OK, that's it, so to do what I want I am using: self.logger = logging.getLogger('debuglog') hdlr = logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler(debugfilename, 'a', 0, 5) hdlr.doRollover() formatter = logging.Formatter('%(asctime)s % (levelname)s: %(message)s') hdlr.setFormatter(formatter) self.logger.addHandler(hdlr) Thanks for your help