syslog.syslog() does not return error when unable to send the log

[CyrilBouthors]

BPO	24850
Nosy	@bitdancer, @vadmium

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2015-08-25.12:37:35.672>
created_at = <Date 2015-08-12.17:01:25.510>
labels = ['invalid', 'type-feature', 'library']
title = 'syslog.syslog() does not return error when unable to send the log'
updated_at = <Date 2015-08-25.12:37:35.671>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/CyrilBouthors'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2015-08-25.12:37:35.671>
actor = 'r.david.murray'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2015-08-25.12:37:35.672>
closer = 'r.david.murray'
components = ['Library (Lib)']
creation = <Date 2015-08-12.17:01:25.510>
creator = 'Cyril Bouthors'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 24850
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['248462', '248465', '249099', '249116']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['r.david.murray', 'martin.panter', 'Cyril Bouthors']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'not a bug'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue24850'
versions = ['Python 3.6']

[CyrilBouthors]

Hi guys,

syslog.syslog() does not report any error when it fails to send messages to syslog. To reproduce:

Stop sysglog:

sudo /etc/init.d/rsyslog stop

Run than Python code:

import syslog
syslog.syslog('test')

It does not fail.

Strace shows that's it's been unable to send the message to syslog:

connect(3, {sa_family=AF_LOCAL, sun_path="/dev/log"}, 110) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
close(3) = 0
rt_sigaction(SIGINT, {SIG_DFL, [], SA_RESTORER, 0x7fc899e4a8d0}, {0x55e6b0, [], SA_RESTORER, 0x7fc899e4a8d0}, 8) = 0
brk(0x20ed000) = 0x20ed000
exit_group(0) = ?
+++ exited with 0 +++

I've tested all those versions:

echo -e "import syslog\nsyslog.syslog('test')\n" | python3.5
echo -e "import syslog\nsyslog.syslog('test')\n" | python3.4
echo -e "import syslog\nsyslog.syslog('test')\n" | python3.3
echo -e "import syslog\nsyslog.syslog('test')\n" | python3.2
echo -e "import syslog\nsyslog.syslog('test')\n" | python2.7
echo -e "import syslog\nsyslog.syslog('test')\n" | python2.6

Can we please get syslog() to report errors?

Thanks.

[bitdancer]

Hmm. Normally the way errors are reported in python is via exception. personally I would not want syslog raising an exception if it couldn't deliver the message.

I suppose we could have it return a status code. That would be a new feature, though.

[vadmium]

I’ve never used syslog() in Python, but I thought I should point out that the standard Posix API does not do any error reporting either. See <http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/syslog.html\>: “The . . . functions shall not return a value. / No errors are defined.”

[bitdancer]

Ah, in that case there aren't any errors for us to return, so this is moot.