python-systemd

Python module for native access to the systemd facilities in recent versions of Fedora and other distributions. In particular, this capability includes passing key/value pairs as fields that the journal can display and use for filtering. There are also utilities to forward journal entries to aggregators like Graylog2 via GELF.

Installation

On Fedora 17+ with Python 2:

sudo yum install git python-pip gcc python-devel systemd-devel
pip-python install git+http://github.com/systemd/python-systemd.git#egg=systemd

On Fedora 17+ with Python 3:

sudo yum install git python3-pip gcc python3-devel systemd-devel
pip-python3 install git+http://github.com/systemd/python-systemd.git#egg=systemd

Usage

Quick example:

from systemd import journal
journal.send('Hello world')
journal.send('Hello, again, world', FIELD2='Greetings!', FIELD3='Guten tag')
journal.send('Binary message', BINARY=b'\xde\xad\xbe\xef')

There is one required argument -- the message, and additional fields can be specified as keyword arguments. Following the journald API, all names are uppercase.

The journald sendv call can also be accessed directly:

from systemd import journal
journal.sendv('MESSAGE=Hello world')
journal.sendv('MESSAGE=Hello, again, world', 'FIELD2=Greetings!',
               'FIELD3=Guten tag')
journal.sendv('MESSAGE=Binary message', b'BINARY=\xde\xad\xbe\xef')

The two examples should give the same results in the log.

Notes:

• Unlike the native C version of journald's sd_journal_send(), printf-style substitution is not supported. Perform any substitution using Python's % operator or .format() capabilities first.
• A ValueError is thrown is thrown if sd_journald_sendv() results in an error. This might happen if there are no arguments or one of them is invalid.

Viewing Output

Quick way to view output with all fields as it comes in:

sudo journalctl -f --output=json

Test Builds (for Development)

python setup.py build
cd builds/lib.*
python
>>> from systemd import journal
>>> journal.send("Test")