bionic (1) journalctl.1.gz

NAME

       journalctl - Query the systemd journal

SYNOPSIS

       journalctl [OPTIONS...] [MATCHES...]

DESCRIPTION

       journalctl may be used to query the contents of the systemd(1) journal as written by systemd-
       journald.service(8).

       If called without parameters, it will show the full contents of the journal, starting with the oldest
       entry collected.

       If one or more match arguments are passed, the output is filtered accordingly. A match is in the format
       "FIELD=VALUE", e.g.  "_SYSTEMD_UNIT=httpd.service", referring to the components of a structured journal
       entry. See systemd.journal-fields(7) for a list of well-known fields. If multiple matches are specified
       matching different fields, the log entries are filtered by both, i.e. the resulting output will show only
       entries matching all the specified matches of this kind. If two matches apply to the same field, then
       they are automatically matched as alternatives, i.e. the resulting output will show entries matching any
       of the specified matches for the same field. Finally, the character "+" may appear as a separate word
       between other terms on the command line. This causes all matches before and after to be combined in a
       disjunction (i.e. logical OR).

       It is also possible to filter the entries by specifying an absolute file path as an argument. The file
       path may be a file or a symbolic link and the file must exist at the time of the query. If a file path
       refers to an executable binary, an "_EXE=" match for the canonicalized binary path is added to the query.
       If a file path refers to an executable script, a "_COMM=" match for the script name is added to the
       query. If a file path refers to a device node, "_KERNEL_DEVICE=" matches for the kernel name of the
       device and for each of its ancestor devices is added to the query. Symbolic links are dereferenced,
       kernel names are synthesized, and parent devices are identified from the environment at the time of the
       query. In general, a device node is the best proxy for an actual device, as log entries do not usually
       contain fields that identify an actual device. For the resulting log entries to be correct for the actual
       device, the relevant parts of the environment at the time the entry was logged, in particular the actual
       device corresponding to the device node, must have been the same as those at the time of the query.
       Because device nodes generally change their corresponding devices across reboots, specifying a device
       node path causes the resulting entries to be restricted to those from the current boot.

       Additional constraints may be added using options --boot, --unit=, etc., to further limit what entries
       will be shown (logical AND).

       Output is interleaved from all accessible journal files, whether they are rotated or currently being
       written, and regardless of whether they belong to the system itself or are accessible user journals.

       The set of journal files which will be used can be modified using the --user, --system, --directory, and
       --file options, see below.

       All users are granted access to their private per-user journals. However, by default, only root and users
       who are members of a few special groups are granted access to the system journal and the journals of
       other users. Members of the groups "systemd-journal", "adm", and "wheel" can read all journal files. Note
       that the two latter groups traditionally have additional privileges specified by the distribution.
       Members of the "wheel" group can often perform administrative tasks.

       The output is paged through less by default, and long lines are "truncated" to screen width. The hidden
       part can be viewed by using the left-arrow and right-arrow keys. Paging can be disabled; see the
       --no-pager option and the "Environment" section below.

       When outputting to a tty, lines are colored according to priority: lines of level ERROR and higher are
       colored red; lines of level NOTICE and higher are highlighted; other lines are displayed normally.

OPTIONS

       The following options are understood:

       --no-full, --full, -l
           Ellipsize fields when they do not fit in available columns. The default is to show full fields,
           allowing them to wrap or be truncated by the pager, if one is used.

           The old options -l/--full are not useful anymore, except to undo --no-full.

       -a, --all
           Show all fields in full, even if they include unprintable characters or are very long.

       -f, --follow
           Show only the most recent journal entries, and continuously print new entries as they are appended to
           the journal.

       -e, --pager-end
           Immediately jump to the end of the journal inside the implied pager tool. This implies -n1000 to
           guarantee that the pager will not buffer logs of unbounded size. This may be overridden with an
           explicit -n with some other numeric value, while -nall will disable this cap. Note that this option
           is only supported for the less(1) pager.

       -n, --lines=
           Show the most recent journal events and limit the number of events shown. If --follow is used, this
           option is implied. The argument is a positive integer or "all" to disable line limiting. The default
           value is 10 if no argument is given.

       --no-tail
           Show all stored output lines, even in follow mode. Undoes the effect of --lines=.

       -r, --reverse
           Reverse output so that the newest entries are displayed first.

