python JSON log formatter with a logstash compatible schema

ulule ulule Last update: Mar 22, 2024

logstash_formatter: JSON logs for logstash

This library is provided to allow standard python logging to output log data as json objects ready to be shipped out to logstash.

This project has been originally open sourced by exoscale (which is a great hosting service btw), thanks to them.

Installing

Using pip (PyPI):

pip install logstash_formatter

Manual:

git clone https://github.com/ulule/python-logstash-formatter.git
cd python-logstash-formatter
python setup.py install

Usage

Json outputs are provided by the LogstashFormatter logging formatter.

import logging, sys
from logstash_formatter import LogstashFormatterV1

# configure logging
handler = logging.StreamHandler(stream=sys.stdout)
handler.setFormatter(LogstashFormatterV1())
logging.basicConfig(handlers=[handler], level=logging.INFO)

# use it
logging.info("my log")

The LogstashFormatter may take the following named parameters:

  • fmt: Config as a JSON string that supports:
    • extra: provide extra fields always present in logs.
    • source_host: override source host name.
  • json_cls: JSON encoder to forward to json.dump.
  • json_default: Default JSON representation for unknown types, by default coerce everything to a string.

LogstashFormatterV1 adheres to the more 1.2.0 schema and will not update fields, apart from a special handling of msg which will be updated to message when applicable.

You can also add extra fields to your json output by specifying a dict in place of message, or by specifying the named argument extra as a dictionary. When supplying the exc_info named argument with a truthy value, and if an exception is found on the stack, its traceback will be attached to the payload as well.

logger.info({"account": 123, "ip": "172.20.19.18"})
logger.info("classic message for account: {account}", extra={"account": account})

try:
    h = {}
    h['key']
except:
    logger.info("something unexpected happened", exc_info=True)

Sample output for LogstashFormatter

The following keys will be found in the output JSON:

  • @source_host: source hostname for the log
  • @timestamp: ISO 8601 timestamp
  • @message: short message for this log
  • @fields: all extra fields
{
    "@fields": {
        "account": "pyr",
        "args": [],
        "created": 1367480388.013037,
        "exception": [
            "Traceback (most recent call last):\n",
            "  File \"test.py\", line 16, in <module>\n    k['unknown']\n",
            "KeyError: 'unknown'\n"
        ],
        "filename": "test.py",
        "funcName": "<module>",
        "levelname": "WARNING",
        "levelno": 30,
        "lineno": 18,
        "module": "test",
        "msecs": 13.036966323852539,
        "name": "root",
        "pathname": "test.py",
        "process": 1819,
        "processName": "MainProcess",
        "relativeCreated": 18.002986907958984,
        "thread": 140060726359808,
        "threadName": "MainThread"
    },
    "@message": "TEST",
    "@source_host": "phoenix.spootnik.org",
    "@timestamp": "2013-05-02T09:39:48.013158"
}

Sample output for LogstashFormatterV1

The following keys will be found in the output JSON:

  • @timestamp: ISO 8601 timestamp
  • @version: Version of the schema
{"@version": 1,
 "account": "pyr",
 "lineno": 1,
 "levelno": 30,
 "filename": "test.py",
 "thread": 140566036444928,
 "@timestamp": "2015-03-30T09:46:23.000Z",
 "threadName": "MainThread",
 "relativeCreated": 51079.52117919922,
 "process": 10787,
 "source_host": "phoenix.spootnik.org",
 "processName": "MainProcess",
 "pathname": "test.py",
 "args": [],
 "module": "test",
 "msecs": 999.9005794525146,
 "created": 1427708782.9999006,
 "name": "root",
 "stack_info": null,
 "funcName": "<module>",
 "levelname": "WARNING",
 "message": "foo"}
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