How to redirect stderr in Python? Via Python C API?

Question

This is a combination of my two recent questions:
[1] Python instance method in C
[2] How to redirect stderr in Python?

I would like to log the output of bot

Answer 1

Based on Alex's answer, here is fully working C code, without the Python "import aview", in Python 3 (so no Py_InitModule), and with stderr redirection :

#include <functional>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <Python.h>


PyObject* aview_write(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
{
    const char *what;
    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s", &what))
        return NULL;
    printf("==%s==", what);
    return Py_BuildValue("");
}


PyObject* aview_flush(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
{
    return Py_BuildValue("");
}


PyMethodDef aview_methods[] =
{
    {"write", aview_write, METH_VARARGS, "doc for write"},
    {"flush", aview_flush, METH_VARARGS, "doc for flush"},
    {0, 0, 0, 0} // sentinel
};


PyModuleDef aview_module =
{
    PyModuleDef_HEAD_INIT, // PyModuleDef_Base m_base;
    "aview",               // const char* m_name;
    "doc for aview",       // const char* m_doc;
    -1,                    // Py_ssize_t m_size;
    aview_methods,        // PyMethodDef *m_methods
    //  inquiry m_reload;  traverseproc m_traverse;  inquiry m_clear;  freefunc m_free;
};

PyMODINIT_FUNC PyInit_aview(void) 
{
    PyObject* m = PyModule_Create(&aview_module);
    PySys_SetObject("stdout", m);
    PySys_SetObject("stderr", m);
    return m;
}


int main()
{
    PyImport_AppendInittab("aview", PyInit_aview);
    Py_Initialize();
    PyImport_ImportModule("aview");

    PyRun_SimpleString("print(\'hello to buffer\')");
    PyRun_SimpleString("make a SyntaxException in stderr");

    Py_Finalize();

    return 0;

}

Note, though, that if you plan to have several distinct interpreters, this won't be enough, because aview_write won't be able to know which buffer to append into. You'll need something like that.

Here is an awesome reference on how to add new modules and types, btw.

Answer 2

Just make a module object (you're doing that anyway, if you're using the C API!-) and make it have a suitable write function -- that module object will be suitable as the second argument to PySys_SetObject.

In my answer to your other question I pointed you to xxmodule.c, an example file in Python's C sources, which is a module with a lot of examples including types and functions of various kinds -- you can work from there even if (mysteriously to me) you consider the "make a new type" part too difficult;-).

Edit: here's a trivial working example (aview.py):

#include "Python.h"
#include <stdio.h>

static PyObject *
aview_write(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
{
    const char *what;
    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s", &what))
        return NULL;
    printf("==%s==", what);
    return Py_BuildValue("");
}

static PyMethodDef a_methods[] = {
    {"write", aview_write, METH_VARARGS, "Write something."},
    {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}
};

PyMODINIT_FUNC
initaview(void)
{
    PyObject *m = Py_InitModule("aview", a_methods);
    if (m == NULL) return;
    PySys_SetObject("stdout", m);
}

Once this aview module is properly installed:

$ python
Python 2.5.4 (r254:67917, Dec 23 2008, 14:57:27) 
[GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5363)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import aview
>>> print 'ciao'
==ciao====
==>>> 

...any string emitted to standard output is written with == signs around it (and this print calls .write twice: with 'ciao', and then again with a newline).