Python Logging Guide: Logging with Django

Arfan Sharif - March 28, 2023

In this section of our Python logging guide, we’ll take what we’ve learned in previous sections and apply it to a popular Python-based web framework: Django. Specifically, we’ll cover:

Django logging basics
Creating a basic Django app
Default Django logging behavior
Modifying the output of Django logs
Customizing a Django log configuration

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Part 1: The Basics
Part 2: Advanced Concepts
Part 3: Centralized Python Logs
Part 4: Logging with Django

Introduction to Django logging

Django uses Python’s logging module by default. Familiar Python logging concepts like loggers, log levels, handlers, filters, and formatters apply to Django. Django’s default logging configuration gives developers a head start, and can be customized to meet application-specific requirements. The built-in Django loggers are:

django
django: The root logger in the
django
django logging hierarchy, under which all of the following loggers are found.
django.request
django.request: The logger for HTTP error messages. Server error messages (5XX HTTP codes) have ERROR-level severity. Client error messages (4XX HTTP codes) have WARNING-level severity.
django.server
django.server: The logger for Django’s development web server, which is started with the
runserver
runserver command but should NOT be used in production.
django.template
django.template: The logger for Django template rendering.
django.db.backends
django.db.backends: The logger for database interactions.
django.security.*
django.security.*: The logger that tracks Django security errors like those related to
SuspiciousOperation
SuspiciousOperation.

The default behavior of the

django.server

django.server is to emit logs of INFO severity and higher to the console, while the other loggers propagate logs up to the

django

django root logger. How those logs are emitted depends on the

DEBUG

DEBUG setting in your Django

settings.py

settings.py file:

If
DEBUG = TRUE
DEBUG = TRUE then messages of INFO or higher are emitted to the console.
If
DEBUG = FALSE
DEBUG = FALSE then messages of ERROR or higher are emitted to the console.

Working with logging in a Django app

Now that you know the basics of Django logging, let’s walk through a practical example of how to use it. For our example, we’ll use Windows 11, Python 3.10.10, and Django 4.1.7, but you can follow along on most modern Django development environments.

Warning: Our basic app is not intended for production use.

Create a basic Django app

For our basic app, we’ll make a few tweaks from the skeleton web app you get after you run

django-admin startproject <project_name>

django-admin startproject <project_name>. We’ll use the name

demoapp

demoapp for our project.

Create your
views.py
`views.py` file

To begin, we’ll create a

views.py

views.py file in our

demoapp

demoapp directory.

We add the following Python code to views.py file. This code is a slightly extended version of Django’s simple view example. The inline comments explain what each line does.

# Import Django's HttpResponse classfrom django.http import HttpResponse# Import Python's datetime moduleimport datetime# Create a functiondef egg(request):# Get the day of the week, format it as a human-readable wordday = datetime.date.today().strftime('%A')# Create a basic HTML page with a title, H1 header,# and message that includes the day of the weekhtml = "<head><title>Pepper and egg is still great</title></head> <body> <h1> Breaking breakfast news! </h1> Today is %a. Latest news: Pepper and egg is great </body></html>" % day# Return the HTML contentreturn HttpResponse(html)

# Import Django's HttpResponse classfrom django.http import HttpResponse
# Import Python's datetime module
import datetime
# Create a function
def egg(request):
# Get the day of the week, format it as a human-readable word
day = datetime.date.today().strftime('%A')
# Create a basic HTML page with a title, H1 header,
# and message that includes the day of the week
html = "<head><title>Pepper and egg is still great</title></head> 
<body> 
<h1> Breaking breakfast news! </h1> 
Today is %a. <br> 
<b> Latest news: Pepper and egg is great </b> 
</body></html>" % day
# Return the HTML content
return HttpResponse(html)

Update the
settings.py
`settings.py` file

Next, we’ll make some changes to our

settings.py

settings.py file.

Set
DEBUG = False
DEBUG = False to turn off debug mode.
Add
localhost
localhost to
ALLOWED_HOSTS
ALLOWED_HOSTS so we can access our server at
localhost:8000
localhost:8000 with debug mode turned off.
Append
demoapp
demoapp to the
INSTALLED_APPS
INSTALLED_APPS section so Django recognizes it.

