How to setup SysLogHandler with Django 1.3 logging dictionary configuration - django

Question

I'm having no luck finding any information on setting up syslog logging with Django 1.3 dictionary configuration. The Django documents don't cover syslog and the python documentation is less than clear and doesn’t cover dictionary config at all. I've started with the following but I'm stuck on how to configure the SysLogHandler.
LOGGING = {
'version': 1,
'disable_existing_loggers': True,
'formatters': {
'verbose': {
'format': '%(levelname)s %(asctime)s %(module)s %(process)d %(thread)d %(message)s'
},
'simple': {
'format': '%(levelname)s %(message)s'
},
},
'handlers': {
'syslog':{
'level':'DEBUG',
'class':'logging.handlers.SysLogHandler',
'formatter': 'verbose'
},
},
'loggers': {
'django': {
'handlers':['syslog'],
'propagate': True,
'level':'INFO',
},
'myapp': {
'handlers': ['syslog'],
'propagate': True,
'level': 'DEBUG',
},
},
}

Answer 1

Finally found the answer, modify the configuration in the original question to have the following for 'syslog':
from logging.handlers import SysLogHandler
...
'syslog':{
'level':'DEBUG',
'class': 'logging.handlers.SysLogHandler',
'formatter': 'verbose',
'facility': SysLogHandler.LOG_LOCAL2,
},
...
Warning to future generations: you pretty much have to do it exactly like the above, weird errors happen if you specify the class directly etc.
Update: I've just moved to Amazon Linux (and Django 1.5) and used the following change to the configuration for the 'syslog' section in that environment, note the 'address' argument:
'syslog':{
'level':'DEBUG',
'class': 'logging.handlers.SysLogHandler',
'formatter': 'verbose',
'facility': 'local1',
'address': '/dev/log',
},

Answer 2

This works for me (on default debian).
I suspect using an address of /dev/log is the secret to ensure there is no attempt to use the network.
I think using a logger label of '' equates to the root logger so will catch most stuff
In settings.py:
LOGGING = {
'version': 1,
'handlers': {
'syslog':{
'address': '/dev/log',
'class': 'logging.handlers.SysLogHandler'
}
},
'loggers': {
'': {
'handlers': ['syslog'],
'level': 'DEBUG',
}
}
}
in the app:
import logging
logging.info("freakout info")
provides:
john:/var/log$ sudo tail -1 user.log
Dec 14 17:15:52 john freakout info

Answer 3

If you're using remote syslog, be sure to include the port in the address field, otherwise you could get [Errno 9] Bad file descriptor
The logging config would look something like this
LOGGING = {
"version": 1,
"disable_existing_loggers": False,
"formatters": {
"verbose": {
"format": "%(asctime)s %(name)-12s %(levelname)-8s %(message)s",
},
},
"handlers": {
"console": {
"level": "INFO",
"class": "logging.StreamHandler",
"stream": sys.stdout,
"formatter": "verbose",
},
"syslog": {
"level": "INFO",
"class": "logging.handlers.SysLogHandler",
"formatter": "verbose",
"facility": "user",
"address": ["192.168.1.10", 514],
}
},
"loggers": {
"": {
"handlers": ["console", "syslog"],
"level": "INFO",
"propagate": True,
},
},
}