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

Programs written in other languages (e.g. C) have to do special magic (called double-forking) expressly to detach from the terminal (and to prevent zombie processes). So, I think the best solution is to emulate them.

A plus of re-executing your program is, you can choose redirections on the command-line, e.g. /usr/bin/python mycoolscript.py 2>&1 1>/dev/null

See this post for more info: What is the reason for performing a double fork when creating a daemon?

Answer 2

import sys
sys.stdout = open('stdout.txt', 'w')

Answer 3

Here is a variation of Yuda Prawira answer:

• implement flush() and all the file attributes
• write it as a contextmanager
• capture stderr also

.

import contextlib, sys

@contextlib.contextmanager
def log_print(file):
    # capture all outputs to a log file while still printing it
    class Logger:
        def __init__(self, file):
            self.terminal = sys.stdout
            self.log = file

        def write(self, message):
            self.terminal.write(message)
            self.log.write(message)

        def __getattr__(self, attr):
            return getattr(self.terminal, attr)

    logger = Logger(file)

    _stdout = sys.stdout
    _stderr = sys.stderr
    sys.stdout = logger
    sys.stderr = logger
    try:
        yield logger.log
    finally:
        sys.stdout = _stdout
        sys.stderr = _stderr


with log_print(open('mylogfile.log', 'w')):
    print('hello world')
    print('hello world on stderr', file=sys.stderr)

# you can capture the output to a string with:
# with log_print(io.StringIO()) as log:
#   ....
#   print('[captured output]', log.getvalue())

Answer 4

you can try this too much better

import sys

class Logger(object):
    def __init__(self, filename="Default.log"):
        self.terminal = sys.stdout
        self.log = open(filename, "a")

    def write(self, message):
        self.terminal.write(message)
        self.log.write(message)

sys.stdout = Logger("yourlogfilename.txt")
print "Hello world !" # this is should be saved in yourlogfilename.txt

Answer 5

If you want to do the redirection within the Python script, setting sys.stdout to a file object does the trick:

import sys
sys.stdout = open('file', 'w')
print('test')

A far more common method is to use shell redirection when executing (same on Windows and Linux):

$ python foo.py > file

Answer 6

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.