       -o, --output=
           Controls the formatting of the journal entries that are shown. Takes one of the following options:

           short
               is the default and generates an output that is mostly identical to the formatting of classic
               syslog files, showing one line per journal entry.

           short-full
               is very similar, but shows timestamps in the format the --since= and --until= options accept.
               Unlike the timestamp information shown in short output mode this mode includes weekday, year and
               timezone information in the output, and is locale-independent.

           short-iso
               is very similar, but shows ISO 8601 wallclock timestamps.

           short-iso-precise
               as for short-iso but includes full microsecond precision.

           short-precise
               is very similar, but shows classic syslog timestamps with full microsecond precision.

           short-monotonic
               is very similar, but shows monotonic timestamps instead of wallclock timestamps.

           short-unix
               is very similar, but shows seconds passed since January 1st 1970 UTC instead of wallclock
               timestamps ("UNIX time"). The time is shown with microsecond accuracy.

           verbose
               shows the full-structured entry items with all fields.

           export
               serializes the journal into a binary (but mostly text-based) stream suitable for backups and
               network transfer (see Journal Export Format[1] for more information). To import the binary stream
               back into native journald format use systemd-journal-remote(8).

           json
               formats entries as JSON data structures, one per line (see Journal JSON Format[2] for more
               information).

           json-pretty
               formats entries as JSON data structures, but formats them in multiple lines in order to make them
               more readable by humans.

           json-sse
               formats entries as JSON data structures, but wraps them in a format suitable for Server-Sent
               Events[3].

           cat
               generates a very terse output, only showing the actual message of each journal entry with no
               metadata, not even a timestamp.

       --output-fields=
           A comma separated list of the fields which should be included in the output. This only has an effect
           for the output modes which would normally show all fields (verbose, export, json, json-pretty, and
           json-sse). The "__CURSOR", "__REALTIME_TIMESTAMP", "__MONOTONIC_TIMESTAMP", and "_BOOT_ID" fields are
           always printed.

       --utc
           Express time in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

       --no-hostname
           Don't show the hostname field of log messages originating from the local host. This switch only has
           an effect on the short family of output modes (see above).

       -x, --catalog
           Augment log lines with explanation texts from the message catalog. This will add explanatory help
           texts to log messages in the output where this is available. These short help texts will explain the
           context of an error or log event, possible solutions, as well as pointers to support forums,
           developer documentation, and any other relevant manuals. Note that help texts are not available for
           all messages, but only for selected ones. For more information on the message catalog, please refer
           to the Message Catalog Developer Documentation[4].

           Note: when attaching journalctl output to bug reports, please do not use -x.

       -q, --quiet
           Suppresses all informational messages (i.e. "-- Logs begin at ...", "-- Reboot --"), any warning
           messages regarding inaccessible system journals when run as a normal user.

       -m, --merge
           Show entries interleaved from all available journals, including remote ones.

       -b [ID][±offset], --boot=[ID][±offset]
           Show messages from a specific boot. This will add a match for "_BOOT_ID=".

           The argument may be empty, in which case logs for the current boot will be shown.

           If the boot ID is omitted, a positive offset will look up the boots starting from the beginning of
           the journal, and an equal-or-less-than zero offset will look up boots starting from the end of the
           journal. Thus, 1 means the first boot found in the journal in chronological order, 2 the second and
           so on; while -0 is the last boot, -1 the boot before last, and so on. An empty offset is equivalent
           to specifying -0, except when the current boot is not the last boot (e.g. because --directory was
           specified to look at logs from a different machine).

           If the 32-character ID is specified, it may optionally be followed by offset which identifies the
           boot relative to the one given by boot ID. Negative values mean earlier boots and positive values
           mean later boots. If offset is not specified, a value of zero is assumed, and the logs for the boot
           given by ID are shown.

       --list-boots
           Show a tabular list of boot numbers (relative to the current boot), their IDs, and the timestamps of
           the first and last message pertaining to the boot.

       -k, --dmesg
           Show only kernel messages. This implies -b and adds the match "_TRANSPORT=kernel".

       -t, --identifier=SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER
           Show messages for the specified syslog identifier SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER.

           This parameter can be specified multiple times.

       -u, --unit=UNIT|PATTERN
           Show messages for the specified systemd unit UNIT (such as a service unit), or for any of the units
           matched by PATTERN. If a pattern is specified, a list of unit names found in the journal is compared
           with the specified pattern and all that match are used. For each unit name, a match is added for
           messages from the unit ("_SYSTEMD_UNIT=UNIT"), along with additional matches for messages from
           systemd and messages about coredumps for the specified unit.

           This parameter can be specified multiple times.

       --user-unit=
           Show messages for the specified user session unit. This will add a match for messages from the unit
           ("_SYSTEMD_USER_UNIT=" and "_UID=") and additional matches for messages from session systemd and
           messages about coredumps for the specified unit.

           This parameter can be specified multiple times.

