|  |  | # Help
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Exit logging](#exit-logging)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Log rotation](#rotate)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Reopening log files](#reopening)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Saving to multiple files](#multiple)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Log filtering](#filter-logs)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Transports and systemd](#transport-systemd)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Log to different streams](#multi-stream)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Duplicate keys](#dupe-keys)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Log levels as labels instead of numbers](#level-string)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Pino with `debug`](#debug)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Unicode and Windows terminal](#windows)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Mapping Pino Log Levels to Google Cloud Logging (Stackdriver) Serverity Levels](#stackdriver)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | * [Avoid Message Conflict](#avoid-message-conflict)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="exit-logging"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Exit logging
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | When a Node process crashes from uncaught exception, exits due to a signal,
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | or exits of it's own accord we may want to write some final logs – particularly
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | in cases of error.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Writing to a Node.js stream on exit is not necessarily guaranteed, and naively writing
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | to an asynchronous logger on exit will definitely lead to lost logs.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | To write logs in an exit handler, create the handler with [`pino.final`](/docs/api.md#pino-final):
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```js
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | process.on('uncaughtException', pino.final(logger, (err, finalLogger) => {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   finalLogger.error(err, 'uncaughtException')
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   process.exit(1)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | }))
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | process.on('unhandledRejection', pino.final(logger, (err, finalLogger) => {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   finalLogger.error(err, 'unhandledRejection')
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   process.exit(1)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | }))
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | The `finalLogger` is a special logger instance that will synchronously and reliably
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | flush every log line. This is important in exit handlers, since no more asynchronous
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | activity may be scheduled.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="rotate"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Log rotation
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Use a separate tool for log rotation:
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | We recommend [logrotate](https://github.com/logrotate/logrotate).
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Consider we output our logs to `/var/log/myapp.log` like so:
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | $ node server.js > /var/log/myapp.log
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | We would rotate our log files with logrotate, by adding the following to `/etc/logrotate.d/myapp`:
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | /var/log/myapp.log {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        su root
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        daily
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        rotate 7
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        delaycompress
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        compress
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        notifempty
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        missingok
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        copytruncate
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | }
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | The `copytruncate` configuration has a very slight possibility of lost log lines due
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | to a gap between copying and truncating - the truncate may occur after additional lines
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | have been written. To perform log rotation without `copytruncate`, see the [Reopening log files](#reopening)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | help.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="reopening"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Reopening log files
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
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							|  |  | In cases where a log rotation tool doesn't offer a copy-truncate capabilities,
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | or where using them is deemed inappropriate, `pino.destination`
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | is able to reopen file paths after a file has been moved away.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | One way to use this is to set up a `SIGUSR2` or `SIGHUP` signal handler that
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | reopens the log file destination, making sure to write the process PID out
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | somewhere so the log rotation tool knows where to send the signal.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```js
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | // write the process pid to a well known location for later
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | const fs = require('fs')
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							|  |  | fs.writeFileSync('/var/run/myapp.pid', process.pid)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | const dest = pino.destination('/log/file')
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | const logger = require('pino')(dest)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | process.on('SIGHUP', () => dest.reopen())
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | The log rotation tool can then be configured to send this signal to the process
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | after a log rotation event has occurred.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Given a similar scenario as in the [Log rotation](#rotate) section a basic
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | `logrotate` config that aligns with this strategy would look similar to the following:
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							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | /var/log/myapp.log {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        su root
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        daily
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        rotate 7
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        delaycompress
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        compress
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							|  |  |        notifempty
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        missingok
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        postrotate
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							|  |  |            kill -HUP `cat /var/run/myapp.pid`
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        endscript
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | }
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="multiple"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Saving to multiple files
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Let's assume we want to store all error messages to a separate log file.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Install [pino-tee](https://npm.im/pino-tee) with:
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```bash
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | npm i pino-tee -g
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | The following writes the log output of `app.js` to `./all-logs`, while
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | writing only warnings and errors to `./warn-log:
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```bash
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | node app.js | pino-tee warn ./warn-logs > ./all-logs
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="filter-logs"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Log Filtering
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | The Pino philosophy advocates common, pre-existing, system utilities.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Some recommendations in line with this philosophy are:
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 1. Use [`grep`](https://linux.die.net/man/1/grep):
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     ```sh
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     $ # View all "INFO" level logs
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     $ node app.js | grep '"level":30'
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 1. Use [`jq`](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/):
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     ```sh
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     $ # View all "ERROR" level logs
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     $ node app.js | jq 'select(.level == 50)'
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="transport-systemd"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Transports and systemd
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | `systemd` makes it complicated to use pipes in services. One method for overcoming
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | this challenge is to use a subshell:
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ExecStart=/bin/sh -c '/path/to/node app.js | pino-transport'
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="multi-stream"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Log to different streams
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Pino's default log destination is the singular destination of `stdout`. While
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | not recommended for performance reasons, multiple destinations can be targeted
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | by using [`pino-multi-stream`](https://github.com/pinojs/pino-multi-stream).
