service-logging 0.1

TL;DR:

logging.basicConfig() is very often not enough, leading to DRY violations. Use service-logging to log to syslog or the Windows event log when running in the background, and log to stderr when running in the foreground, both with well formatted messages.

Using logging correctly is often both usage and OS specific. For a usage specific example, when developing or troubleshooting a daemon and/or service it is often useful to use one logging configuration when running in the foreground in a shell and another when running in the background. For an OS specific example, when running in the background a daemon and/or service should use the appropriate logging service for that system so that logging metadata is correct (severity, facility, etc.), but the right way to do that is OS specific. Furthermore, deciding between these configurations requires logic that cannot be done through the simple configuration mechanisms provided by Python’s logging.config.

Given these realities, logging is often not done “The Right Way”, and/or is difficult to adjust for debugging/testing vs background. service-logging aims to address this by providing the logic to choose between correct logging configurations for different usages and OSes. It also provides several ways to use these configurations, making the depth of commitment opt-in.

Use servicelogging.basicConfig() to add an OS and usage specific root logging hander:

>>> import servicelogging
>>> servicelogging.basicConfig()

You can also use servicelogging as a script to run another script with logging configured:

$ python -m servicelogging foreground_demo.py
$ python servicelogging.py background_demo.py
$ servicelogging foreground_demo.py

Or if you just want the appropriate handler and formatter to use as you’d like in your code, you can use servicelogging.choose_handler():

>>> import servicelogging
>>> handler = servicelogging.choose_handler()