       -p, --priority=
           Filter output by message priorities or priority ranges. Takes either a single numeric or textual log
           level (i.e. between 0/"emerg" and 7/"debug"), or a range of numeric/text log levels in the form
           FROM..TO. The log levels are the usual syslog log levels as documented in syslog(3), i.e.
           "emerg" (0), "alert" (1), "crit" (2), "err" (3), "warning" (4), "notice" (5), "info" (6),
           "debug" (7). If a single log level is specified, all messages with this log level or a lower (hence
           more important) log level are shown. If a range is specified, all messages within the range are
           shown, including both the start and the end value of the range. This will add "PRIORITY=" matches for
           the specified priorities.

       -g, --grep=
           Filter output to entries where the MESSAGE= field matches the specified regular expression.
           PERL-compatible regular expressions are used, see pcre2pattern(3) for a detailed description of the
           syntax.

           If the pattern is all lowercase, matching is case insensitive. Otherwise, matching is case sensitive.
           This can be overridden with the --case-sensitive option, see below.

       --case-sensitive[=BOOLEAN]
           Make pattern matching case sensitive or case insenstive.

       -c, --cursor=
           Start showing entries from the location in the journal specified by the passed cursor.

       --after-cursor=
           Start showing entries from the location in the journal after the location specified by the passed
           cursor. The cursor is shown when the --show-cursor option is used.

       --show-cursor
           The cursor is shown after the last entry after two dashes:

               -- cursor: s=0639...

           The format of the cursor is private and subject to change.

       -S, --since=, -U, --until=
           Start showing entries on or newer than the specified date, or on or older than the specified date,
           respectively. Date specifications should be of the format "2012-10-30 18:17:16". If the time part is
           omitted, "00:00:00" is assumed. If only the seconds component is omitted, ":00" is assumed. If the
           date component is omitted, the current day is assumed. Alternatively the strings "yesterday",
           "today", "tomorrow" are understood, which refer to 00:00:00 of the day before the current day, the
           current day, or the day after the current day, respectively.  "now" refers to the current time.
           Finally, relative times may be specified, prefixed with "-" or "+", referring to times before or
           after the current time, respectively. For complete time and date specification, see systemd.time(7).
           Note that --output=short-full prints timestamps that follow precisely this format.

       -F, --field=
           Print all possible data values the specified field can take in all entries of the journal.

       -N, --fields
           Print all field names currently used in all entries of the journal.

       --system, --user
           Show messages from system services and the kernel (with --system). Show messages from service of
           current user (with --user). If neither is specified, show all messages that the user can see.

       -M, --machine=
           Show messages from a running, local container. Specify a container name to connect to.

       -D DIR, --directory=DIR
           Takes a directory path as argument. If specified, journalctl will operate on the specified journal
           directory DIR instead of the default runtime and system journal paths.

       --file=GLOB
           Takes a file glob as an argument. If specified, journalctl will operate on the specified journal
           files matching GLOB instead of the default runtime and system journal paths. May be specified
           multiple times, in which case files will be suitably interleaved.

       --root=ROOT
           Takes a directory path as an argument. If specified, journalctl will operate on journal directories
           and catalog file hierarchy underneath the specified directory instead of the root directory (e.g.
           --update-catalog will create ROOT/var/lib/systemd/catalog/database, and journal files under
           ROOT/run/journal or ROOT/var/log/journal will be displayed).

       --new-id128
           Instead of showing journal contents, generate a new 128-bit ID suitable for identifying messages.
           This is intended for usage by developers who need a new identifier for a new message they introduce
           and want to make recognizable. This will print the new ID in four different formats which can be
           copied into source code or similar.

       --header
           Instead of showing journal contents, show internal header information of the journal fields accessed.

       --disk-usage
           Shows the current disk usage of all journal files. This shows the sum of the disk usage of all
           archived and active journal files.

       --vacuum-size=, --vacuum-time=, --vacuum-files=
           Removes archived journal files until the disk space they use falls below the specified size
           (specified with the usual "K", "M", "G" and "T" suffixes), or all archived journal files contain no
           data older than the specified timespan (specified with the usual "s", "m", "h", "days", "months",
           "weeks" and "years" suffixes), or no more than the specified number of separate journal files remain.
           Note that running --vacuum-size= has only an indirect effect on the output shown by --disk-usage, as
           the latter includes active journal files, while the vacuuming operation only operates on archived
           journal files. Similarly, --vacuum-files= might not actually reduce the number of journal files to
           below the specified number, as it will not remove active journal files.  --vacuum-size=,
           --vacuum-time= and --vacuum-files= may be combined in a single invocation to enforce any combination
           of a size, a time and a number of files limit on the archived journal files. Specifying any of these
           three parameters as zero is equivalent to not enforcing the specific limit, and is thus redundant.