Configure
urls.py
`urls.py`

The

urls.py

urls.py file routes URLs to Django “views.” In our case, we’ll keep the default admin page and add a URL path pointing to the

egg

egg function in our

views.py

views.py file.

from django.contrib import adminfrom django.urls import pathfrom .views import eggurlpatterns = [# point /admin to the default admin pagepath('admin/', admin.site.urls),# make our egg function in views.py the home pagepath('', egg, name='home')]

from django.contrib import adminfrom django.urls import path
from .views import egg
urlpatterns = [
# point /admin to the default admin page
path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
# make our egg function in views.py the home page
path('', egg, name='home')
]

Launch the Django app

Next, we run

python3 manage.py migrate

python3 manage.py migrate to apply the default migrations. If we were to run the app as is, without migration, Django would throw errors.

Then, we run the app with this command:

python3 manage.py runserver

python3 manage.py runserver

You should see output similar to the following:

Performing system checks...System check identified no issues (0 silenced).November 11, 2023 - 11:11:11Django version 4.1.7, using settings 'demoapp.settings'Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/Quit the server with CTRL-BREAK.

Performing system checks...

System check identified no issues (0 silenced).

November 11, 2023 - 11:11:11

Django version 4.1.7, using settings 'demoapp.settings'

Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/

Quit the server with CTRL-BREAK.

On your development machine, use a web browser to access

http://localhost:8000

http://localhost:8000 and you should see a page similar to this:

You’ll notice that the console where you launched the app includes log messages for each HTTP request. That’s the default

django.server

django.server logger in action.

Update console logging

Now that we have a working app with basic console logging, let’s tweak the logging functionality.

First, we can update the severity of messages that print to the terminal. By default, the

django

django logger will display messages of ERROR level or higher if debug mode is off. We’ll make our modifications by adding a LOGGING dictionary to our

settings.py

settings.py file. We’ll use a slightly modified version (different log level plus clarifying comments) of the example from Django’s official docs.

Add
import os
import os to the top of the
settings.py
settings.py file in the
demoapp
demoapp project.
Append the following code to the end of the
settings.py
settings.py file.

# Create a LOGGING dictionaryLOGGING = {# Use v1 of the logging config schema'version': 1,# Continue to use existing loggers'disable_existing_loggers': False,# Create a log handler that prints logs to the terminal'handlers': {'console': {'class': 'logging.StreamHandler',},},# Define the root logger's settings'root': {'handlers': ['console'],'level': 'DEBUG',},# Define the django log module's settings'loggers': {'django': {'handlers': ['console'],'level': os.getenv('DJANGO_LOG_LEVEL', 'DEBUG'),'propagate': False,},},}

# Create a LOGGING dictionaryLOGGING = {
# Use v1 of the logging config schema
'version': 1,
# Continue to use existing loggers
'disable_existing_loggers': False,
# Create a log handler that prints logs to the terminal
'handlers': {
'console': {
'class': 'logging.StreamHandler',
},
},
# Define the root logger's settings
'root': {
'handlers': ['console'],
'level': 'DEBUG',
},
# Define the django log module's settings
'loggers': {
'django': {
'handlers': ['console'],
'level': os.getenv('DJANGO_LOG_LEVEL', 'DEBUG'),
'propagate': False,
},
},
}

Once you save the changes, you should see DEBUG-level messages print to the terminal.

Next, we’ll update the formatting of the log messages. To do this, we need to add a formatter to our logging dictionary and then add that formatter to our handler. Again, using an example from the Django docs, our formatter will use this format:

{levelname} {asctime} {module} {process:d} {thread:d} {message}

{levelname} {asctime} {module} {process:d} {thread:d} {message}

{levelname}
{levelname} is the message's log level (WARNING, INFO, DEBUG, etc.).
{asctime}
{asctime} is a date and time stamp in a
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS,MS
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS,MS format (e.g.,
2023-11-11 11:11:11,123
2023-11-11 11:11:11,123).
{module}
{module} is the module that emitted the log record.
{process:d}
{process:d} is the process ID associated with the log record.
{thread:d}
{thread:d} is the thread ID associated with the log record.
{message}
{message} is the log message.

