[Python-markdown-discuss] Ticket 18: DEBUG log setting

[Waylan L. <wa...@gm...>]

Mike thanks for the bug report on Ticket 18 [1]. I'm copying the list
with my response.

> markdown.py has a hardcoded logging setting of DEBUG,
> which allows all DEBUG messages to go out to all
> configured handlers. There's then a comment which says
> something to the effect of "this is restricted by handlers
> later". I'd like to propose that this is the incorrect usage
> of logging

Actually, based on my testing the current behavior is correct. Suppose
we set the logger to CRITICAL. Then, someone adds a handler (perhaps
that writes to a log file) set to DEBUG. Because the logger only
allows CRITICAL messages through, the handler would never receive
anything less than CRITICAL even though its set to DEBUG. That's
unacceptable - and why the logger is wide open and the handlers later
restrict the level.

The intention is that users would set (and/or remove) handlers and set
the level for each handler as they need. In fact, we realize that the
StreamHandler will break in some web server environments (it's
indented for command line use) and may need to be removed/replaced
with a handler appropriate for your system. That's why we recently
adopted use of  Python's logger rather than our own old inflexible
home-grown solution. It's much easier to override handlers than
monkeypatch the old system.

> The workaround for now is that you have to hardcode a call
> to "logging.getLogger("MARKDOWN").setLevel(logging.WARN)"
> to silence the MARKDOWN logger in your application code

Actually I envisioned something very similar, except altering the
*handler* attached to the logger, not the logger itself. Perhaps it's
not the most convenient (in that it doesn't integrate with your
environment's settings file), but a solution that will work in a
variety of different situations is certainly welcome. I'm not
personally familiar with Pylons and/or Paste, but would certainly like
to see easy use of markdown in such a context. At the same time,
markdown needs to continue to work as it does now from the command
line as well as in other environments.

If anyone has any suggestions and/or solutions I'm all ears.

[1]: http://www.freewisdom.org/projects/python-markdown/Tickets/000018

-- 
----
Waylan Limberg
wa...@gm...