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1:mod:`syslog` --- Unix syslog library routines
2==============================================
3
4.. module:: syslog
5   :platform: Unix
6   :synopsis: An interface to the Unix syslog library routines.
7
8
9This module provides an interface to the Unix ``syslog`` library routines.
10Refer to the Unix manual pages for a detailed description of the ``syslog``
11facility.
12
13This module wraps the system ``syslog`` family of routines.  A pure Python
14library that can speak to a syslog server is available in the
15:mod:`logging.handlers` module as :class:`SysLogHandler`.
16
17The module defines the following functions:
18
19
20.. function:: syslog(message)
21              syslog(priority, message)
22
23   Send the string *message* to the system logger.  A trailing newline is added
24   if necessary.  Each message is tagged with a priority composed of a
25   *facility* and a *level*.  The optional *priority* argument, which defaults
26   to :const:`LOG_INFO`, determines the message priority.  If the facility is
27   not encoded in *priority* using logical-or (``LOG_INFO | LOG_USER``), the
28   value given in the :func:`openlog` call is used.
29
30   If :func:`openlog` has not been called prior to the call to :func:`syslog`,
31   ``openlog()`` will be called with no arguments.
32
33
34.. function:: openlog([ident[, logoption[, facility]]])
35
36   Logging options of subsequent :func:`syslog` calls can be set by calling
37   :func:`openlog`.  :func:`syslog` will call :func:`openlog` with no arguments
38   if the log is not currently open.
39
40   The optional *ident* keyword argument is a string which is prepended to every
41   message, and defaults to ``sys.argv[0]`` with leading path components
42   stripped.  The optional *logoption* keyword argument (default is 0) is a bit
43   field -- see below for possible values to combine.  The optional *facility*
44   keyword argument (default is :const:`LOG_USER`) sets the default facility for
45   messages which do not have a facility explicitly encoded.
46
47
48.. function:: closelog()
49
50   Reset the syslog module values and call the system library ``closelog()``.
51
52   This causes the module to behave as it does when initially imported.  For
53   example, :func:`openlog` will be called on the first :func:`syslog` call (if
54   :func:`openlog` hasn't already been called), and *ident* and other
55   :func:`openlog` parameters are reset to defaults.
56
57
58.. function:: setlogmask(maskpri)
59
60   Set the priority mask to *maskpri* and return the previous mask value.  Calls
61   to :func:`syslog` with a priority level not set in *maskpri* are ignored.
62   The default is to log all priorities.  The function ``LOG_MASK(pri)``
63   calculates the mask for the individual priority *pri*.  The function
64   ``LOG_UPTO(pri)`` calculates the mask for all priorities up to and including
65   *pri*.
66
67The module defines the following constants:
68
69Priority levels (high to low):
70   :const:`LOG_EMERG`, :const:`LOG_ALERT`, :const:`LOG_CRIT`, :const:`LOG_ERR`,
71   :const:`LOG_WARNING`, :const:`LOG_NOTICE`, :const:`LOG_INFO`,
72   :const:`LOG_DEBUG`.
73
74Facilities:
75   :const:`LOG_KERN`, :const:`LOG_USER`, :const:`LOG_MAIL`, :const:`LOG_DAEMON`,
76   :const:`LOG_AUTH`, :const:`LOG_LPR`, :const:`LOG_NEWS`, :const:`LOG_UUCP`,
77   :const:`LOG_CRON`, :const:`LOG_SYSLOG` and :const:`LOG_LOCAL0` to
78   :const:`LOG_LOCAL7`.
79
80Log options:
81   :const:`LOG_PID`, :const:`LOG_CONS`, :const:`LOG_NDELAY`, :const:`LOG_NOWAIT`
82   and :const:`LOG_PERROR` if defined in ``<syslog.h>``.
83
84
85Examples
86--------
87
88Simple example
89~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
90
91A simple set of examples::
92
93   import syslog
94
95   syslog.syslog('Processing started')
96   if error:
97       syslog.syslog(syslog.LOG_ERR, 'Processing started')
98
99An example of setting some log options, these would include the process ID in
100logged messages, and write the messages to the destination facility used for
101mail logging::
102
103   syslog.openlog(logoption=syslog.LOG_PID, facility=syslog.LOG_MAIL)
104   syslog.syslog('E-mail processing initiated...')
105