To implement these changes, follow these steps:

Add a
formatter
formatter with this content after the
disable_existing_loggers
disable_existing_loggers section of the LOGGING dictionary in
settings.py
settings.py:
Plain text
Copy to clipboard
Open code in new window
EnlighterJS 3 Syntax Highlighter
'formatters': {'verbose': {'format': '{levelname} {asctime} {module} {process:d} {thread:d} {message}','style': '{',},},
'formatters': {'verbose': {'format': '{levelname} {asctime} {module} {process:d} {thread:d} {message}','style': '{',},},
Expand
```
'formatters': {'verbose': {
'format': '{levelname} {asctime} {module} {process:d} {thread:d} {message}',
'style': '{',
},
},
```
Add the new
verbose
verbose formatter to the existing
console
console handler.
Plain text
Copy to clipboard
Open code in new window
EnlighterJS 3 Syntax Highlighter
'handlers': {'console': {'class': 'logging.StreamHandler',# Below is the line we've added'formatter': 'verbose',},},
'handlers': {'console': {'class': 'logging.StreamHandler',# Below is the line we've added'formatter': 'verbose',},},
Expand
```
 'handlers': {'console': {
'class': 'logging.StreamHandler',
# Below is the line we've added
'formatter': 'verbose',
},
},
```

You should see messages similar to this print in your terminal:

DEBUG 2023-11-11 11:11:11,111 autoreload 22512 31700 File C:UsersPepperAndEggAppDataLocalPackagesPythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.10_qbz5n2kfra8p0LocalCachelocal-packagesPython310site-packagesdjangocontribcontenttypesmigrations002_remove_content_type_name.py first seen with mtime 1611111111.5683823

DEBUG 2023-11-11 11:11:11,111 autoreload 22512 31700 File C:UsersPepperAndEggAppDataLocalPackagesPythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.10_qbz5n2kfra8p0LocalCachelocal-packagesPython310site-packagesdjangocontribcontenttypesmigrations002_remove_content_type_name.py first seen with mtime 1611111111.5683823

Add logging to a file

Now that we know how to tweak Django logging settings, let’s modify where we send our logs. Output to the terminal can be useful, but it isn’t always the ideal location. For our example, printing only to the terminal means we aren’t persisting our logs if we need to review them in the future. Let’s update our Django logs to print to a file.

To send our logs to a file, we’ll need to first create the new handler in our

settings.py

settings.py LOGGING dictionary. First, we’ll append the following code to the

handlers

handlers section of the LOGGING dictionary:

# Add a handler to write logs to a file'file': {# Use the FileHandler class'class': 'logging.FileHandler',# Specify a local log file as a raw string. Use your app's directory.'filename': r'C:PepperAndEggdemoappdemoappdjango.log',},

# Add a handler to write logs to a file

'file': {

# Use the FileHandler class

'class': 'logging.FileHandler',

# Specify a local log file as a raw string. Use your app's directory.

'filename': r'C:PepperAndEggdemoappdemoappdjango.log',

Note: update filename path to match your environment.

Next, we’ll add that handler to our

root

root logger and the

django

django logger:

# Define the root logger's settings'root': {# Use the console and file logger'handlers': ['console', 'file'],'level': 'DEBUG',},# Define the django log module's settings'loggers': {'django': {# Use the console and file logger'handlers': ['console', 'file'],'level': os.getenv('DJANGO_LOG_LEVEL', 'DEBUG'),'propagate': False,},

# Define the root logger's settings'root': {
# Use the console and file logger
'handlers': ['console', 'file'],
'level': 'DEBUG',
},
# Define the django log module's settings
'loggers': {
'django': {
# Use the console and file logger
'handlers': ['console', 'file'],
'level': os.getenv('DJANGO_LOG_LEVEL', 'DEBUG'),
'propagate': False,
},

When you’re done, the LOGGING dictionary in

settings.py

settings.py should look similar to this:

