Clarify documentation of `request` objects in the `django.server` logging namespace.

[Keryn Knight]

The docs currently say, of both django.request and django.server:

Messages to this logger have the following extra context:
request: The request object that generated the logging message.

However, that appears to be true only in the strictest possible sense, because as far as I can tell, the request on a django.server message under runserver is actually ... the socket.socket instance ​mirrored as the ​connection.

Simplest steps I could figure out to show the problem, because frankly logging in Python is a nightmare, and Django doesn't exactly make it better...

Make a new project django-admin startproject whatever
Go and edit django/utils/log.py and set up handlers like so:

        "django.request": {
            "handlers": ["django.server"],
            "level": "INFO",
            "propagate": False,
        },
        "django.server": {
            "handlers": ["django.server"],
            "level": "INFO",
            "propagate": False,
        },

Set the django.server formatter like so:

"formatters": {
        "django.server": {
            "()": "django.utils.log.ServerFormatter",
            "format": "[{server_time}] {request} {message}",
            "style": "{",
        }
    },

Note the addition of the {request} parameter.

Start the server python manage.py runserver ...

Open your browser to / to see the The install worked successfully! Congratulations! welcome page.

Look at your log output, it'll say something like:

[17/Aug/2023 11:00:23] <socket.socket fd=7, family=AddressFamily.AF_INET, type=SocketKind.SOCK_STREAM, proto=0, laddr=('127.0.0.1', 8001), raddr=('127.0.0.1', 60767)> "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 10629

which is ... I guess you could count it as a request object, though I'm more inclined to think that the presence of a .request attribute meant the docs could copy-paste/re-use the existing definition accidentally.

OK so how's that different to the django.request logger?
Open your browser to /404 which I think forces a django.request record via log_message Look at your log output again, it'll say something like:

[17/Aug/2023 11:02:27,574] <WSGIRequest: GET '/404'> Not Found: /404
[17/Aug/2023 11:02:27] <socket.socket fd=7, family=AddressFamily.AF_INET, type=SocketKind.SOCK_STREAM, proto=0, laddr=('127.0.0.1', 8001), raddr=('127.0.0.1', 60767)> "GET /404 HTTP/1.1" 404 2101

Ignoring the fact the server time isn't even formatted the same...
Note how one of the records is backed by an actual WSGIRequest (and ultimately can also be be either HttpRequest or ASGIRequest) which I think/guess is ​from here
But the other is still that pesky socket, which would only have the requestline + raw requestline etc... That's from ​here I think?

---

Expectations:

Ideally, it'd have the actual HttpRequest subclass instance, but that may not actually be possible given where those log messages might actually occur in the overall machinery. That is, I can't see where you'd pass it around

So if that's not possible, it'd be lovely to actually tighten up the documentation to make clear that you won't (necessarily? always? sometimes?) have that, but only the underlying socket/connection.

[Natalia Bidart]

Hello Keryn, thank you for your ticket!

I have reproduced what you described (I preferred to extend the project's settings to customize the LOGGING value instead of changing the source code, but same result).
The Django code does indeed pass as extra logging context what the WSGIRequestHandler is given as request by the Python lower level libraries, so I believe Django can't do anything beyond that. Perhaps a minor clarification to the docs is worth it.

On that basis, I'm tentatively accepting this report. Would you like to prepare a patch?

[Keryn Knight]

PR is ​https://github.com/django/django/pull/17172

[GitHub <noreply@…>]

In 428023e2:

Fixed #34781 -- Updated logging ref docs for django.server's request extra context value.

[Natalia <124304+nessita@…>]

In f55b4202:

[4.2.x] Fixed #34781 -- Updated logging ref docs for django.server's request extra context value.

Backport of 428023e2677aeb80d86b19f90b0c6b82c7cb666d from main