Captured log to outfile

[janoskut]

There doesn't seem to be a way to get the captured logs into a log file, using the --outfile option.

I can get it to the console using --no-logcapture and --format=plain, but not to the output file using any formatter.

How would I go ahead if I wanted:

• --format=pretty in the console (no log output on success)
• --format=plain with --logging-level=DEBUG to an --outfile output file (on success and failure, no difference)

?

Related to: #412

[jenisys]

The --outfile option is used to redirect the output of a formatter to a file.
This means:

• You have a primary formatter. It uses either console/stdout or an output-file.
• You may have many (0..N) secondary formatters. Each formatter will use its own output-file.
  Secondary formatters are often defined in the "behave.ini" config-file.

OTHERWISE: Logging is for diagnostics.
To redirect the logging output to a file, setup the logging subsystem accordingly.
This setup is best done in the before_all() hook (otherwise it is too late for log-capture, etc.).

SEE ALSO:

• features/logging.setup_with_configfile.feature
• features/runner.multiple_formatters.feature

[janoskut]

Thanks for your explanations @jenisys . I think that is exactly as far as I got.

So how would I go about putting formatter-output and logging output to the same file? I need the full output of behave --format plain --logging-level=DEBUG --no-logcapture in a logfile, but I don't want to have it printed to stdout. So also redirecting stdout to a file is not an option.

I tried: using the same file for -o and the logging file handler, but behave formatters overwrite the file. Even with an own formatter which appends to a file ('a' instead of 'w' file mode), the logging is written first into the file, and the formatter output is added afterwards. I guess this could be somehow fixed, but writing into the same file from different directions doesn't seem right to me.

Do I need to write a formatter which makes use of the captured logs at each step? How would I do that?

[jenisys]

Why would you want to do that?

• The result would garbled text.
• The Scenario/Step output with the formatter would be garbled with log-record statements

If you really want to that:

• Formatter output should use stdout
• Logging output should use stdout/console
• You redirect the output to a file (and stderr probably too)

# -- ASSUMPTION: Logging handler(s) write output to stdout
$ behave -f plain features > combined_output.txt

[janoskut]

Why would you want to do that?

Why would I want to do what exactly? For me it's a pretty obvious use case: I want a logfile which has behave's explanation of what steps are executed, and in between the log output of the thing under test. Just as I have when I use plain --logging-level=DEBUG --no-logcapture. Because it is too verbose, I want this detail in a logfile, not in the console. On the console, I'm happy with the "pretty" formatter.

I guess I could use the before_step() etc. hooks to keep track of what is executed in the log. It doesn't look like the formatter API is capable of knowing when a step is started, or would that be a way to write a formatter which does the logging?

[jenisys]

Mmh, how is step execution then tracked and output for it generated by a Formatter, especially in the PrettyFormatter ?!?
TLDR, the Formatter.step() is called when the step execution starts.

DETAILS:

• A trivial Formatter only reports the step after it is executed, because it needs to report the step-result, too.
• The PrettyFormatter reports the start of the step execution and overwrites this/these line(s) after the step-result is known.