Index: Lib/logging/handlers.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/logging/handlers.py	(revision 55157)
+++ Lib/logging/handlers.py	(working copy)
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
 To use, simply 'import logging' and log away!
 """
 
-import sys, logging, socket, types, os, string, cPickle, struct, time, glob
+import sys, logging, socket, types, os, string, cPickle, struct, time, glob, syslog
 from stat import ST_DEV, ST_INO
 
 try:
@@ -621,7 +621,7 @@
         "CRITICAL" : "critical"
     }
 
-    def __init__(self, address=('localhost', SYSLOG_UDP_PORT), facility=LOG_USER):
+    def __init__(self, address=('localhost', SYSLOG_UDP_PORT), facility=LOG_USER, ident=sys.argv[0]):
         """
         Initialize a handler.
 
@@ -632,11 +632,15 @@
 
         self.address = address
         self.facility = facility
+        self.unixsocket = 0
+        self.syscall = 0
         if type(address) == types.StringType:
             self.unixsocket = 1
             self._connect_unixsocket(address)
+        elif address == 0:
+            self.syscall = 1
+            syslog.openlog(ident, 0, facility)
         else:
-            self.unixsocket = 0
             self.socket = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
 
         self.formatter = None
@@ -676,6 +680,8 @@
         """
         if self.unixsocket:
             self.socket.close()
+        elif self.syscall:
+            syslog.closelog()
         logging.Handler.close(self)
 
     def mapPriority(self, levelName):
@@ -700,10 +706,11 @@
         We need to convert record level to lowercase, maybe this will
         change in the future.
         """
-        msg = self.log_format_string % (
-            self.encodePriority(self.facility,
-                                self.mapPriority(record.levelname)),
-                                msg)
+        if not self.syscall:
+            msg = self.log_format_string % (
+                self.encodePriority(self.facility,
+                                    self.mapPriority(record.levelname)),
+                                    msg)
         try:
             if self.unixsocket:
                 try:
@@ -711,6 +718,8 @@
                 except socket.error:
                     self._connect_unixsocket(self.address)
                     self.socket.send(msg)
+            elif self.syscall:
+                syslog.syslog(self.encodePriority(0, string.lower(record.levelname)), msg)
             else:
                 self.socket.sendto(msg, self.address)
         except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit):