topic Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy? in Python Questions

Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

ChrisSnyder — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:48:48 GMT

Anyone know how to turn off the geoprocessing history in ArcGIS v10.0 (arcpy) via Python?

Seems like ESRI got rid of the gp.loghistory setting, and I can't seem to find a way to turn it off in arcpy...

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

JohnYaist1 — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:58:27 GMT

Try using the arcpy.SetLogHistory function.

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

ChrisSnyder — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 01:25:42 GMT

I'm not sure that actually does anything... For example:

>>> arcpy.env.cellSize
u'MAXOF'

>>> arcpy.SetLogHistory
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'SetLogHistory'

>>> arcpy.env.SetLogHistory
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'GPEnvironment' object has no attribute 'SetLogHistory'

>>> arcpy.env.iHateArcPy
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<interactive input>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'GPEnvironment' object has no attribute 'iHateArcPy'

>>> arcpy.env.iHateArcPy = True

>>> print arcpy.env.iHateArcPy
True

It ain't necessarily so...

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

JakeSkinner — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:37:02 GMT

Try:

arcpy.logHistory = False

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

ChrisSnyder — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:22:43 GMT

None of the following methods turn of the .xml history logging (for me, stored under C:\Users\csny490\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\Desktop10.0\ArcToolbox\History):

arcpy.loghistory = False
arcpy.logHistory = False
arcpy.env.loghistory = False
arcpy.env.logHistory = False
arcpy.setLogHistory = False
arcpy.SetLogHistory = False
arcpy.env.setLogHistory = False
arcpy.env.SetLogHistory = False

Curiously, you can also seem to set any method you think up. For example:

>>> arcpy.whyDoesntThisWork = False
>>> print arcpy.whyDoesntThisWork
False

Which gives the false sense that some of these settings are "working" when in fact they are invalid methods and aren't actually serving any purpose.

Could it be that the history log setting in v10 via arcpy is just a placebo now and there is no way to tun it off? Seems that tuning it off via ArcMap (ArcMap > Geoprocessing > Geoprocessing Options) only turns off the logging when the tool is run via ArcMap. I would like to turn this setting off for all my scripts, but seemingly can't do that anymore in v10 arcpy... Yargh!

Note that:

import arcgisscripting
gp = arcgisscripting.create(9.3)
gp.loghistory = False

still works to stop history logging in v10.0.

In my experience with the old logging system (that use .tbx files), the larger the history file becomes the slower the tools execute. Seems that in v10 (9.3 too I think) the .xml files are created anew ever hour, but regardless, it is still possible to issue thousands of tool commands in an hour - each tool execution making the hourly .xml file larger, and the entire history fiolder larger as well.

Please ESRI: We need a way to turn the geoprocessing history log off via arcpy!

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

DavidWynne — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 01:25:45 GMT

Hi Chris,
It's not directly on arcpy at 10.0 (at 10.1 there will be SetLogHistory/GetLogHistory functions), but you can set it through arcpy.gp like below.

import arcpy
arcpy.gp.loghistory = False #turn it off

With regards to setting 'new' properties on arcpy. This is really just how Python works, there isn't a distinction between attributes in a class or setting them later in the code. You'll see this in Python standard libraries too, or even a class you might create yourself.

Generally speaking in arcpy, if you don't see a property on arcpy, or any of it's classes and modules, it's not there (Describe being an exception).

-Dave

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

ChrisSnyder — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:38:32 GMT

Thanks for the info David. I'm looking forward to 10.1...

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

ChrisSnyder — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:11:16 GMT

I found it's actually:

arcpy.gp.logHistory = False

and not

arcpy.gp.loghistory = False

(case sensitivity of v10 matters even though it's from gp... but I guess arcpy.gp)

Anyway, go to find that's why I had 4GB of history .xml files in my profile!

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

DanMarrier — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:51:08 GMT

Unfortunately, 'arcpy.gp.logHistory = False' does nothing to prevent geoprocessing steps from being written to ESRI metadata (at least when run in an IDE... haven't tested from an ArcMap session yet). There is a button one can add to ArcCatalog to allow a manual erase of this geoprocessing history, but I have found nothing that indicates the function(s) it corresponds to in the arcpy module.

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

ChrisSnyder — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:38:28 GMT

Agreed - All these bells and whistles are quite annoying - especially when you can't turn them off! Especially annoying when they affect (even just a little) geoprocessing performance...

Verified: Using arcpy.gp.logHistory = False does keep the .xml geoprocessing history files at bay (for Windows 7 stored in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\ESRI\Desktop10.0\ArcToolbox\History)
However, there doesn't appear to be anyway from writting that dribble to the dataset metadata.

SUPER LAME!!!

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

DianeMcConnaughey — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:43:18 GMT

Is there any way to delete geoprocessing history from the metadata in ArcGIS 10. There was a script for 9.3.x that did this, but I'm a little reluctant to use it in 10, because of the changes in Metadata from 9 to 10

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

LoganPugh — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:20:16 GMT

Is there any way to delete geoprocessing history from the metadata in ArcGIS 10. There was a script for 9.3.x that did this, but I'm a little reluctant to use it in 10, because of the changes in Metadata from 9 to 10

http://resources.arcgis.com/gallery/file/geodatabase/details?entryID=0F00C386-1422-2418-7FA6-03F84C1B3FBA

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

MelissaJarman — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 14:59:55 GMT

Your post was from quite some time ago, but I am finding that the SetLogHistory (false) is working as expected in arcpy. I am not finding any additional XML inserted into my GDB_ITEMS documentation column for the workspace after executing a compress after arcpy.SetLogHistory(False). Let Support Services know if you are encountering this as an issue.

>>> arcpy.SetLogHistory(False)

>>> arcpy.Compress_management(r'Database Connections\sqlserver - blakley - 10.3.sde')

>>>

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

SimonLiu1 — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 14:39:03 GMT

This is quite a necro, apologies.

However I'm finding that none of these flags work to not write geoprocessing history to the metadata. It is successful that there are no xml files being generated at least. But the biggest issue is GP history in metadata which slows down GP tools (personal experience, what took 15 seconds jumped to 15 minutes and back to 15 seconds after I cleared the history).

Specs:

ArcMap 10.6.1/Pro 2.3.3.

This is all on SDE and I'm running my scripts externally not in ArcMap or Pro.

It's ridiculous that there is an official ESRI function to turn it off but it doesn't work.

https://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/10.6/analyze/arcpy-functions/setloghistory.htm

https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/arcpy/functions/setloghistory.htm

Re: Turning on/off geoprocessing history via arcpy?

RobertHolliday — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 20:07:56 GMT

Greetings,

ESRI technical support logged BUG-000128506 regarding SetLogHistory function not functioning properly. I have this same issue. In my case and verified by tech support SetLogHistory is functioning as expected when the code is executed from within Pro from a python prompt. SetLogHistory is also functioning as expected if the code is tied to a toolbox tool.

Python 3.6.x

ArcGIS Pro 2.4.3