Google Cloud Logging assigns ERROR severity to all Python logging.info calls

It's the first time I use Google Cloud Platform, so please be understanding!

I've built a scheduled workflow that simply runs a Batch job. The job runs Python code and uses the standard logging library for logging. When the job is executed, I can correctly see all the entries in Cloud Logging, but all the entries have severity ERROR although they're all INFO.

One possible reason I've been thinking about is that I haven't used the setup_logging function as described in the documentation here. The thing is, I didn't want to run the Cloud Logging setup when I run the code locally.

The questions I have are:

• why does logging "work" (in the sense that logs end up in Cloud Logging) even if I did not use the setup_logging function? What is it's real role?

• why do my INFO entries show up with ERROR severity?

• if I include that snippet and that snippet solves this issue, should I include an if statement in my code that detects if I am running the code locally and skips that Cloud Logging setup step?

According to the documentation, you have to use a setup to send correctly logs to Cloud Logging.

This setup allows then to use the Python logging standard library.

> Once installed, this library includes logging handlers to connect
> Python's standard logging module to Logging, as well as an API client
> library to access Cloud Logging manually.

# Imports the Cloud Logging client library
import google.cloud.logging

# Instantiates a client
client = google.cloud.logging.Client()

# Retrieves a Cloud Logging handler based on the environment
# you're running in and integrates the handler with the
# Python logging module. By default this captures all logs
# at INFO level and higher
client.setup_logging()

Then you can use the Python standard library to add logs to Cloud Logging.

# Imports Python standard library logging
import logging

# The data to log
text = "Hello, world!"

# Emits the data using the standard logging module
logging.warning(text)

> - why does logging "work" (in the sense that logs end up in Cloud Logging) even if I did not use the setup_logging function? What is
> it's real role?

Without the setup, the log will be added to Cloud Logging but not with the correct type and as expected. It's better to use the setup.

> - why do my INFO entries show up with ERROR severity?

The same reason explained above

> - if I include that snippet and that snippet solves this issue, should I include an if statement in my code that detects if I am running the
> code locally and skips that Cloud Logging setup step?

I think no need to add a if statement you run the code locally. In this case, the logs should be printed in the console even if the setup is present.