diff --git a/swh/core/logger.py b/swh/core/logger.py
index 0c2298a..88566f2 100644
--- a/swh/core/logger.py
+++ b/swh/core/logger.py
@@ -1,83 +1,79 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2015  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 import logging
 import os
 import psycopg2
 import socket
 
 from psycopg2.extras import Json
 
 
 EXTRA_LOGDATA_PREFIX = 'swh_'
 
 
 def db_level_of_py_level(lvl):
     """convert a log level of the logging module to a log level suitable for the
     logging Postgres DB
 
     """
     return logging.getLevelName(lvl).lower()
 
 
 class PostgresHandler(logging.Handler):
     """log handler that store messages in a Postgres DB
 
     See swh-core/sql/log-schema.sql for the DB schema.
 
     All logging methods can be used as usual. Additionally, arbitrary metadata
     can be passed to logging methods, requesting that they will be stored in
     the DB as a single JSONB value. To do so, pass a dictionary to the 'extra'
     kwarg of any logging method; all keys in that dictionary that start with
     EXTRA_LOGDATA_PREFIX (currently: 'swh_') will be extracted to form the
     JSONB dictionary. The prefix will be stripped and not included in the DB.
 
     Sample usage:
 
         logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
-        h = PostgresHandler({'log_db': 'dbname=softwareheritage-log'})
+        h = PostgresHandler('dbname=softwareheritage-log')
         logging.getLogger().addHandler(h)
 
         logger.info('not so important notice',
                     extra={'swh_type': 'swh_logging_test',
                            'swh_meditation': 'guru'})
         logger.warn('something weird just happened, did you see that?')
 
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, config):
+    def __init__(self, connstring):
         """
         Create a Postgres log handler.
 
         Args:
             config: configuration dictionary, with a key "log_db" containing a
                libpq connection string to the log DB
         """
         super().__init__()
-        self.config = config
 
-        self.conn = psycopg2.connect(self.config['log_db'])
+        self.conn = psycopg2.connect(connstring)
 
         self.fqdn = socket.getfqdn()  # cache FQDN value
 
     def emit(self, record):
         log_data = record.__dict__
 
         extra_data = {k[len(EXTRA_LOGDATA_PREFIX):]: v
                       for k, v in log_data.items()
                       if k.startswith(EXTRA_LOGDATA_PREFIX)}
         log_entry = (db_level_of_py_level(log_data['levelno']),
-                     log_data['msg'],
-                     Json(extra_data),
-                     log_data['module'],
-                     self.fqdn,
-                     os.getpid())
+                     log_data['msg'], Json(extra_data),
+                     log_data['module'], self.fqdn, os.getpid())
 
         with self.conn.cursor() as cur:
             cur.execute('INSERT INTO log '
                         '(level, message, data, src_module, src_host, src_pid)'
                         'VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s)',
                         log_entry)
             self.conn.commit()