Redirecting stdout to "nothing" in python
Question:
I have a large project consisting of sufficiently large number of modules, each printing something to the standard output. Now as the project has grown in size, there are large no. of print
statements printing a lot on the std out which has made the program considerably slower.
So, I now want to decide at runtime whether or not to print anything to the stdout. I cannot make changes in the modules as there are plenty of them. (I know I can redirect the stdout to a file but even this is considerably slow.)
So my question is how do I redirect the stdout to nothing ie how do I make the print
statement do nothing?
# I want to do something like this.
sys.stdout = None # this obviously will give an error as Nonetype object does not have any write method.
Currently the only idea I have is to make a class which has a write method (which does nothing) and redirect the stdout to an instance of this class.
class DontPrint(object):
def write(*args): pass
dp = DontPrint()
sys.stdout = dp
Is there an inbuilt mechanism in python for this? Or is there something better than this?
Answers:
If you’re in a Unix environment (Linux included), you can redirect output to /dev/null
:
python myprogram.py > /dev/null
And for Windows:
python myprogram.py > nul
Your class will work just fine (with the exception of the write()
method name — it needs to be called write()
, lowercase). Just make sure you save a copy of sys.stdout
in another variable.
If you’re on a *NIX, you can do sys.stdout = open('/dev/null')
, but this is less portable than rolling your own class.
Cross-platform:
import os
import sys
f = open(os.devnull, 'w')
sys.stdout = f
On Windows:
f = open('nul', 'w')
sys.stdout = f
On Linux:
f = open('/dev/null', 'w')
sys.stdout = f
(at least on my system) it appears that writing to os.devnull is about 5x faster than writing to a DontPrint class, i.e.
#!/usr/bin/python
import os
import sys
import datetime
ITER = 10000000
def printlots(out, it, st="abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890"):
temp = sys.stdout
sys.stdout = out
i = 0
start_t = datetime.datetime.now()
while i < it:
print st
i = i+1
end_t = datetime.datetime.now()
sys.stdout = temp
print out, "n took", end_t - start_t, "for", it, "iterations"
class devnull():
def write(*args):
pass
printlots(open(os.devnull, 'wb'), ITER)
printlots(devnull(), ITER)
gave the following output:
<open file '/dev/null', mode 'wb' at 0x7f2b747044b0>
took 0:00:02.074853 for 10000000 iterations
<__main__.devnull instance at 0x7f2b746bae18>
took 0:00:09.933056 for 10000000 iterations
How about this:
from contextlib import ExitStack, redirect_stdout
import os
with ExitStack() as stack:
if should_hide_output():
null_stream = open(os.devnull, "w")
stack.enter_context(null_stream)
stack.enter_context(redirect_stdout(null_stream))
noisy_function()
This uses the features in the contextlib module to hide the output of whatever command you are trying to run, depending on the result of should_hide_output()
, and then restores the output behavior after that function is done running.
If you want to hide standard error output, then import redirect_stderr
from contextlib
and add a line saying stack.enter_context(redirect_stderr(null_stream))
.
The main downside it that this only works in Python 3.4 and later versions.
A nice way to do this is to create a small context processor that you wrap your prints in. You then just use is in a with
-statement to silence all output.
Python 2:
import os
import sys
from contextlib import contextmanager
@contextmanager
def silence_stdout():
old_target = sys.stdout
try:
with open(os.devnull, "w") as new_target:
sys.stdout = new_target
yield new_target
finally:
sys.stdout = old_target
with silence_stdout():
print("will not print")
print("this will print")
Python 3.4+:
Python 3.4 has a context processor like this built-in, so you can simply use contextlib like this:
import contextlib
with contextlib.redirect_stdout(None):
print("will not print")
print("this will print")
If the code you want to surpress writes directly to sys.stdout using None as redirect target won’t work. Instead you can use:
import contextlib
import sys
import os
with contextlib.redirect_stdout(open(os.devnull, 'w')):
sys.stdout.write("will not print")
sys.stdout.write("this will print")
If your code writes to stderr instead of stdout, you can use contextlib.redirect_stderr instead of redirect_stdout.
