Always use LogRecord.getMessage to get the log body

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -41,6 +41,10 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 - `opentelemetry-instrumentation-boto`: Remove instrumentation
   ([#4303](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/pull/4303))
+- `opentelemetry-instrumentation-logging`: Use `LogRecord.getMessage()` to format and extract each log record's body text to more closely match the expected usage of the logging system. As a result, all OTel log record bodies are now always strings.
+  Previously, if `LogRecord.msg` (which contains the format string) was set to a non-string object (e.g. `logger.warning(some_dict)`), the object was exported as-is to the OTLP body field. Now, `LogRecord.getMessage()` will convert it to to a string.
+  If you are passing in non-strings as the format string argument and your backend is expecting them as-is, you will need to update accordingly.
+  ([#4372](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/pull/4372))
 
 ## Version 1.40.0/0.61b0 (2026-03-04)
 

instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-logging/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/logging/handler.py

@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@
     get_logger,
     get_logger_provider,
 )
-from opentelemetry.attributes import _VALID_ANY_VALUE_TYPES
 from opentelemetry.context import get_current
 from opentelemetry.semconv._incubating.attributes import code_attributes
 from opentelemetry.semconv.attributes import exception_attributes
@@ -168,25 +167,7 @@ def _translate(self, record: logging.LogRecord) -> LogRecord:
         if self.formatter:
             body = self.format(record)
         else:
-            # `record.getMessage()` uses `record.msg` as a template to format
-            # `record.args` into. There is a special case in `record.getMessage()`
-            # where it will only attempt formatting if args are provided,
-            # otherwise, it just stringifies `record.msg`.
-            #
-            # Since the OTLP body field has a type of 'any' and the logging module
-            # is sometimes used in such a way that objects incorrectly end up
-            # set as record.msg, in those cases we would like to bypass
-            # `record.getMessage()` completely and set the body to the object
-            # itself instead of its string representation.
-            # For more background, see: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/4216
-            if not record.args and not isinstance(record.msg, str):
-                #  if record.msg is not a value we can export, cast it to string
-                if not isinstance(record.msg, _VALID_ANY_VALUE_TYPES):
-                    body = str(record.msg)
-                else:
-                    body = record.msg
-            else:
-                body = record.getMessage()
+            body = record.getMessage()
 
         # related to https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/issues/3548
         # Severity Text = WARN as defined in https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/main/specification/logs/data-model.md#displaying-severity.

instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-logging/tests/test_handler.py

@@ -451,6 +451,43 @@ def test_log_body_is_always_string_with_formatter(self):
 
         logger.removeHandler(handler)
 
+    def test_simple_log_record_processor_custom_single_obj(self):
+        """
+        Tests that logging a single non-string object uses getMessage
+        """
+        processor, logger, handler = set_up_test_logging(logging.WARNING)
+
+        # NOTE: the behaviour of `record.getMessage` is detailed in the
+        # `logging.Logger.debug` documentation:
+        # > The msg is the message format string, and the args are the arguments
+        # > which are merged into msg using the string formatting operator. [...]
+        # > No % formatting operation is performed on msg when no args are supplied.
+
+        # This test uses the presence of '%s' in the first arg to determine if
+        # formatting was applied
+
+        # string msg with no args - getMessage bypasses formatting and sets the string directly
+        logger.warning("a string with a percent-s: %s")
+        # string msg with args - getMessage formats args into the msg
+        logger.warning("a string with a percent-s: %s", "and arg")
+        # non-string msg with args - getMessage stringifies msg and formats args into it
+        logger.warning(["a non-string with a percent-s", "%s"], "and arg")
+        # non-string msg with no args - getMessage stringifies the object and bypasses formatting
+        logger.warning(["a non-string with a percent-s", "%s"])
+
+        logger.removeHandler(handler)
+
+        assert processor.emit_count() == 4
+        expected = [
+            ("a string with a percent-s: %s"),
+            ("a string with a percent-s: and arg"),
+            ("['a non-string with a percent-s', 'and arg']"),
+            ("['a non-string with a percent-s', '%s']"),
+        ]
+        for index, msg in enumerate(expected):
+            record = processor.get_log_record(index)
+            self.assertEqual(record.log_record.body, msg)
+
     @patch.dict(os.environ, {"OTEL_SDK_DISABLED": "true"})
     def test_handler_root_logger_with_disabled_sdk_does_not_go_into_recursion_error(
         self,