How to save Python script console output to a file?

Question

I want to run a Python script and save its console output to a file, while still being able to see the output in the console. For example, a "Hello World" script as simple as print('Hello World') would show Hello World in the console and also save this output to a file.

I was previously using pythonscript.py > console_output.txt to shell redirect, I can't see anything in the console with this solution (and for some reason, it no longer saves anything to the specified file, no idea why). This is a solution using Linux shell redirection, but now I would like to write a separate python script to do it.

I don't think I need any special error logging stuff. I'm currently using try: except blocks and just printing the Exception and then using that to find the error.

Check out the unix scriptcommand.

John Gordon
– John Gordon

2021-12-31 12:55:34 +00:00
Commented Dec 31, 2021 at 12:55 — John Gordon
– John Gordon, Commented Dec 31, 2021 at 12:55

Matteo Moreschini · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-31 14:26:35Z

1

You can do you something like this:

def custom_print(message_to_print, log_file='output.txt'):
    print(message_to_print)
    with open(log_file, 'a') as of:
        of.write(message_to_print + '\n')

This way you can use custom_print instead of print to be able to both see the result in the console and have the result appended to a log file.

edited Dec 31, 2021 at 14:26

answered Dec 31, 2021 at 13:11

Matteo Moreschini

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3 Comments

Mo0rBy Over a year ago

Would there be any way to incorporate pprint into this solution?

Mo0rBy Over a year ago

For anyone else that looks at this, I added a newline character so that last line of this function look like this > of.write('\n' + message_to_print). Otherwise, all the output is on a single line.

Matteo Moreschini Over a year ago

Definitely forgot it, thanks, I'm updating my answer! Btw you can use the same logic with pprint, but instead of doing of.write(msg) you can define pp_to_f = pprint.PrettyPrinter(indent=4, stream=of) and then dopp_to_f.pprint(msg). Haven't tested id but it should work :)

Thy · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-31 13:09:32Z

1

Try tee command, for example: pythonscript.py | tee console_output.txt

answered Dec 31, 2021 at 13:09

Thy

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3 Comments

Mo0rBy Over a year ago

This produces the exact same as result as script.py > output.txt. The output file is created, but nothing gets added to it. Again, not sure why this worked before and now it doesn't.

Thy Over a year ago

if you run your pythonscript.py without pipe or redirection, do you see anything on the screen? Can you share a snippet of your code? Can you try python -c "print('Hello World')" | tee console_output.txt? Check if you see Hello World on the console and the file.

Mo0rBy Over a year ago

Interesting, that works completely fine. And yes, if I just do python app.py I can see the stdout in the terminal. @MatteoMoreschini has got a solution that works for me though, so there no need to investigate further. Thank you!

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