Running this code only prints the second line of output, not the first:
$ python test.py
this will print
This works cross-platform (Windows + Linux + Mac OSX), and is cleaner than the ones other answers imho.
Why don’t you try this?
sys.stdout.close()
sys.stderr.close()
If you’re in python 3.4 or higher, there’s a simple and safe solution using the standard library:
import contextlib
with contextlib.redirect_stdout(None):
print("This won't print!")
sys.stdout = None
It is OK for print()
case. But it can cause an error if you call any method of sys.stdout, e.g. sys.stdout.write()
.
There is a note in docs:
Under some conditions stdin, stdout and stderr as well as the original
values stdin, stdout and stderr can be None. It is usually
the case for Windows GUI apps that aren’t connected to a console and
Python apps started with pythonw.
You can just mock it.
import mock
sys.stdout = mock.MagicMock()
Supplement to iFreilicht’s answer – it works for both python 2 & 3.
import sys
class NonWritable:
def write(self, *args, **kwargs):
pass
class StdoutIgnore:
def __enter__(self):
self.stdout_saved = sys.stdout
sys.stdout = NonWritable()
return self
def __exit__(self, *args):
sys.stdout = self.stdout_saved
with StdoutIgnore():
print("This won't print!")
Will add some example to the numerous answers here:
import argparse
import contextlib
class NonWritable:
def write(self, *args, **kwargs):
pass
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='my program')
parser.add_argument("-p", "--param", help="my parameter", type=str, required=True)
#with contextlib.redirect_stdout(None): # No effect as `argparse` will output to `stderr`
#with contextlib.redirect_stderr(None): # AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'write'
with contextlib.redirect_stderr(NonWritable): # this works!
args = parser.parse_args()
The normal output would be:
>python TEST.py
usage: TEST.py [-h] -p PARAM
TEST.py: error: the following arguments are required: -p/--param
If you don’t want to deal with resource-allocation nor rolling your own class, you may want to use TextIO
from Python typing. It has all required methods stubbed for you by default.
import sys
from typing import TextIO
sys.stdout = TextIO()
There are a number of good answers in the flow, but here is my Python 3 answer (when sys.stdout.fileno() isn’t supported anymore) :
import os
import sys
oldstdout = os.dup(1)
oldstderr = os.dup(2)
oldsysstdout = sys.stdout
oldsysstderr = sys.stderr
# Cancel all stdout outputs (will be lost) - optionally also cancel stderr
def cancel_stdout(stderr=False):
sys.stdout.flush()
devnull = open('/dev/null', 'w')
os.dup2(devnull.fileno(), 1)
sys.stdout = devnull
if stderr:
os.dup2(devnull.fileno(), 2)
sys.stderr = devnull
# Redirect all stdout outputs to a file - optionally also redirect stderr
def reroute_stdout(filepath, stderr=False):
sys.stdout.flush()
file = open(filepath, 'w')
os.dup2(file.fileno(), 1)
sys.stdout = file
if stderr:
os.dup2(file.fileno(), 2)
sys.stderr = file
# Restores stdout to default - and stderr
def restore_stdout():
sys.stdout.flush()
sys.stdout.close()
os.dup2(oldstdout, 1)
os.dup2(oldstderr, 2)
sys.stdout = oldsysstdout
sys.stderr = oldsysstderr
To use it:
-
Cancel all stdout and stderr outputs with:
cancel_stdout(stderr=True)
-
Route all stdout (but not stderr) to a file:
reroute_stdout(‘output.txt’)
-
To restore stdout and stderr:
restore_stdout()
I use this. Redirect stdout
to a string, which you subsequently ignore. I use a context manager to save and restore the original setting for stdout
.
from io import StringIO
...
with StringIO() as out:
with stdout_redirected(out):
# Do your thing
where stdout_redirected
is defined as:
from contextlib import contextmanager
@contextmanager
def stdout_redirected(new_stdout):
save_stdout = sys.stdout
sys.stdout = new_stdout
try:
yield None
finally:
sys.stdout = save_stdout
I have a large project consisting of sufficiently large number of modules, each printing something to the standard output. Now as the project has grown in size, there are large no. of print
statements printing a lot on the std out which has made the program considerably slower.