       --list-catalog [128-bit-ID...]
           List the contents of the message catalog as a table of message IDs, plus their short description
           strings.

           If any 128-bit-IDs are specified, only those entries are shown.

       --dump-catalog [128-bit-ID...]
           Show the contents of the message catalog, with entries separated by a line consisting of two dashes
           and the ID (the format is the same as .catalog files).

           If any 128-bit-IDs are specified, only those entries are shown.

       --update-catalog
           Update the message catalog index. This command needs to be executed each time new catalog files are
           installed, removed, or updated to rebuild the binary catalog index.

       --setup-keys
           Instead of showing journal contents, generate a new key pair for Forward Secure Sealing (FSS). This
           will generate a sealing key and a verification key. The sealing key is stored in the journal data
           directory and shall remain on the host. The verification key should be stored externally. Refer to
           the Seal= option in journald.conf(5) for information on Forward Secure Sealing and for a link to a
           refereed scholarly paper detailing the cryptographic theory it is based on.

       --force
           When --setup-keys is passed and Forward Secure Sealing (FSS) has already been configured, recreate
           FSS keys.

       --interval=
           Specifies the change interval for the sealing key when generating an FSS key pair with --setup-keys.
           Shorter intervals increase CPU consumption but shorten the time range of undetectable journal
           alterations. Defaults to 15min.

       --verify
           Check the journal file for internal consistency. If the file has been generated with FSS enabled and
           the FSS verification key has been specified with --verify-key=, authenticity of the journal file is
           verified.

       --verify-key=
           Specifies the FSS verification key to use for the --verify operation.

       --sync
           Asks the journal daemon to write all yet unwritten journal data to the backing file system and
           synchronize all journals. This call does not return until the synchronization operation is complete.
           This command guarantees that any log messages written before its invocation are safely stored on disk
           at the time it returns.

       --flush
           Asks the journal daemon to flush any log data stored in /run/log/journal into /var/log/journal, if
           persistent storage is enabled. This call does not return until the operation is complete. Note that
           this call is idempotent: the data is only flushed from /run/log/journal into /var/log/journal once
           during system runtime, and this command exits cleanly without executing any operation if this has
           already happened. This command effectively guarantees that all data is flushed to /var/log/journal at
           the time it returns.

       --rotate
           Asks the journal daemon to rotate journal files. This call does not return until the rotation
           operation is complete.

       -h, --help
           Print a short help text and exit.

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

       --no-pager
           Do not pipe output into a pager.

EXIT STATUS

       On success, 0 is returned; otherwise, a non-zero failure code is returned.

ENVIRONMENT

       $SYSTEMD_PAGER
           Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER nor $PAGER are
           set, a set of well-known pager implementations are tried in turn, including less(1) and more(1),
           until one is found. If no pager implementation is discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this
           environment variable to an empty string or the value "cat" is equivalent to passing --no-pager.

       $SYSTEMD_LESS
           Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").

       $SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
           Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the invoking terminal is determined to be
           UTF-8 compatible).

EXAMPLES

       Without arguments, all collected logs are shown unfiltered:

           journalctl

       With one match specified, all entries with a field matching the expression are shown:

           journalctl _SYSTEMD_UNIT=avahi-daemon.service

       If two different fields are matched, only entries matching both expressions at the same time are shown:

           journalctl _SYSTEMD_UNIT=avahi-daemon.service _PID=28097

       If two matches refer to the same field, all entries matching either expression are shown:

           journalctl _SYSTEMD_UNIT=avahi-daemon.service _SYSTEMD_UNIT=dbus.service

       If the separator "+" is used, two expressions may be combined in a logical OR. The following will show
       all messages from the Avahi service process with the PID 28097 plus all messages from the D-Bus service
       (from any of its processes):

           journalctl _SYSTEMD_UNIT=avahi-daemon.service _PID=28097 + _SYSTEMD_UNIT=dbus.service

       Show all logs generated by the D-Bus executable:

           journalctl /usr/bin/dbus-daemon

       Show all kernel logs from previous boot:

           journalctl -k -b -1

       Show a live log display from a system service apache.service:

           journalctl -f -u apache

SEE ALSO

       systemd(1), systemd-journald.service(8), systemctl(1), coredumpctl(1), systemd.journal-fields(7),
       journald.conf(5), systemd.time(7), systemd-journal-remote(8), systemd-journal-upload(8)

NOTES

        1. Journal Export Format
           https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/export

        2. Journal JSON Format
           https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/json

        3. Server-Sent Events
           https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Server-sent_events/Using_server-sent_events

        4. Message Catalog Developer Documentation
           https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/catalog