How to Redirect Print Script Output: From Console to File and Beyond

Ever wondered how to grab everything your Python (or other language) script spits to the console and toss it, neatly or not，right into a file, or even pipe that river of text somewhere totally different? If you've ever wanted a log of every print() statement or needed to debug without staring at a scrolling shell, let me walk you through how redirection works, what really happens under the hood, and some fun (sometimes accidentally hilarious) pitfalls. Plus, I'm going to pull in some international standards, regulatory tidbits, and a unique real-world-inspired trade case to ground this in professional practice—just in case you ever need to justify your output redirection skills to, say, customs authorities or your boss.

Summary Table: "Verified Trade" Standard Comparison Across Countries

Redirecting Script Output: My Hands-On Journey (Python Edition)

Let me drop straight into the reality: I was working on a cross-border e-commerce reporting tool (yes, sounds more glamorous than it was—it mostly involved enormous CSV dumps), and our Python script was vomiting pages of gibberish to the terminal whenever something hiccupped. My boss, an ex-customs broker, insisted, "You gotta log everything—just in case we get an audit." Sound advice. But redirecting tons of print() outputs? Not as obvious, at least for a newbie.

Standard Console Redirection: The Old-School Way

First up, there's the basic, direct way: when you launch the script, use a shell redirect operator. Here's what I mean:

python myscript.py > output.txt 2> error.log

That first > grabs everything normally printed to STDOUT (think standard print()), and 2> captures errors (STDERR). Tested result: output.txt is now a glorious log-file mess; error.log, an often empty graveyard—unless, of course, the script broke somewhere, as mine did the first time because I typo’d my script name and spent twenty minutes panicking over a blank log.

Internal Script Redirection: Taking Control Inside Code

But, what if you want to send only some prints to a file and keep others on the screen? This happens a lot in trade compliance: you want clean logs for authorities (say, the EU AEO audit team), but useful progress info left for developers. Turns out, Python and many languages let you redirect sys.stdout programmatically. Here’s how I made it work (after a couple of missteps):

import sys

original_stdout = sys.stdout 

with open('log.txt', 'w') as f:
    sys.stdout = f
    print("This goes to the file.")
    # ... All prints here go to log.txt!

sys.stdout = original_stdout
print("This shows up in the console again!")

Practical tip: don’t forget to restore sys.stdout, or debugging gets very confusing. I once redirected everything, forgot to switch back, and then wondered why my progress bar script printed...nothing at all (until I opened my log file and found eight pages of undelimited logs).

Advanced Tricks: Logging Modules and Multidevice Redirection

For proper production, especially in trade systems where you may need to log to multiple destinations (like regulators and your ERP), Python’s logging module is the way to go. It's baked-in, flexible enough for international multi-compliance, and supports file/console/remote syslog all at once. Sample setup:

import logging

logging.basicConfig(filename='trade.log', level=logging.INFO)
logging.info("Shipment declared in accordance with WTO TFA standards.")

Funny story: I once set the logger to ERROR only during a WTO documentation test, missed all the info logs, and had to parse customs feeds manually for two hours. Always double-check your log levels! Read up on logging here: Python Logging Docs.

Real-World Case Study: A vs. B Country Export Audit

Picture this: Company X exports electronic components from Country A (US) to Country B (EU), where each import requires proof of export logs—a classic “verified trade” scenario under WTO TFA (see details). I consulted for a US firm in 2023. They used print() logging—which, as the EU auditor explained, “lacks legal audit trails required under EU AEO.” We had to switch overnight to structured, file-based logging. The simplest way? Redirect all print()s to a file—then add timestamps and checksums for extra peace of mind. Result: shipment cleared, but not before a heated compliance debate. Copy of the correspondence (with sensitive info redacted) is still in my Evernote.

Expert Side Note: International Digital Evidence

I called up Dr. Linda Wu—customs expert and consultant for multiple AEO-certified Chinese firms—who stressed: “If it isn’t in a timestamped, tamper-evident log, it doesn’t exist in the eyes of Chinese or EU customs!” She referenced EC AEO Guidelines directly—a sobering lesson for any company that still thinks “console output is enough.”

Some Weird Gotchas and Personal Fails

Honestly—nothing exposes flaws in your output redirection assumptions like an international certification deadline. I once redirected output to a file on a shared network drive, only to get frantic Slack messages because our automation didn’t have write permissions. Result: zero logs, lots of apologies, and a new “log file test” checklist for every integration session.

Another classic blunder: using shell-level redirection (like 2>&1) during a Windows deployment, then realizing the logs vanished into the abyss because the service ran as SYSTEM, not as my user. Lesson learned: test every execution environment—container, VM, or bare-metal.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Redirecting script output, either with simple shell operators or more nuanced in-script controls, solves tangible problems for anyone dealing with audits, trade compliance, or just bug tracking. Each method—from dumb output.txt files to robust, authority-pleasing logs—has its place. But as I learned the hard way, be obsessively clear about requirements (including those buried in WTO, EU AEO, or CBP regulations), always test your output redirection in the actual operating environment, and don’t trust default print statements when regulatory survival is at stake.

Want to dig deeper? Read the Python official output handling PEP or explore WTO trade facilitation requirements.