So, I now want to decide at runtime whether or not to print anything to the stdout. I cannot make changes in the modules as there are plenty of them. (I know I can redirect the stdout to a file but even this is considerably slow.)
So my question is how do I redirect the stdout to nothing ie how do I make the print
statement do nothing?
# I want to do something like this.
sys.stdout = None # this obviously will give an error as Nonetype object does not have any write method.
Currently the only idea I have is to make a class which has a write method (which does nothing) and redirect the stdout to an instance of this class.
class DontPrint(object):
def write(*args): pass
dp = DontPrint()
sys.stdout = dp
Is there an inbuilt mechanism in python for this? Or is there something better than this?
If you’re in a Unix environment (Linux included), you can redirect output to /dev/null
:
python myprogram.py > /dev/null
And for Windows:
python myprogram.py > nul
Your class will work just fine (with the exception of the write()
method name — it needs to be called write()
, lowercase). Just make sure you save a copy of sys.stdout
in another variable.
If you’re on a *NIX, you can do sys.stdout = open('/dev/null')
, but this is less portable than rolling your own class.
Cross-platform:
import os
import sys
f = open(os.devnull, 'w')
sys.stdout = f
On Windows:
f = open('nul', 'w')
sys.stdout = f
On Linux:
f = open('/dev/null', 'w')
sys.stdout = f
(at least on my system) it appears that writing to os.devnull is about 5x faster than writing to a DontPrint class, i.e.
#!/usr/bin/python
import os
import sys
import datetime
ITER = 10000000
def printlots(out, it, st="abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890"):
temp = sys.stdout
sys.stdout = out
i = 0
start_t = datetime.datetime.now()
while i < it:
print st
i = i+1
end_t = datetime.datetime.now()
sys.stdout = temp
print out, "n took", end_t - start_t, "for", it, "iterations"
class devnull():
def write(*args):
pass
printlots(open(os.devnull, 'wb'), ITER)
printlots(devnull(), ITER)
gave the following output:
<open file '/dev/null', mode 'wb' at 0x7f2b747044b0>
took 0:00:02.074853 for 10000000 iterations
<__main__.devnull instance at 0x7f2b746bae18>
took 0:00:09.933056 for 10000000 iterations
How about this:
from contextlib import ExitStack, redirect_stdout
import os
with ExitStack() as stack:
if should_hide_output():
null_stream = open(os.devnull, "w")
stack.enter_context(null_stream)
stack.enter_context(redirect_stdout(null_stream))
noisy_function()
This uses the features in the contextlib module to hide the output of whatever command you are trying to run, depending on the result of should_hide_output()
, and then restores the output behavior after that function is done running.
If you want to hide standard error output, then import redirect_stderr
from contextlib
and add a line saying stack.enter_context(redirect_stderr(null_stream))
.
The main downside it that this only works in Python 3.4 and later versions.
A nice way to do this is to create a small context processor that you wrap your prints in. You then just use is in a with
-statement to silence all output.
Python 2:
import os
import sys
from contextlib import contextmanager
@contextmanager
def silence_stdout():
old_target = sys.stdout
try:
with open(os.devnull, "w") as new_target:
sys.stdout = new_target
yield new_target
finally:
sys.stdout = old_target
with silence_stdout():
print("will not print")
print("this will print")
Python 3.4+:
Python 3.4 has a context processor like this built-in, so you can simply use contextlib like this:
import contextlib
with contextlib.redirect_stdout(None):
print("will not print")
print("this will print")
If the code you want to surpress writes directly to sys.stdout using None as redirect target won’t work. Instead you can use:
import contextlib
import sys
import os
with contextlib.redirect_stdout(open(os.devnull, 'w')):
sys.stdout.write("will not print")
sys.stdout.write("this will print")
If your code writes to stderr instead of stdout, you can use contextlib.redirect_stderr instead of redirect_stdout.
