What is the point of setLevel in a python logging handler?

Question

Let's say I have the following code:

import logging
import logging.handlers

a = logging.getLogger('myapp')
h = logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler('foo.log')
h.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
a.addHandler(h)

# The effective log level is still logging.WARN
print a.getEffectiveLevel() 
a.debug('foo message')
a.warn('warning message')

I expect that setting logging.DEBUG on the handler would cause debug-level messages to be written to the log file. However, this prints 30 for the effective level (equal to logging.WARNING, the default), and only logs the warn message to the log file, not the debug message.

It appears that the handler's log level is being dropped on the floor, e.g. it's silently ignored. Which makes me wonder, why have setLevel on the handler at all?

Answer 1

It allows finer control. By default the root logger has WARNING level set, this means that it wont print messages with lower level(no matter how the handlers' levels are set!). But, if you set the root logger's level to DEBUG, indeed the message get sent to the log file:

import logging
import logging.handlers

a = logging.getLogger('myapp')
a.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)   # set root's level
h = logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler('foo.log')
h.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
a.addHandler(h)
print a.getEffectiveLevel() 
a.debug('foo message')
a.warn('warning message')

Now, image that you want to add a new handler that doesn't record debug information. You can do this by simply setting the handler logging level:

import logging
import logging.handlers

a = logging.getLogger('myapp')
a.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)   # set root's level

h = logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler('foo.log')
h.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
a.addHandler(h)

h2 = logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler('foo2.log')
h2.setLevel(logging.WARNING)
a.addHandler(h2)

print a.getEffectiveLevel() 
a.debug('foo message')
a.warn('warning message')

Now, the log file foo.log will contain both messages, while the file foo2.log will only contain the warning message. You could be interested in having a log file of only error-level messages, then simply add a Handler and set its level to logging.ERROR, everything using the same Logger.

You may think of the Logger logging level as a global restriction on which messages are "interesting" for a given logger and its handlers. The messages that are considered by the logger afterwards get sent to the handlers, which perform their own filtering and logging process.