Context-dependent logger in Python

pdo python eng

This is a common logging pattern in Python, to have loggers related to module names:

import logging

log = logging.getLogger(__name__)


class Bill:
    def load_bill(self, filename: str):
        log.info("%s: loading file", filename)

I often however find myself wanting to have loggers related to something context-dependent, like the kind of file that is being processed. For example, I'd like to log loading of bill loading when done by the expenses module, and not when done by the printing module.

I came up with a little hack that keeps the same API as before, and allows to propagate a context dependent logger to the code called:

# Call this file log.py
from __future__ import annotations
import contextlib
import contextvars
import logging

_log: contextvars.ContextVar[logging.Logger] = contextvars.ContextVar('log', default=logging.getLogger())


@contextlib.contextmanager
def logger(name: str):
    """
    Set a default logger for the duration of this context manager
    """
    old = _log.set(logging.getLogger(name))
    try:
        yield
    finally:
        _log.reset(old)


def debug(*args, **kw):
    _log.get().debug(*args, **kw)


def info(*args, **kw):
    _log.get().info(*args, **kw)


def warning(*args, **kw):
    _log.get().warning(*args, **kw)


def error(*args, **kw):
    _log.get().error(*args, **kw)

And now I can do this:

from . import log

# …
    with log.logger("expenses"):
        bill = load_bill(filename)


# This code did not change!
class Bill:
    def load_bill(self, filename: str):
        log.info("%s: loading file", filename)