[Python-Dev] Using logging in the stdlib and its unit tests (original) (raw)

Robert Kern robert.kern at gmail.com
Wed Dec 8 00:21:44 CET 2010

On 12/7/10 4:59 PM, Robert Kern wrote:

On 12/7/10 2:26 PM, Vinay Sajip wrote:

This issue was brought to my notice today:

http://bugs.python.org/issue10626 and reference was made in the comments to possible obstacles facing stdlib maintainers who might wish to use logging in the stdlib and in its unit tests.

From my perspective and as mentioned in the logging documentation, library code which uses logging should add a NullHandler instance to any top-level logger, which will avoid any "No handlers could be found for logger XXX" message if no logging handlers have been set up. I've done that before in my own library code, then quickly realized that it was a bad idea. Adding a NullHandler silently prevents logging.basicConfig() from working.

Only on the root handler. Forget this bit of my argument (and the statements that directly follow from it). The rest of my argument should stand on its own, though.

-- Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth." -- Umberto Eco

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