python-systemd

Python module for native access to the systemd facilities. Functionality is seperated into a number of modules:

• systemd.journal supports sending of structured messages to the journal and reading journal files,
• systemd.daemon wraps parts of libsystemd 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 of libsystemd used to query logged in users and available seats and machines.

Installation

This module should be packaged for almost all Linux distributions. Use

On Fedora/RHEL/CentOS

dnf install python-systemd python3-systemd

On Debian/Ubuntu/Mint

apt-get install python-systemd python3-systemd

To build from source

On Fedora 17+ with Python 2:

sudo dnf 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 dnf 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_ext -i
python
>>> from systemd import journal
>>> journal.send("Test")