PyABM uses the python logging module, so that warning and informational messages from the PyABM module can be written to the console, and also saved to files along with model output. For flexibility, and consistent with recommended usage of the logging module, configuration of the logging output is left up to the user of PyABM. If you import pyabm directly from a python session without setting up logging first, you will see a warning message when PyABM tries to log a message:

In [1]: import pyabm
No handlers could be found for logger "pyabm.rcsetup"
In [2]:

For this example, I have forced PyABM to try to print an error message, by specifying the wrong path to git in my pyabmrc. To see the error message, I will need to import logging and configure a logging handler prior to importing PyABM:

In [1]: import logging
In [2]: logging.basicConfig()
In [3]: import pyabm
WARNING:pyabm.rcsetup:Failure while reading rc parameter path.git_binary on 
line 42 in /home/azvoleff/pyabmrc: /wrong/path/to/git does not exist. Reverting 
to default parameter value.
WARNING:pyabm.rcsetup:git version control features disabled. Specify valid git 
binary path in your pyabmrc to enable.
In [4]:

I now see a warning telling me that /wrong/path/to/git does not exist, and PyABM tries the default path to git specified in rcparams.default. This path also does not exist (as I am running this example on Linux and PyABM is setup for Windows by default) so I then see another warning ‘git version control features disabled’ as PyABM is not able to find git. If I fix my pyabmrc file to give the correct path to git (which, on my system, is /usr/bin/git) I can import pyabm without seeing any error messages:

In [1]: import logging
In [2]: logging.basicConfig()
In [3]: import pyabm
In [4]: