Python module for native access to the systemd facilities. Functionality is separated into a number of modules:
systemd.journal
supports sending of structured messages to the journal and reading journal files,systemd.daemon
wraps parts oflibsystemd
useful for writing daemons and socket activation,systemd.id128
provides functions for querying machine and boot identifiers and a lists of message identifiers provided by systemd,systemd.login
wraps parts oflibsystemd
used to query logged in users and available seats and machines.
This module should be packaged for almost all Linux distributions. Use
On Fedora:
dnf install python3-systemd
On Debian/Ubuntu/Mint:
apt update
apt install python3-systemd
On openSUSE and SLE:
zypper in python3-systemd
On Arch:
pacman -Sy python-systemd
The project is also available on pypi as systemd-python
:
On CentOS, RHEL, and Fedora:
dnf install git python3-pip gcc python3-devel systemd-devel
pip3 install 'git+https://github.com/systemd/python-systemd.git#egg=systemd-python'
On Debian or Ubuntu:
apt install libsystemd-{journal,daemon,login,id128}-dev gcc python3-dev pkg-config
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.
Reading from the journal is often similar to using the journalctl
utility.
Show all entries since 20 minutes ago (journalctl --since "20 minutes ago"
):
from systemd import journal
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
j = journal.Reader()
j.seek_realtime(datetime.now() - timedelta(minutes=20))
for entry in j:
print(entry['MESSAGE'])
Show entries between two timestamps (journalctl --since "50 minutes ago" --until "10 minutes ago"
):
from systemd import journal
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
j = journal.Reader()
since = datetime.now() - timedelta(minutes=50)
until = datetime.now() - timedelta(minutes=10)
j.seek_realtime(since)
for entry in j:
if entry['__REALTIME_TIMESTAMP'] > until:
break
print(entry['MESSAGE'])
Show explanations of log messages alongside entries (journalctl -x
):
from systemd import journal
j = journal.Reader()
for entry in j:
print("MESSAGE: ", entry['MESSAGE'])
try:
print("CATALOG: ", j.get_catalog())
except:
pass
Show entries by a specific executable (journalctl /usr/bin/vim
):
from systemd import journal
j = journal.Reader()
j.add_match('_EXE=/usr/bin/vim')
for entry in j:
print(entry['MESSAGE'])
- Note: matches can be added from many different fields, for example
entries from a specific process ID can be matched with the
_PID
field, and entries from a specific unit (ie.journalctl -u systemd-udevd.service
) can be matched with_SYSTEMD_UNIT
. See all fields available at the systemd.journal-fields docs.
Show kernel ring buffer (journalctl -k
):
from systemd import journal
j = journal.Reader()
j.add_match('_TRANSPORT=kernel')
for entry in j:
print(entry['MESSAGE'])
Read entries in reverse (journalctl _EXE=/usr/bin/vim -r
):
from systemd import journal
class ReverseReader(journal.Reader):
def __next__(self):
ans = self.get_previous()
if ans:
return ans
raise StopIteration()
j = ReverseReader()
j.add_match('_EXE=/usr/bin/vim')
j.seek_tail()
for entry in j:
print(entry['MESSAGE'])
- Unlike the native C version of journald's
sd_journal_send()
, printf-style substitution is not supported. Perform any substitution using Python's f-strings first (or.format()
or the%
operator). - A
ValueError
is raised ifsd_journald_sendv()
results in an error. This might happen if there are no arguments or one of them is invalid.
A handler class for the Python logging framework is also provided:
import logging
from systemd import journal
logger = logging.getLogger('custom_logger_name')
logger.addHandler(journal.JournalHandler(SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER='custom_unit_name'))
logger.warning("Some message: %s", 'detail')
This module may be compiled against any version of libsystemd
. At
compilation time, any functionality that is not available in that
version is disabled, and the resulting binary module will depend on
symbols that were available at compilation time. This means that the
resulting binary module is compatible with that or any later version
of libsystemd
. To obtain maximum possible functionality, this module
must be compile against suitably recent libsystemd.
Online documentation can be found at freedesktop.org
To build it locally run:
make sphinx-html
Or use any other builder, see man sphinx-build
for a list. The compiled docs will be e.g. in docs/html
.
Quick way to view output with all fields as it comes in:
sudo journalctl -f --output=json
python setup.py build_ext -i
python
>>> from systemd import journal
>>> journal.send("Test")