How to write to a file, using the logging Python module?

Taken from the "logging cookbook":

# create logger with 'spam_application'
logger = logging.getLogger('spam_application')
logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
# create file handler which logs even debug messages
fh = logging.FileHandler('spam.log')
fh.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
logger.addHandler(fh)

And you're good to go.

P.S. Make sure to read the logging HOWTO as well.

An example of using logging.basicConfig rather than logging.fileHandler()

logging.basicConfig(filename=logname,
                    filemode='a',
                    format='%(asctime)s,%(msecs)d %(name)s %(levelname)s %(message)s',
                    datefmt='%H:%M:%S',
                    level=logging.DEBUG)

logging.info("Running Urban Planning")

logger = logging.getLogger('urbanGUI')

In order, the five parts do the following:

1. set the output file (filename=logname)
2. set it to append rather than overwrite (filemode='a')
3. determine the format of the output message (format=...)
4. determine the format of the output time (datefmt='%H:%M:%S')
5. and determine the minimum message level it will accept (level=logging.DEBUG).