[systemd-devel] python - reading the journal

Fri Feb 8 12:51:46 PST 2013

On Fri, Feb 08, 2013 at 07:51:48PM +0000, Steven Hiscocks wrote:
> On 06/02/13 00:55, Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek wrote:
> >On Tue, Feb 05, 2013 at 11:45:10PM +0000, Steven Hiscocks wrote:
> >>On 05/02/13 23:00, Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek wrote:
> >>>On Tue, Feb 05, 2013 at 09:22:46PM +0000, Steven Hiscocks wrote:
> >>>>On 05/02/13 02:49, Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek wrote:
> >>>>>Hi,
> >>>>>
> >>>>>On Mon, Feb 04, 2013 at 10:42:02PM +0000, Steven Hiscocks wrote:
> >>>>>>I've made the suggested changes and pushed it to github. Feedback
> >>>>>>welcomed :)
> >>>>>Thanks!
> >>>>>
> >>>>>Some more thoughts on the API below. Some of those are probably
> >>>>>stupid, but I want to throw them out in the open, for your feedback.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>SD_MESSAGE_* are string constants. Shouldn't they be int constants
> >>>>>like in C? The conversion both ways is pretty simple, but if the
> >>>>>constants were used outside of journal matches it would be nicer
> >>>>>to have them as ints. The downside would be that the user
> >>>>>would have to printf the int to use it in a match. But... see next
> >>>>>point.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>It would be nice to expose the rest of sd-id128 API:
> >>>>>sd_id128_to_string(3), sd_id128_randomize(3),
> >>>>>sd_id128_get_machine(3). They would probably go in a separate module
> >>>>>(systemd.id128), since they are useful in writing journal entries too.
> >>>>>
> >>>>Okay. Sounds like they should be dropped from the current code, as
> >>>>in the future the SD_MESSAGE_* constants will be accessed via python
> >>>>module systemd.id128?
> >>>Yes.
> >>>
> >>>I think that once pyjournalctl is part of the systemd tree, the constants
> >>>should be generated from sd-messages.h by a script. Otherwise, we'll
> >>>be constantly forgetting to update those.
> >>>
> >>>>>>>>journal.seek_monotonic(int(monotonic.total_seconds()*1E6), bootid)
> >>>>>Python interfaces usually use floating point numbers to mean
> >>>>>seconds. A double has ~16 significant numbers, so the accuracy should
> >>>>>be enough, so I believe the detail that this is microseconds should
> >>>>>be hidden.
> >>>>>
> >>>>Makes sense to me. Done.
> >>>>>It would be better to replace PyRun_String with normal C methods,
> >>>>>but that can be done later.
> >>>>>
> >>>>Yeah... I cheated a bit here ;)
> >>>>>sd_journal_open_directory is not wrapped, but that can be added
> >>>>>later.
> >>>>>
> >>>>Good point, easy enough to add. Done.
> >>>>>What about renaming Journalctl to Journal? It doesn't really control
> >>>>>anything :)
> >>>>>
> >>>>Yeah. I wasn't too sure on the name when I got started. I was
> >>>>concious of not clashing with the present systemd.journal. What is
> >>>>the overall planned structure for the python modules, and where
> >>>>would this fit in?
> >>>Good question. Once the SD_MESSAGE constants are moved, pyjournalctl
> >>>will only export Journalctl and a few constants. If think that could
> >>>go straight into the systemd.journal module. _journal.so already
> >>>links against libsystemd-journal.so.0, so I don't think that the
> >>>additional code for Journalctl will make any different.
> >>>
> >>>Specifically: rename pyjournalctl.c to src/python-systemd/_reader.c
> >>>(unless somebody comes up with a better name), and Journalctl to Journal.
> >>>In journal.py import Journal and the constants from _reader.
> >>>
> >>>>>SD_JOURNAL_LOCAL_ONLY should probably be renamed to LOCAL_ONLY
> >>>>>(SD_JOURNAL_RUNTIME_ONLY, SYSTEM_ONLY likewise). Here namespaceing
> >>>>>will be provided by the module, so there's no need for the long name.
> >>>>>
> >>>>Good point. Done.
> >>>>
> >>>>>Second argument to .seek(), a documentation only change: it would be
> >>>>>nice to use io.SEEK_SET, io.SEEK_CUR, io.SEEK_END in the description.
> >>>>>
> >>>>I had this in mind when developing, but was just a bit lazy and
> >>>>stuck the number in :-p . Done.
> >>>>>Should .query_unique() return a set instead? This would make checking
> >>>>>if an field is present faster, and also underline the fact that those
> >>>>>are non-repeating entries.
> >>>>>
> >>>>Of course! Done.
> >>>>>Your module will be great for creating a test suite for journal. At the
> >>>>>same time it will also serve as a test suite for the module.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>Zbyszek
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>Thanks again for the feedback. Latest changes pushed to github.
> >>>Thank you for your work.
> >>>
> >>>Let me know what you think about the proposed integration scheme.
> >>>
> >>>Zbyszek
> >>>
> >>
> >>Okay. Sounds good.
> >>
> >>You'll have to pardon my ignorance :), but my experience of git is
> >>limited to use of github...
> >>What's the best way to go about achieving this? Should I fork the
> >>systemd-repo from freedesktop, putting pyjournalctl.c in as
> >>src/python-systemd/_reader.c (and make other changes mentioned) and
> >>use `git format-patch` to submit via email?
> >I'll do it. I need to throughly check if everything compiles anyway.
> >
> >Zbyszek
> >
> 
> Out of interest, I had a quick go myself :)
> https://github.com/kwirk/systemd/commit/7207a5547924684bc54eaad0fdff706eec2402a5
Looks nice. But I want to clean up those Py_RunString and add full
error handling before we merge it.

I prepared a patch for the id128 stuff (https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/1).
David Strauss rightly suggested converting the constants to uuid.UUID.

Looking at your module, I'm starting to think that it would be good
to split out call_dict/default_func stuff into a separate class in
pure Python. It'll have to be either pure Python or quite a bit of C
code, which I'm pretty sure nobody wants to write.

Zbyszek