Linux python read output from a running python script

Question

I have a python script running as service in linux (also as autorun), and it does plenty of output! How can I read this output when the program is already running?

Maybe I could log all the output into a file but then I would have to open and refresh the file all the time when new output is logged!

Answer 1

It is also possible to implement tail from the python side, which is basically a continuous reading of it. The code snippet to make this work can be found here:

http://code.activestate.com/recipes/157035-tail-f-in-python/

Additionally, if you use the append mode of file writing instead of the write method you can continuously output.

Scrapy also uses the concept of pipelines which allow for a lot of the same functionality. Here's an example of some scrapy code you might use to do the same thing:

class JsonWriterPipeline(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.file = (open(filepath, 'a'))
    def process_item(self, item, spider):
        self.file.write(json.dumps(dict(item)) + '\n')
        return item

Answer 2

Well, when it comes to the second paragraph of the question, in the shell you can do:

tail -f logfile.log

which automaticly refreshes when file is updated, so under Linux that's a working solution.