How to duplicate sys.stdout to a log file?

Question

Edit: Since it appears that there\'s either no solution, or I\'m doing something so non-standard that nobody knows - I\'ll revise my question to also ask: What is the best w

Answer 1

As described elsewhere, perhaps the best solution is to use the logging module directly:

import logging

logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG, filename='mylog.log')
logging.info('this should to write to the log file')

However, there are some (rare) occasions where you really want to redirect stdout. I had this situation when I was extending django's runserver command which uses print: I didn't want to hack the django source but needed the print statements to go to a file.

This is a way of redirecting stdout and stderr away from the shell using the logging module:

import logging, sys

class LogFile(object):
    """File-like object to log text using the `logging` module."""

    def __init__(self, name=None):
        self.logger = logging.getLogger(name)

    def write(self, msg, level=logging.INFO):
        self.logger.log(level, msg)

    def flush(self):
        for handler in self.logger.handlers:
            handler.flush()

logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG, filename='mylog.log')

# Redirect stdout and stderr
sys.stdout = LogFile('stdout')
sys.stderr = LogFile('stderr')

print 'this should to write to the log file'

You should only use this LogFile implementation if you really cannot use the logging module directly.