Python log file location

The location of Python log files can vary depending on how logging is configured within your Python application. By default, Python doesn’t log anything unless you explicitly set up logging in your code. If you have configured logging, the log files will be created at the specified location.

However, when you set up logging, the most common approach is to use the logging module from the Python standard library. The logging module allows you to specify different handlers, including FileHandler, which writes log messages to a file.

When using the FileHandler, you can specify the location and filename for the log file. If no location is specified, the log file will be created in the current working directory of the Python script.

Python log file location example

Here’s a simple example of setting up a basic logging configuration with a FileHandler:

import logging

# Configure logging
logging.basicConfig(filename='app.log', level=logging.INFO,
                    format='%(asctime)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s')

# Example log messages
logging.debug('This is a debug message')
logging.info('This is an info message')
logging.warning('This is a warning message')
logging.error('This is an error message')
logging.critical('This is a critical message')

In this example, the log file ‘app.log’ will be created in the current working directory where the Python script is located.

If you need to find the location of the log files programmatically, you can use the following code:

import logging

# Get the FileHandler
file_handler = next(
    (handler for handler in logging.getLogger().handlers if isinstance(handler, logging.FileHandler)),
    None
)

if file_handler:
    log_file_location = file_handler.baseFilename
    print(f"Log file location: {log_file_location}")
else:
    print("FileHandler not found in the logging configuration.")

Output:

This code snippet will print the location of the log file if it exists in the logging configuration. Otherwise, it will indicate that the FileHandler is not present. Remember that this method will only work if you have configured logging with a FileHandler in your code.

Note: IDE: PyCharm 2021.3.3 (Community Edition)

Windows 10

Python 3.10.1

All Python Examples are in Python 3, so Maybe its different from python 2 or upgraded versions.