# How to use Logbook handler?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-logbook-handler/146209>\
**Category:** APM\
**Created:** [August 27, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-logbook-handler/146209 "2018-08-27T16:03:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fr0der1c](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/fr0der1c/32/34125_2.png) [@fr0der1c](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/fr0der1c)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2018, 4:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-logbook-handler/146209/1 "2018-08-27T16:03:16Z")

</div>

I have a flask app and I'm using ElasticAPM to monitor it. There is only an example of LoggingHandler  
and no example of Logbook handler on the page: [https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/apm/agent/python/current/flask-support.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/apm/agent/python/current/flask-support.html)

So I use as follows:

```auto
    handler = LogbookHandler(client=apm.client)

    app.logger.addHandler(handler)

```

And

```auto
    app.logger.info('App created with `{}` config'.format(app.config['CONFIG_NAME']))

```

Gave me an error:

```auto
  File "/Users/frederic/.virtualenvs/everyclass-server-jMUaPnUb/lib/python3.6/site-packages/elasticapm/handlers/logbook.py", line 56, in emit
    if record.channel.startswith("elasticapm.errors"):
AttributeError: 'LogRecord' object has no attribute 'channel'

```

So what's the right way to use Elastic APM LogbookHandler?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![beniwohli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/beniwohli/32/21256_2.png) [@beniwohli](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/beniwohli)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2018, 8:52am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-logbook-handler/146209/2 "2018-08-28T08:52:48Z")

</div>

Hi @fr0der1c

if you use logbook, you can't use `app.logger`, as that is a `logging.Logger` instance. Instead, you have to create a `logbook.Logger` and use that instead. Also, you need to bind the handler. Something like this should work:

```
handler = LogbookHandler(client=apm.client)
log = logbook.Logger( __name__ )

@app.route('/foo/bar')
def foo():
    log.warning("It's foo!")

if __name__ == ' __main__':
    with handler.applicationbound():
        app.run(port=5000)
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fr0der1c](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/fr0der1c/32/34125_2.png) [@fr0der1c](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/fr0der1c)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-logbook-handler/146209/3 "2018-08-29T14:53:59Z")

</div>

Thank you! It works!  
However I found a new problem. Sometimes the log item is just an info, not an error. But the handler recorded it with stacktrace like it was an error, which I think is unnecessary. Can I disable sending stacktrace?

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/8/c/8c0ee353b4e8c825debffa9933d3630578d7bb9e.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![beniwohli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/beniwohli/32/21256_2.png) [@beniwohli](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/beniwohli)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 8:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-logbook-handler/146209/4 "2018-08-30T08:21:49Z")

</div>

At the moment, you can only disable capturing of stack traces for Logbook logs globally, using the [`auto_log_stacks`](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/apm/agent/python/2.x/configuration.html#config-auto-log-stacks) config option.

For the stdlib logger, we have the option of disabling it per call, by passing `stack=False` to the log call. I'll add that option for Logbook as well and ping you here once it is out (hopefully today) 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fr0der1c](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/fr0der1c/32/34125_2.png) [@fr0der1c](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/fr0der1c)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 10:15am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-logbook-handler/146209/5 "2018-08-30T10:15:36Z")

</div>

OK. Thank you!

I'm actually not very familiar with Logbook. I thought traceback is part of `exc_info`, so setting `exc_info` to `False` when logging would disable stack traces.

```auto
logger.info('App created with `{}` config'.format(app.config['CONFIG_NAME']), exc_info=False)

```

But changing this option is not helping. Could you please tell me why it's not working?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![beniwohli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/beniwohli/32/21256_2.png) [@beniwohli](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/beniwohli)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-logbook-handler/146209/6 "2018-08-30T14:38:52Z")

</div>

`exc_info` is something slightly different. It's the exception info if you are currently in an exception handler. Imagine this case:

```
try:
    do_something_dangerous()
    log.info("I did something dangerous, and it worked!") # 1
except SomethingBadHappened:
    log.error("I did something dangerous, and it blew up!") # 2

```

In the #1 log statement, `exc_info` will be empty, as there is no exception. But we will still gather a stack trace so you can see where exactly the `log.info()` call happened.

In the #2 log statement, we actually capture two stack traces: one from where the exception was raised (2nd line in the example), and one from where `log.error()` is called.

I just released version 3.0.1 of the agent, which supports the `stack=False` flag for Logbook. So something like this

```
log.info("Nothing to see here", stack=False)

```

won't capture any stack trace anymore

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fr0der1c](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/fr0der1c/32/34125_2.png) [@fr0der1c](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/fr0der1c)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2018, 5:05am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-logbook-handler/146209/7 "2018-08-31T05:05:13Z")

</div>

Why two stack traces are captured instead of one in the #2 log statement? I thought exception in 2nd line is handled so it won't be captured.

My another question is, since we already have LogStash, why we need to use logging feature from APM? I'm also currently using Sentry in my application for better error tracking. I want to get things less complicated, so I'm thinking about using a single Logbook logger with a SentryHandler from Sentry, and one handler between APM and LogStash. So I want to know how they differ from each other.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![beniwohli](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/beniwohli/32/21256_2.png) [@beniwohli](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/beniwohli)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 3:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-logbook-handler/146209/8 "2018-09-05T15:20:26Z")

</div>

Sorry for the delayed answer @fr0der1c.

In a `log` call in an exception handler, we capture the exception stack trace even if it is handled, as it may contain valuable information.

As for whether you should use the APM agent as opposed to Logstash or Filebeat for getting your logs into Elasticsearch, this is something I'd decide on a case-by-case basis, depending if you need all the additional information we capture, like the stack trace. If all you need is the information that is already in the log line, using Logstash and Filebeat sounds like a great choice!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2018, 11:20am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-to-use-logbook-handler/146209/9 "2018-09-26T11:20:28Z")

</div>

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