Why Does Enabling Django Logging Trigger Unwanted .env Alerts?

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I'm setting up Django logging for a POC on Django 5.1.3 with Python 3.12.4

I followed the instructions but encountered two issues:

Although an error.log file is created at the path (.epsonVE\enoc_proj\error.log), nothing is ever appended to it.
Running python manage.py runserver produces three INFO alerts about missing .env files, specifically for the console_app and turnover_app. I know my .env file exists and contains necessary settings such as DJANGO_SECRET_KEY, database credentials, DJANGO_DEBUG, DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS, etc.

I suspect these alerts are tied to the logger configuration. Note that terminal output (print statements and page loads) stops when logging is enabled. The configuration includes:

PYTHON
'disable_existing_loggers': False,

Here's the relevant part of my settings.py for logging:

PYTHON
LOGGING = {  
    'version': 1,  
    'disable_existing_loggers': False,  
    'formatters': {  
        'verbose': {  
            'format': '{levelname} {asctime} {module} {message}',  
            'style': '{',  
        },  
        'simple': {  
            'format': '{levelname} {message}',  
            'style': '{',  
        },  
        'json': {  
            'format': '{"timestamp": "%((asctime)s)", "level": "%((levelname)s)", "message": "%((message)s)"}',  
            'style': '%',  
        },  
    },  
    'handlers': {  
        'console': {  
            'level': 'DEBUG',  
            'class': 'logging.StreamHandler',  
            'formatter': 'simple',  
        },  
        'file': {  
            'level': 'ERROR',  
            'class': 'logging.FileHandler',  
            'filename': 'error.log',  
            'formatter': 'verbose',  
        },  
    },  
    'loggers': {  
        '': {   # <-- root logger  
            'level': 'INFO',  
            'handlers': ['console', 'file']  
        },  
        'django': {  
            'handlers': ['console'],  
            'level': 'INFO',  
            'propagate': True,  
        },  
        'django.server': {  
            'handlers': ['console'],  
            'level': 'ERROR',  
            'propagate': False,  
        },  
        'myapp': {  
            'handlers': ['file'],  
            'level': 'ERROR',  
            'propagate': False,  
        },  
    },  
}

And a snippet for environment variables from settings.py:

PYTHON
DEBUG = env.bool("DJANGO_DEBUG", False)
# Allowed Hosts Definition
if DEBUG:
    # If Debug is True, allow all.
    ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']
else:
    ALLOWED_HOSTS = env.list('DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS', default=['example.com'])

SECRET_KEY = env("SECRET_KEY", default="unsafe-secret-key")

Has anyone experienced similar INFO alerts regarding the .env files when enabling logging? Any suggestions on resolving these issues would be greatly appreciated.

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Answers 1

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1 Answer

Answer by StackOverflow TychoAI Agent • 9 days ago

Django Logging Configuration Issues

I can see a few potential issues with your logging configuration that might be causing the problems you're experiencing:

Issue 1: Empty Error Log File

The error log file is created but nothing is being written to it because:

Your file handler has a level of ERROR, but you might not be generating any ERROR level logs
The relative path 'filename': 'error.log' might be causing issues with file location

Suggested fixes:

PYTHON
'file': {
    'level': 'ERROR',  # Consider lowering to 'INFO' or 'DEBUG' for testing
    'class': 'logging.FileHandler',
    'filename': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'error.log'),  # Use absolute path
    'formatter': 'verbose',
},

Make sure to import os and define BASE_DIR if not already done.

Issue 2: Missing .env Files and Console Output

The INFO alerts about missing .env files are likely coming from your environment variable handling library (django-environ or similar). Your root logger configuration is capturing all logs and might be interfering with normal console output:

PYTHON
'': {   # <-- root logger  
    'level': 'INFO',  
    'handlers': ['console', 'file']  
},

Suggested fixes:

Modify your root logger to be less aggressive:

PYTHON
'': {   # <-- root logger  
    'level': 'WARNING',  # Change from INFO to WARNING
    'handlers': ['console', 'file']  
},

Add a specific logger for your environment variable handling:

PYTHON
'environ': {  # Or whatever package you're using for env vars
    'handlers': ['console'],
    'level': 'WARNING',  # Only show warnings and above
    'propagate': False,
},

Consider adding a filter to exclude specific messages about .env files.

Additional Recommendations:

Make sure your Django apps (console_app and turnover_app) have their own loggers if needed:

PYTHON
'console_app': {
    'handlers': ['console', 'file'],
    'level': 'INFO',
    'propagate': False,
},
'turnover_app': {
    'handlers': ['console', 'file'],
    'level': 'INFO',
    'propagate': False,
},

Your json formatter has an unusual format string with double parentheses - this might cause issues:

PYTHON
'json': {
    'format': '{"timestamp": "%(asctime)s", "level": "%(levelname)s", "message": "%(message)s"}',
    'style': '%',
},

Test your logging by explicitly generating logs in your code:

PYTHON
import logging
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
logger.debug("This is a debug message")
logger.info("This is an info message")
logger.warning("This is a warning message")
logger.error("This is an error message")

These changes should help resolve your logging issues while maintaining the functionality you need.

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