Is there a way to overwrite log files in python 2.x

Add the filemode option to basicConfig:

logging.basicConfig(format='%(asctime)s %(message)s',
                datefmt='%m/%d/%Y %I:%M:%S %p',
                filename='logs.log',
                filemode='w',
                level=logging.INFO)

From the logging documentation for the basicConfig method (in the big table explaining all options):

filemode: Specifies the mode to open the file, if filename is specified (if filemode is unspecified, it defaults to ‘a’).

Both

logging.basicConfig(format='%(asctime)s %(message)s',
                datefmt='%m/%d/%Y %I:%M:%S %p',
                filename='logs.log',
                filemode='w',
                level=logging.INFO)

and

logging.basicConfig(format='%(asctime)s %(message)s',
                datefmt='%m/%d/%Y %I:%M:%S %p',
                filename='logs.log',
                filemode='w+',
                level=logging.INFO)

always append in Python 2.7, on both Windows and Linux

The actual answer is to add the filemode = 'w' AND force = True parameter to basicConfig. What seems to be happening is that default handlers are setting the filemode to a for append. With filemode already set, logging doesn't bother to apply your requested filemode of w for write. Adding the force parameter disables all default handlers and uses all the parameters you specified instead.