summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/man/journalctl.xml
blob: d46a1648c70ad00fc054b9029c06ab7ae7d463b1 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
<?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
        "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">

<!--
  This file is part of systemd.

  Copyright 2012 Lennart Poettering

  systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
  under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
  (at your option) any later version.

  systemd is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
  WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
  Lesser General Public License for more details.

  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
  along with systemd; If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
-->

<refentry id="journalctl">

        <refentryinfo>
                <title>journalctl</title>
                <productname>systemd</productname>

                <authorgroup>
                        <author>
                                <contrib>Developer</contrib>
                                <firstname>Lennart</firstname>
                                <surname>Poettering</surname>
                                <email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
                        </author>
                </authorgroup>
        </refentryinfo>

        <refmeta>
                <refentrytitle>journalctl</refentrytitle>
                <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
        </refmeta>

        <refnamediv>
                <refname>journalctl</refname>
                <refpurpose>Query the systemd journal</refpurpose>
        </refnamediv>

        <refsynopsisdiv>
                <cmdsynopsis>
                        <command>journalctl <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg> <arg choice="opt">MATCH</arg></command>
                </cmdsynopsis>
        </refsynopsisdiv>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Description</title>

                <para><command>journalctl</command> may be used to
                query the contents of the
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                journal as written by
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-journald.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>

                <para>If called without parameter will show the full
                contents of the journal, starting with the oldest
                entry collected.</para>

                <para>If a match argument is passed the output is
                filtered accordingly. A match is in the format
                <literal>FIELD=VALUE</literal>,
                e.g. <literal>_SYSTEMD_UNIT=httpd.service</literal>. See
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.journal-fields</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                for a list of well-known fields.</para>

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

                <para>All users are granted access to their private
                per-user journals. However, by default only root and
                users who are members of the <literal>adm</literal>
                group get access to the system journal and the
                journals of other users.</para>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Options</title>

                <para>The following options are understood:</para>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--help</option></term>
                                <term><option>-h</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Prints a short help
                                text and exits.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--version</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Prints a short version
                                string and exits.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--no-pager</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Do not pipe output into a
                                pager.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--all</option></term>
                                <term><option>-a</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Show all fields in
                                full, even if they include unprintable
                                characters or are very
                                long.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--follow</option></term>
                                <term><option>-f</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Show only most recent
                                journal entries, and continously print
                                new entries as they are appended to
                                the journal.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--lines=</option></term>
                                <term><option>-n</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Controls the number of
                                journal lines to show, counting from
                                the most recent ones. Takes a positive
                                integer argument. In follow mode
                                defaults to 10, otherwise is unset
                                thus not limiting how many lines are
                                shown.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--no-tail</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Show all stored output
                                lines, even in follow mode. Undoes the
                                effect of
                                <option>--lines=</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--output=</option></term>
                                <term><option>-o</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Controls the
                                formatting of the journal entries that are
                                shown. Takes one of
                                <literal>short</literal>,
                                <literal>short-monotonic</literal>,
                                <literal>verbose</literal>,
                                <literal>export</literal>,
                                <literal>json</literal>,
                                <literal>cat</literal>. <literal>short</literal>
                                is the default and generates an output
                                that is mostly identical to the
                                formatting of classic syslog log
                                files, showing one line per journal
                                entry. <literal>short-monotonic</literal>
                                is very similar but shows monotonic
                                timestamps instead of wallclock
                                timestamps. <literal>verbose</literal>
                                shows the full structered entry items
                                with all
                                fiels. <literal>export</literal>
                                serializes the journal into a binary
                                (but mostly text-based) stream
                                suitable for backups and network
                                transfer. <literal>json</literal>
                                formats entries as JSON data
                                structures. <literal>cat</literal>
                                generates a very terse output only
                                showing the actual message of each
                                journal entry with no meta data, not
                                even a timestamp.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--quiet</option></term>
                                <term><option>-q</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Suppresses any warning
                                message regarding inaccessable system
                                journals when run as normal
                                user.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--local</option></term>
                                <term><option>-l</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Show only locally
                                generated messages.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--new-id128</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>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. Will print the new ID in
                                three different formats which can be
                                copied into source code or
                                similar.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                </variablelist>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Exit status</title>

                <para>On success 0 is returned, a non-zero failure
                code otherwise.</para>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Environment</title>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>$SYSTEMD_PAGER</varname></term>
                                <listitem><para>Pager to use when
                                <option>--no-pager</option> is not given;
                                overrides <varname>$PAGER</varname>.  Setting
                                this to an empty string or the value
                                <literal>cat</literal> is equivalent to passing
                                <option>--no-pager</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                </variablelist>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>See Also</title>
                <para>
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-journald.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.journal-fields</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>journald.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                </para>
        </refsect1>

</refentry>