[node.js] Node: log in a file instead of the console

Can I configure console.log so that the logs are written on a file instead of being printed in the console?

This question is related to node.js

The answer is


Straight from nodejs's API docs on Console

const output = fs.createWriteStream('./stdout.log');
const errorOutput = fs.createWriteStream('./stderr.log');
// custom simple logger
const logger = new Console(output, errorOutput);
// use it like console
const count = 5;
logger.log('count: %d', count);
// in stdout.log: count 5

Improve on Andres Riofrio , to handle any number of arguments

var fs = require('fs');
var util = require('util');

var log_file = fs.createWriteStream(__dirname + '/debug.log', {flags : 'w'});
var log_stdout = process.stdout;

console.log = function(...args) {
    var output = args.join(' ');
    log_file.write(util.format(output) + '\r\n');
    log_stdout.write(util.format(output) + '\r\n');
};

I for myself simply took the example from winston and added the log(...) method (because winston names it info(..):

Console.js:

"use strict"

// Include the logger module
const winston = require('winston');

const logger = winston.createLogger({
    level: 'info',
    format: winston.format.json(),
    transports: [
        //
        // - Write to all logs with level `info` and below to `combined.log`
        // - Write all logs error (and below) to `error.log`.
        //
        new winston.transports.File({ filename: 'error.log', level: 'error' }),
        new winston.transports.File({ filename: 'combined.log' })
    ]
});

//
// If we're not in production then log to the `console` with the format:
// `${info.level}: ${info.message} JSON.stringify({ ...rest }) `
//
if (process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'production') {
    logger.add(new winston.transports.Console({
        format: winston.format.simple()
    }));
}

// Add log command
logger.log=logger.info;

module.exports = logger;

Then simply use in your code:

const console = require('Console')

Now you can simply use the normal log functions in your file and it will create a file AND log it to your console (while debugging/developing). Because of if (process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'production') { (in case you want it also in production)...


You can now use Caterpillar which is a streams based logging system, allowing you to log to it, then pipe the output off to different transforms and locations.

Outputting to a file is as easy as:

var logger = new (require('./').Logger)();
logger.pipe(require('fs').createWriteStream('./debug.log'));
logger.log('your log message');

Complete example on the Caterpillar Website


For simple cases, we could redirect the Standard Out (STDOUT) and Standard Error (STDERR) streams directly to a file(say, test.log) using '>' and '2>&1'

Example:

// test.js
(function() {
    // Below outputs are sent to Standard Out (STDOUT) stream
    console.log("Hello Log");
    console.info("Hello Info");
    // Below outputs are sent to Standard Error (STDERR) stream
    console.error("Hello Error");
    console.warn("Hello Warning");
})();

node test.js > test.log 2>&1

As per the POSIX standard, 'input', 'output' and 'error' streams are identified by the positive integer file descriptors (0, 1, 2). i.e., stdin is 0, stdout is 1, and stderr is 2.

Step 1: '2>&1' will redirect from 2 (stderr) to 1 (stdout)

Step 2: '>' will redirect from 1 (stdout) to file (test.log)


For future users. @keshavDulal answer doesn't work for latest version. And I couldn't find a proper fix for the issues that are reporting in the latest version 3.3.3.

Anyway I finally fixed it after researching a bit. Here is the solution for winston version 3.3.3

Install winston and winston-daily-rotate-file

npm install winston 
npm install winston-daily-rotate-file

Create a new file utils/logger.js

const winston = require('winston');
const winstonRotator = require('winston-daily-rotate-file');

var logger = new winston.createLogger({
  transports: [
    new (winston.transports.DailyRotateFile)({
      name: 'access-file',
      level: 'info',
      filename: './logs/access.log',
      json: false,
      datePattern: 'yyyy-MM-DD',
      prepend: true,
      maxFiles: 10
    }),
    new (winston.transports.DailyRotateFile)({
      name: 'error-file',
      level: 'error',
      filename: './logs/error.log',
      json: false,
      datePattern: 'yyyy-MM-DD',
      prepend: true,
      maxFiles: 10
    })
  ]
});


module.exports = {
  logger
};

Then in any file where you want to use logging import the module like

const logger = require('./utils/logger').logger;

Use logger like the following:

logger.info('Info service started');
logger.error('Service crashed');

const fs = require("fs");
const {keys} = Object;
const {Console} = console;

