What is the best way to toggle python prints?

Question

I\'m running Python 2.4 in a game engine and I want to be able to turn off all prints if needed. For example I\'d like to have the prints on for a debug build, and then turn

Answer 1

If you really want to toggle printing:

>>> import sys
>>> import os
>>> print 'foo'
foo
>>> origstdout = sys.stdout
>>> sys.stdout = open(os.devnull, 'w')
>>> print 'foo'
>>> sys.stdout = origstdout
>>> print 'foo'
foo

However, I recommend you only use print for throwaway code. Use logging for real apps like the original question describes. It allows for a sliding scale of verbosity, so you can have only the important logging, or more verbose logging of usually less important details.

>>> import logging
>>> logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)
>>> logging.debug('foo')
DEBUG:root:foo

For example, usage might be to put debugging logs throughout your code. Then to silence them, change your level to a higher level, one of INFO, WARN or WARNING, ERROR, or CRITICAL or FATAL

>>> logging.root.setLevel(logging.INFO)
>>> logging.debug('foo')
>>>

In a script you'll want to just set this in the basicConfig like this:

import logging
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)

logging.debug('foo') # this will be silent

More sophisticated usage of logging can be found in the docs.

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