Python Logging Example

Often times when coding up a project I find myself injecting "print statements" all over the place to indicate status or messages important during development and debugging. Later, I might comment these statements out when "releasing" a script. While this works, it is a bit cumbersome and there is a better option available to the Python developer. Python logging.

This repository provides a very simple example of the same script with and without the logger.

• example-print.py is a NETCONF based exmaple that looks up some information from a DevNet Sandbox and uses basic print statements to output to the console status messages.
• example-logger.py is the same script, but uses Python logging to send informational and debug messages to a log file called mylog.log. Error messages will still be printed to the screen.
• logger.conf is the Python logging configuration file
• mylog.example is an example of what a log file might look like from this example and is included for reference.
  • If you run the example-logger.py a mylog.log file will be created.
• requirements.txt is a Python requirements file that includes the needed libraries to run the example scripts.

For reference on the Python Logging features, see the Logging HOWTO from Python.org.

Also, checkout the blog Avoiding Silent Automation by Joe Clarke, Cisco Distinguished Engineer and fellow automation engineer I work with in Learning at Cisco. His blog is what introduced me to logging in a way that made me want to really dive in and start using it.