/**
 * Redirect console to a file.  Call without path or with false-y
 * value to restore original behavior.
 * @param {string} [path]
 */
function file(path) {
    const con = path ? new Console(fs.createWriteStream(path)) : null;

    keys(Console.prototype).forEach(key => {
        if (path) {
            this[key] = (...args) => con[key](...args);
        } else {
            delete this[key];
        }
    });
};

// patch global console object and export
module.exports = console.file = file;

To use it, do something like:

require("./console-file");
console.file("/path/to.log");
console.log("write to file!");
console.error("also write to file!");
console.file();    // go back to writing to stdout

You could also just overload the default console.log function:

var fs = require('fs');
var util = require('util');
var log_file = fs.createWriteStream(__dirname + '/debug.log', {flags : 'w'});
var log_stdout = process.stdout;

console.log = function(d) { //
  log_file.write(util.format(d) + '\n');
  log_stdout.write(util.format(d) + '\n');
};

Above example will log to debug.log and stdout.

Edit: See multiparameter version by Clément also on this page.


Overwriting console.log is the way to go. But for it to work in required modules, you also need to export it.

module.exports = console;

To save yourself the trouble of writing log files, rotating and stuff, you might consider using a simple logger module like winston:

// Include the logger module
var winston = require('winston');
// Set up log file. (you can also define size, rotation etc.)
winston.add(winston.transports.File, { filename: 'somefile.log' });
// Overwrite some of the build-in console functions
console.error = winston.error;
console.log = winston.info;
console.info = winston.info;
console.debug = winston.debug;
console.warn = winston.warn;
module.exports = console;

Another solution not mentioned yet is by hooking the Writable streams in process.stdout and process.stderr. This way you don't need to override all the console functions that output to stdout and stderr. This implementation redirects both stdout and stderr to a log file:

var log_file = require('fs').createWriteStream(__dirname + '/log.txt', {flags : 'w'})

function hook_stream(stream, callback) {
    var old_write = stream.write

    stream.write = (function(write) {
        return function(string, encoding, fd) {
            write.apply(stream, arguments)  // comments this line if you don't want output in the console
            callback(string, encoding, fd)
        }
    })(stream.write)

    return function() {
        stream.write = old_write
    }
}

console.log('a')
console.error('b')

var unhook_stdout = hook_stream(process.stdout, function(string, encoding, fd) {
    log_file.write(string, encoding)
})

var unhook_stderr = hook_stream(process.stderr, function(string, encoding, fd) {
    log_file.write(string, encoding)
})

console.log('c')
console.error('d')

unhook_stdout()
unhook_stderr()

console.log('e')
console.error('f')

It should print in the console

a
b
c
d
e
f

and in the log file:

c
d

For more info, check this gist.


METHOD STDOUT AND STDERR

This approach can help you (I use something similar in my projects) and works for all methods including console.log, console.warn, console.error, console.info

This method write the bytes written in stdout and stderr to file. Is better than changing console.log, console.warn, console.error, console.info methods, because output will be exact the same as this methods output


var fs= require("fs")
var os= require("os")
var HOME= os.homedir()
var stdout_r = fs.createWriteStream(HOME + '/node.stdout.log', { flags: 'a' })
var stderr_r = fs.createWriteStream(HOME + '/node.stderr.log', { flags: 'a' })

var attachToLog= function(std, std_new){

    var originalwrite= std.write
    std.write= function(data,enc){
        try{
            var d= data
            if(!Buffer.isBuffer(d))
                d= Buffer.from(data, (typeof enc === 'string') ? enc : "utf8")
            std_new.write.apply(std_new, d)
        }catch(e){}
        return originalwrite.apply(std, arguments)
    }


}
attachToLog(process.stdout, stdout_r)
attachToLog(process.stderr, stderr_r)

// recommended catch error on stdout_r and stderr_r
// stdout_r.on("error", yourfunction)
// stderr_r.on("error", yourfunction)

If this is for an application, you're probably better off using a logging module. It'll give you more flexibility. Some suggestions.


If you are looking for something in production winston is probably the best choice.