# Create a LOGGING dictionaryLOGGING = {# Use v1 of the logging config schema'version': 1,# Continue to use existing loggers'disable_existing_loggers': False,# Add a verbose formatter'formatters': {'verbose': {'format': '{levelname} {asctime} {module} {process:d} {thread:d} {message}','style': '{',},},# Create a log handler that prints logs to the terminal'handlers': {'console': {'class': 'logging.StreamHandler',# Add the verbose formatter'formatter': 'verbose',},# Add a handler to write logs to a file'file': {# Use the FileHandler class'class': 'logging.FileHandler',# Specify a local log file as a raw string. Use your app's directory.'filename': r'C:PepperAndEggdemoappdemoappdjango.log',},},# Define the root logger's settings'root': {# Use the console and file logger'handlers': ['console', 'file'],'level': 'DEBUG',},# Define the django log module's settings'loggers': {'django': {# Use the console and file logger'handlers': ['console', 'file'],'level': os.getenv('DJANGO_LOG_LEVEL', 'DEBUG'),'propagate': False,},},}

# Create a LOGGING dictionaryLOGGING = {
# Use v1 of the logging config schema
'version': 1,
# Continue to use existing loggers
'disable_existing_loggers': False,
# Add a verbose formatter
'formatters': {
'verbose': {
'format': '{levelname} {asctime} {module} {process:d} {thread:d} {message}',
'style': '{',
},
},
# Create a log handler that prints logs to the terminal
'handlers': {
'console': {
'class': 'logging.StreamHandler',
# Add the verbose formatter
'formatter': 'verbose',
},
# Add a handler to write logs to a file
'file': {
# Use the FileHandler class
'class': 'logging.FileHandler',
# Specify a local log file as a raw string. Use your app's directory.
'filename': r'C:PepperAndEggdemoappdemoappdjango.log',
},
},
# Define the root logger's settings
'root': {
# Use the console and file logger
'handlers': ['console', 'file'],
'level': 'DEBUG',
},
# Define the django log module's settings
'loggers': {
'django': {
# Use the console and file logger
'handlers': ['console', 'file'],
'level': os.getenv('DJANGO_LOG_LEVEL', 'DEBUG'),
'propagate': False,
},
},
}

Once we save the changes, we’ll see logs print to a local

django.log

django.log file.

Next steps with Django logging

Now that you know the basics of Django logging, you can move on to applying them to real-world projects. Django logging gets even more powerful when combined with some of the other concepts we’ve discussed in this series. For example, you can centralize your Django logs and emit them to a platform like CrowdStrike Falcon® LogScale.

Learn More

Learn how to ingest data into CrowdStrike Falcon LogScale from your MacOS platform using Python. This guide will help you set up a one-node proof of concept so you can take advantage of LogScale's free trial!

Blog: How to Ingest Data into Falcon LogScale Using Python

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Arfan Sharif is a product marketing lead for the Observability portfolio at CrowdStrike. He has over 15 years experience driving Log Management, ITOps, Observability, Security and CX solutions for companies such as Splunk, Genesys and Quest Software. Arfan graduated in Computer Science at Bucks and Chilterns University and has a career spanning across Product Marketing and Sales Engineering.

Introduction
Logging in Django
Next Steps
Log with CrowdStrike

Python Logging Guide: Logging with Django

Learn More

Introduction to Django logging

Working with logging in a Django app

Create a basic Django app

Create your
views.py
`views.py` file

Update the
settings.py
`settings.py` file

Configure
urls.py
`urls.py`

Launch the Django app

Update console logging

Add logging to a file

Next steps with Django logging

Learn More

Log your data with CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM

Try CrowdStrike free for 15 days

Try CrowdStrike free for 15 days

Python Logging Guide: Logging with Django

Learn More

Introduction to Django logging

Working with logging in a Django app

Create a basic Django app

Create your views.pyviews.py file

Update the settings.pysettings.py file

Configure urls.pyurls.py

Launch the Django app

Update console logging

Add logging to a file

Next steps with Django logging

Learn More

Log your data with CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM

Try CrowdStrike free for 15 days

Try CrowdStrike free for 15 days

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Create your
views.py
`views.py` file

Update the
settings.py
`settings.py` file

Configure
urls.py
`urls.py`