Redirect stdout to a file in Python?

Question

How do I redirect stdout to an arbitrary file in Python?

When a long-running Python script (e.g, web application) is started from within the ssh session and backgoun

Answer 1

Quoted from PEP 343 -- The "with" Statement (added import statement):

Redirect stdout temporarily:

import sys
from contextlib import contextmanager
@contextmanager
def stdout_redirected(new_stdout):
    save_stdout = sys.stdout
    sys.stdout = new_stdout
    try:
        yield None
    finally:
        sys.stdout = save_stdout

Used as follows:

with open(filename, "w") as f:
    with stdout_redirected(f):
        print "Hello world"

This isn't thread-safe, of course, but neither is doing this same dance manually. In single-threaded programs (for example in scripts) it is a popular way of doing things.