If you just want to do dev stuff quickly, output directly to a file (I think this works only for *nix systems):

nohup node simple-server.js > output.log &

I just build a pack to do this, hope you like it ;) https://www.npmjs.com/package/writelog


I took on the idea of swapping the output stream to a my stream.

const LogLater                = require ('./loglater.js');
var logfile=new LogLater( 'log'+( new Date().toISOString().replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/g,'-') )+'.txt' );


var PassThrough = require('stream').PassThrough;

var myout= new PassThrough();
var wasout=console._stdout;
myout.on('data',(data)=>{logfile.dateline("\r\n"+data);wasout.write(data);});
console._stdout=myout;

var myerr= new PassThrough();
var waserr=console._stderr;
myerr.on('data',(data)=>{logfile.dateline("\r\n"+data);waserr.write(data);});
console._stderr=myerr;

loglater.js:

const fs = require('fs');

function LogLater(filename, noduplicates, interval) {
    this.filename = filename || "loglater.txt";
    this.arr = [];
    this.timeout = false;
    this.interval = interval || 1000;
    this.noduplicates = noduplicates || true;
    this.onsavetimeout_bind = this.onsavetimeout.bind(this);
    this.lasttext = "";
    process.on('exit',()=>{ if(this.timeout)clearTimeout(this.timeout);this.timeout=false; this.save(); })
}

LogLater.prototype = {
    _log: function _log(text) {
        this.arr.push(text);
        if (!this.timeout) this.timeout = setTimeout(this.onsavetimeout_bind, this.interval);
    },
    text: function log(text, loglastline) {
        if (this.noduplicates) {
            if (this.lasttext === text) return;
            this.lastline = text;
        }
        this._log(text);
    },
    line: function log(text, loglastline) {
        if (this.noduplicates) {
            if (this.lasttext === text) return;
            this.lastline = text;
        }
        this._log(text + '\r\n');
    },
    dateline: function dateline(text) {
        if (this.noduplicates) {
            if (this.lasttext === text) return;
            this.lastline = text;
        }
        this._log(((new Date()).toISOString()) + '\t' + text + '\r\n');
    },
    onsavetimeout: function onsavetimeout() {
        this.timeout = false;
        this.save();
    },
    save: function save() { fs.appendFile(this.filename, this.arr.splice(0, this.arr.length).join(''), function(err) { if (err) console.log(err.stack) }); }
}

module.exports = LogLater;

I often use many arguments to console.log() and console.error(), so my solution would be:

var fs = require('fs');
var util = require('util');
var logFile = fs.createWriteStream('log.txt', { flags: 'a' });
  // Or 'w' to truncate the file every time the process starts.
var logStdout = process.stdout;

console.log = function () {
  logFile.write(util.format.apply(null, arguments) + '\n');
  logStdout.write(util.format.apply(null, arguments) + '\n');
}
console.error = console.log;

Winston is a very-popular npm-module used for logging.

Here is a how-to.
Install winston in your project as:

npm install winston --save

Here's a configuration ready to use out-of-box that I use frequently in my projects as logger.js under utils.

 /**
 * Configurations of logger.
 */
const winston = require('winston');
const winstonRotator = require('winston-daily-rotate-file');

const consoleConfig = [
  new winston.transports.Console({
    'colorize': true
  })
];

const createLogger = new winston.Logger({
  'transports': consoleConfig
});

const successLogger = createLogger;
successLogger.add(winstonRotator, {
  'name': 'access-file',
  'level': 'info',
  'filename': './logs/access.log',
  'json': false,
  'datePattern': 'yyyy-MM-dd-',
  'prepend': true
});

const errorLogger = createLogger;
errorLogger.add(winstonRotator, {
  'name': 'error-file',
  'level': 'error',
  'filename': './logs/error.log',
  'json': false,
  'datePattern': 'yyyy-MM-dd-',
  'prepend': true
});

module.exports = {
  'successlog': successLogger,
  'errorlog': errorLogger
};

And then simply import wherever required as this:

const errorLog = require('../util/logger').errorlog;
const successlog = require('../util/logger').successlog;

Then you can log the success as:

successlog.info(`Success Message and variables: ${variable}`);

and Errors as:

errorlog.error(`Error Message : ${error}`);

It also logs all the success-logs and error-logs in a file under logs directory date-wise as you can see here.
log direcotry


You can also have a look at this npm module: https://www.npmjs.com/package/noogger

noogger

simple and straight forward...