Logging Configuration

Introduction

Use your ownCloud log to review system status, or to help debug problems. You may adjust logging levels and choose between using the ownCloud log or using the default syslog daemon.

Parameters

Logging levels range from DEBUG, which logs all activity, to FATAL, which logs only fatal errors.

  • 0: DEBUG: Debug, informational, warning, and error messages, and fatal issues.

  • 1: INFO: Informational, warning, and error messages, and fatal issues.

  • 2: WARN: Warning, and error messages, and fatal issues.

  • 3: ERROR: Error messages and fatal issues.

  • 4: FATAL: Fatal issues only.

By default the log level is set to 2 (WARN). Use DEBUG when you have a problem to diagnose, and then reset your log level to a less-verbose level, as DEBUG outputs a lot of information, and can affect your server performance.

Logging level parameters are set in the config/config.php file, or on the Admin page of your ownCloud Web GUI.

ownCloud

All log information will be written to a separate log file which can be viewed using the log viewer on your Admin page. By default, a log file named owncloud.log will be created in the directory which has been configured by the datadirectory parameter in config/config.php. As an example see:

'datadirectory' => '/var/www/owncloud/data',

When not using the default location for the logfile, it can be specified via:

'logfile' => '<your-path>/owncloud.log',

Note that the web server user must have write rights to that directory.

The desired date format can optionally be defined using the logdateformat parameter in config/config.php. By default the PHP date function parameter c is used, and therefore the date/time is written in the format 2013-01-10T15:20:25+02:00. By using the date format in the example below, the date/time format will be written in the format January 10, 2013 15:20:25.

"log_type" => "owncloud",
"logfile" => "owncloud.log",
"loglevel" => "3",
"logdateformat" => "F d, Y H:i:s",

syslog

The log type can be set to syslog and all log information will be sent to your default syslog daemon.

"log_type" => "syslog",
"logfile" => "",
"loglevel" => "3",

The syslog format can be changed to remove or add information. In addition to the %replacements% below, %level% can be used, but it is used as a dedicated parameter to the syslog logging facility anyway.

'log.syslog.format' => '[%reqId%][%remoteAddr%][%user%][%app%][%method%][%url%] %message%',

For the old syslog message format use:

'log.syslog.format' => '{%app%} %message%',

Conditional Logging Level Increase

Log conditions for log level increase based on conditions can be set. This will increase the logging level automatically to debug when the first condition inside a condition block is met. All conditions are optional !

  • shared_secret: A unique token. If a http(s) request parameter named log_secret is added to the request and set to this token, the condition is met.

  • users: If the current request is done by one of the specified users, this condition is met.

  • apps: If the log message is invoked by one of the specified apps, this condition is met.

  • logfile: The log message invoked gets redirected to this logfile when a condition above is met.

Notes regarding the logfile key:

  1. If no logfile is defined, the standard logfile is used.

  2. Not applicable when using syslog.

The following example demonstrates how all three conditions can look like.
The first one that matches triggers the condition block writing the log entry to the defined logfile.
'log.conditions' => [
  [
    'shared_secret' => '57b58edb6637fe3059b3595cf9c41b9',
    'users' => ['user1', 'user2'],
    'apps' => ['comments'],
    'logfile' => '/tmp/test2.log'
  ]
],

Based on the conditional log settings above, the following logs are written to the same logfile:

  • Requests matching log_secret are debug logged.

curl -X PROPFIND -u sample-user:password \
  https://your_domain/remote.php/webdav/?log_secret=57b58edb6637fe3059b3595cf9c41b9

  • user1 and user2 gets debug logged.

  • Access to app comments gets debug logged.