diff -r b42f6c930cea Doc/library/logging.handlers.rst
--- a/Doc/library/logging.handlers.rst	Tue Aug 18 00:35:52 2015 -0700
+++ b/Doc/library/logging.handlers.rst	Tue Aug 18 05:02:56 2015 -0400
@@ -162,11 +162,17 @@
    first call to :meth:`emit`.  By default, the file grows indefinitely.
 
 
+   .. method:: reopenFile()
+
+      Checks to see if the file has changed.  If it has, the existing stream is
+      flushed and closed and the file opened again, before outputting the record
+      to the file.
+
+
    .. method:: emit(record)
 
-      Outputs the record to the file, but first checks to see if the file has
-      changed.  If it has, the existing stream is flushed and closed and the
-      file opened again, before outputting the record to the file.
+      Outputs the record to the file, but first calls reopenFile method to reopen
+      file if it has changed.
 
 .. _base-rotating-handler:
 
diff -r b42f6c930cea Lib/logging/handlers.py
--- a/Lib/logging/handlers.py	Tue Aug 18 00:35:52 2015 -0700
+++ b/Lib/logging/handlers.py	Tue Aug 18 05:02:56 2015 -0400
@@ -440,11 +440,11 @@
             sres = os.fstat(self.stream.fileno())
             self.dev, self.ino = sres[ST_DEV], sres[ST_INO]
 
-    def emit(self, record):
+    def reopenFile(self):
         """
-        Emit a record.
+        Reopen log file.
 
-        First check if the underlying file has changed, and if it
+        Check if the underlying file has changed, and if it
         has, close the old stream and reopen the file to get the
         current stream.
         """
@@ -467,6 +467,14 @@
                 # open a new file handle and get new stat info from that fd
                 self.stream = self._open()
                 self._statstream()
+
+    def emit(self, record):
+        """
+        Emit a record.
+
+        If underlying file has changed reopen file before emitting.
+        """
+        self.reopenFile()
         logging.FileHandler.emit(self, record)