old_contents: """
  weitersager.util
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  Utilities
  
  :Copyright: 2007-2021 Jochen Kupperschmidt
  :License: MIT, see LICENSE for details.
  """
  
  import logging
  from logging import Formatter, StreamHandler
  from threading import Thread
  from typing import Callable
  
  
  def configure_logging(level: str) -> None:
      """Configure application-specific loggers.
  
      Setting the log level does not affect dependencies' loggers.
      """
      # Get the parent logger of all application-specific
      # loggers defined in the package's modules.
      pkg_logger = logging.getLogger(__package__)
  
      # Configure handler that writes to STDERR.
      handler = StreamHandler()
      handler.setFormatter(Formatter('%(asctime)s %(levelname)-8s %(message)s'))
      pkg_logger.addHandler(handler)
  
      pkg_logger.setLevel(level)
  
  
  def start_thread(target: Callable, name: str) -> None:
      """Create, configure, and start a new thread."""
      t = Thread(target=target, name=name, daemon=True)
      t.start()
  
new_contents: """
  weitersager.util
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  Utilities
  
  :Copyright: 2007-2021 Jochen Kupperschmidt
  :License: MIT, see LICENSE for details.
  """
  
  import logging
  from logging import Formatter, StreamHandler
  from threading import Thread
  from typing import Callable, Optional
  
  
  def configure_logging(level: str) -> None:
      """Configure application-specific loggers.
  
      Setting the log level does not affect dependencies' loggers.
      """
      # Get the parent logger of all application-specific
      # loggers defined in the package's modules.
      pkg_logger = logging.getLogger(__package__)
  
      # Configure handler that writes to STDERR.
      handler = StreamHandler()
      handler.setFormatter(Formatter('%(asctime)s %(levelname)-8s %(message)s'))
      pkg_logger.addHandler(handler)
  
      pkg_logger.setLevel(level)
  
  
  def start_thread(target: Callable, name: Optional[str] = None) -> None:
      """Create, configure, and start a new thread."""
      t = Thread(target=target, name=name, daemon=True)
      t.start()
  
subject: Make thread name argument optional