setup_logger(..):

from logzero import setup_logger
logger1 = setup_logger(name="mylogger1")
logger2 = setup_logger(name="mylogger2", logfile="/tmp/test-logger2.log", level=logzero.INFO)
logger3 = setup_logger(name="mylogger3", logfile="/tmp/test-logger3.log", level=logzero.INFO, disableStderrLogger=True)

# Log something:
logger1.info("info for logger 1")
logger2.info("info for logger 2")

# log to a file only, excluding the default stderr logger
logger3.info("info for logger 3")

# JSON logging in a custom logger
jsonLogger = setup_logger(name="jsonLogger", json=True)
jsonLogger.info("info in json")

Adding custom handlers (eg. SocketHandler)

Since logzero uses the standard Python logger object, you can attach any Python logging handlers you can imagine!

This is how you add a SocketHandler:

import logzero
import logging
from logging.handlers import SocketHandler

# Setup the SocketHandler
socket_handler = SocketHandler(address=('localhost', logging.DEFAULT_TCP_LOGGING_PORT))
socket_handler.setLevel(logzero.DEBUG)
socket_handler.setFormatter(logzero.LogFormatter(color=False))

# Attach it to the logzero default logger
logzero.logger.addHandler(socket_handler)

# Log messages
logzero.logger.info("this is a test")

Documentation

logzero.logger

logzero.logger is an already set up standard Python logger instance for your convenience. You can use it from all your files and modules directly like this:

from logzero import logger

logger.debug("hello")
logger.info("info")
logger.warning("warning")
logger.error("error")

You can reconfigure the default logger globally with logzero.setup_default_logger(..).

See the documentation for the Python logger instance for more information about how you can use it.

logzero.loglevel(..)

logzero.loglevel(level=10, update_custom_handlers=False)[source]

Set the minimum loglevel for the default logger (logzero.logger) and all handlers.

This reconfigures only the internal handlers of the default logger (eg. stream and logfile). You can also update the loglevel for custom handlers by using update_custom_handlers=True.

Parameters:
  • level (int) – Minimum logging-level to display (default: DEBUG).
  • update_custom_handlers (bool) – If you added custom handlers to this logger and want this to update them too, you need to set update_custom_handlers to True

logzero.logfile(..)

logzero.logfile(filename, formatter=None, mode='a', maxBytes=0, backupCount=0, encoding=None, loglevel=None, disableStderrLogger=False)[source]

Setup logging to file (using a RotatingFileHandler internally).

By default, the file grows indefinitely (no rotation). You can use the maxBytes and backupCount values to allow the file to rollover at a predetermined size. When the size is about to be exceeded, the file is closed and a new file is silently opened for output. Rollover occurs whenever the current log file is nearly maxBytes in length; if either of maxBytes or backupCount is zero, rollover never occurs.

If backupCount is non-zero, the system will save old log files by appending the extensions ‘.1’, ‘.2’ etc., to the filename. For example, with a backupCount of 5 and a base file name of app.log, you would get app.log, app.log.1, app.log.2, up to app.log.5. The file being written to is always app.log. When this file is filled, it is closed and renamed to app.log.1, and if files app.log.1, app.log.2, etc. exist, then they are renamed to app.log.2, app.log.3 etc. respectively.

Parameters:
  • filename (string) – Filename of the logfile. Set to None to disable logging to the logfile.
  • formatter (Formatter) – Python logging Formatter object (by default uses the internal LogFormatter).
  • mode (string) – mode to open the file with. Defaults to a
  • maxBytes (int) – Size of the logfile when rollover should occur. Defaults to 0, rollover never occurs.
  • backupCount (int) – Number of backups to keep. Defaults to 0, rollover never occurs.
  • encoding (string) – Used to open the file with that encoding.
  • loglevel (int) – Set a custom loglevel for the file logger, else uses the current global loglevel.
  • disableStderrLogger (bool) – Should the default stderr logger be disabled. Defaults to False.

logzero.formatter(..)

logzero.formatter(formatter, update_custom_handlers=False)[source]

Set the formatter for all handlers of the default logger (logzero.logger).

This reconfigures only the logzero internal handlers by default, but you can also reconfigure custom handlers by using update_custom_handlers=True.

Beware that setting a formatter which uses colors also may write the color codes to logfiles.

Parameters:
  • formatter (Formatter) –

    Python logging Formatter object (by default uses the internal LogFormatter).

  • update_custom_handlers (bool) – If you added custom handlers to this logger and want this to update them too, you need to set update_custom_handlers to True

logzero.setup_logger(..)

logzero.setup_logger(name='logzero', logfile=None, level=10, formatter=None, maxBytes=0, backupCount=0, fileLoglevel=None, disableStderrLogger=False, isRootLogger=False, json=False, json_ensure_ascii=False)[source]

Configures and returns a fully configured logger instance, no hassles. If a logger with the specified name already exists, it returns the existing instance, else creates a new one.

If you set the logfile parameter with a filename, the logger will save the messages to the logfile, but does not rotate by default. If you want to enable log rotation, set both maxBytes and backupCount.

Usage:

from logzero import setup_logger
logger = setup_logger()
logger.info("hello")
Parameters:
  • name (string) – Name of the Logger object. Multiple calls to setup_logger() with the same name will always return a reference to the same Logger object. (default: __name__)
  • logfile (string) – If set, also write logs to the specified filename.
  • level (int) –

    Minimum logging-level to display (default: DEBUG).

  • formatter (Formatter) –

    Python logging Formatter object (by default uses the internal LogFormatter).

  • maxBytes (int) – Size of the logfile when rollover should occur. Defaults to 0, rollover never occurs.
  • backupCount (int) – Number of backups to keep. Defaults to 0, rollover never occurs.
  • fileLoglevel (int) –

    Minimum logging-level for the file logger (is not set, it will use the loglevel from the level argument)

  • disableStderrLogger (bool) – Should the default stderr logger be disabled. Defaults to False.
  • isRootLogger (bool) – If True then returns a root logger. Defaults to False. (see also the Python docs).
  • json (bool) –

    If True then log in JSON format. Defaults to False. (uses python-json-logger).

  • json_ensure_ascii (bool) – Passed to json.dumps as ensure_ascii, default: False (if False: writes utf-8 characters, if True: ascii only representation of special characters - eg. ‘Öß’)
Returns:

A fully configured Python logging Logger object you can use with .debug("msg"), etc.

Default Log Format

This is the default log format string:

DEFAULT_FORMAT = '%(color)s[%(levelname)1.1s %(asctime)s %(module)s:%(lineno)d]%(end_color)s %(message)s'

See also the Python LogRecord attributes you can use.

Custom Formatting

It is easy to use a custom formatter / a custom log format string:

  • Define your log format string (you can use any of the LogRecord attributes).
  • Create a Formatter object (based on logzero.LogFormatter to get all the encoding helpers).
  • Supply the formatter object to the formatter argument in the setup_logger(..) method.

This is a working example on how to setup logging with a custom format:

import logzero

log_format = '%(color)s[%(levelname)1.1s %(asctime)s %(module)s:%(lineno)d]%(end_color)s %(message)s'
formatter = logzero.LogFormatter(fmt=log_format)
logzero.setup_default_logger(formatter=formatter)

Issues, Feedback & Contributions

All kinds of feedback and contributions are welcome.