Running this code only prints the second line of output, not the first:
$ python test.py
this will print
This works cross-platform (Windows + Linux + Mac OSX), and is cleaner than the ones other answers imho.
Why don’t you try this?
sys.stdout.close()
sys.stderr.close()
If you’re in python 3.4 or higher, there’s a simple and safe solution using the standard library:
import contextlib
with contextlib.redirect_stdout(None):
print("This won't print!")
sys.stdout = None
It is OK for print()
case. But it can cause an error if you call any method of sys.stdout, e.g. sys.stdout.write()
.
There is a note in docs:
Under some conditions stdin, stdout and stderr as well as the original
values stdin, stdout and stderr can be None. It is usually
the case for Windows GUI apps that aren’t connected to a console and
Python apps started with pythonw.
You can just mock it.
import mock
sys.stdout = mock.MagicMock()
Supplement to iFreilicht’s answer – it works for both python 2 & 3.
import sys
class NonWritable:
def write(self, *args, **kwargs):
pass
class StdoutIgnore:
def __enter__(self):
self.stdout_saved = sys.stdout
sys.stdout = NonWritable()
return self
def __exit__(self, *args):
sys.stdout = self.stdout_saved
with StdoutIgnore():
print("This won't print!")
Will add some example to the numerous answers here:
import argparse
import contextlib
class NonWritable:
def write(self, *args, **kwargs):
pass
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='my program')
parser.add_argument("-p", "--param", help="my parameter", type=str, required=True)
#with contextlib.redirect_stdout(None): # No effect as `argparse` will output to `stderr`
#with contextlib.redirect_stderr(None): # AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'write'
with contextlib.redirect_stderr(NonWritable): # this works!
args = parser.parse_args()
The normal output would be:
>python TEST.py
usage: TEST.py [-h] -p PARAM
TEST.py: error: the following arguments are required: -p/--param
If you don’t want to deal with resource-allocation nor rolling your own class, you may want to use TextIO
from Python typing. It has all required methods stubbed for you by default.
import sys
from typing import TextIO
sys.stdout = TextIO()
There are a number of good answers in the flow, but here is my Python 3 answer (when sys.stdout.fileno() isn’t supported anymore) :
import os
import sys
oldstdout = os.dup(1)
oldstderr = os.dup(2)
oldsysstdout = sys.stdout
oldsysstderr = sys.stderr
# Cancel all stdout outputs (will be lost) - optionally also cancel stderr
def cancel_stdout(stderr=False):
sys.stdout.flush()
devnull = open('/dev/null', 'w')
os.dup2(devnull.fileno(), 1)
sys.stdout = devnull
if stderr:
os.dup2(devnull.fileno(), 2)
sys.stderr = devnull
# Redirect all stdout outputs to a file - optionally also redirect stderr
def reroute_stdout(filepath, stderr=False):
sys.stdout.flush()
file = open(filepath, 'w')
os.dup2(file.fileno(), 1)
sys.stdout = file
if stderr:
os.dup2(file.fileno(), 2)
sys.stderr = file
# Restores stdout to default - and stderr
def restore_stdout():
sys.stdout.flush()
sys.stdout.close()
os.dup2(oldstdout, 1)
os.dup2(oldstderr, 2)
sys.stdout = oldsysstdout
sys.stderr = oldsysstderr
To use it:
-
Cancel all stdout and stderr outputs with:
cancel_stdout(stderr=True)
-
Route all stdout (but not stderr) to a file:
reroute_stdout(‘output.txt’)
-
To restore stdout and stderr:
restore_stdout()
I use this. Redirect stdout
to a string, which you subsequently ignore. I use a context manager to save and restore the original setting for stdout
.
from io import StringIO
...
with StringIO() as out:
with stdout_redirected(out):
# Do your thing
where stdout_redirected
is defined as:
from contextlib import contextmanager
@contextmanager
def stdout_redirected(new_stdout):
save_stdout = sys.stdout
sys.stdout = new_stdout
try:
yield None
finally:
sys.stdout = save_stdout