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | In this example we use `stderr` for `error` level logs and `stdout` as default
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | for all other levels (e.g. `debug`, `info`, and `warn`).
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```js
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | const pino = require('pino')
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | const { multistream } = require('pino-multi-stream')
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | var streams = [
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   {level: 'debug', stream: process.stdout},
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   {level: 'error', stream: process.stderr},
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   {level: 'fatal', stream: process.stderr}
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ]
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | const logger = pino({
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   name: 'my-app',
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   level: 'info',
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | }, multistream(streams))
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="dupe-keys"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## How Pino handles duplicate keys
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Duplicate keys are possibly when a child logger logs an object with a key that
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | collides with a key in the child loggers bindings.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | See the [child logger duplicate keys caveat](/docs/child-loggers.md#duplicate-keys-caveat)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | for information on this is handled.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="level-string"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Log levels as labels instead of numbers
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Pino log lines are meant to be parseable. Thus, Pino's default mode of operation
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | is to print the level value instead of the string name. However, while it is
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | possible to set the `useLevelLabels` option, we recommend using one of these
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | options instead if you are able:
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 1. If the only change desired is the name then a transport can be used. One such
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | transport is [`pino-text-level-transport`](https://npm.im/pino-text-level-transport).
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 1. Use a prettifier like [`pino-pretty`](https://npm.im/pino-pretty) to make
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | the logs human friendly.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="debug"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Pino with `debug`
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | The popular [`debug`](https://npm.im/debug) is used in many modules across the ecosystem.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | The [`pino-debug`](https://github.com/pinojs/pino-debug) module
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | can capture calls to `debug` loggers and run them
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | through `pino` instead. This results in a 10x (20x in asynchronous mode)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | performance improvement - even though `pino-debug` is logging additional
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | data and wrapping it in JSON.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | To quickly enable this install [`pino-debug`](https://github.com/pinojs/pino-debug)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | and preload it with the `-r` flag, enabling any `debug` logs with the
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | `DEBUG` environment variable:
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```sh
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | $ npm i pino-debug
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | $ DEBUG=* node -r pino-debug app.js
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | [`pino-debug`](https://github.com/pinojs/pino-debug) also offers fine grain control to map specific `debug`
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | namespaces to `pino` log levels. See [`pino-debug`](https://github.com/pinojs/pino-debug)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | for more.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="windows"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Unicode and Windows terminal
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Pino uses [sonic-boom](https://github.com/mcollina/sonic-boom) to speed
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | up logging. Internally, it uses [`fs.write`](https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v10.x/docs/api/fs.html#fs_fs_write_fd_string_position_encoding_callback) to write log lines directly to a file
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | descriptor. On Windows, unicode output is not handled properly in the
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | terminal (both `cmd.exe` and powershell), and as such the output could
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | be visualized incorrectly if the log lines include utf8 characters. It
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | is possible to configure the terminal to visualize those characters
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | correctly with the use of [`chcp`](https://ss64.com/nt/chcp.html) by
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | executing in the terminal `chcp 65001`. This is a known limitation of
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Node.js.
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="stackdriver"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Mapping Pino Log Levels to Google Cloud Logging (Stackdriver) Serverity Levels
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | Google Cloud Logging uses `severity` levels instead log levels. As a result, all logs may show as INFO
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | level logs while completely ignoring the level set in the pino log. Google Cloud Logging also prefers that
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | log data is present inside a `message` key instead of the default `msg` key that Pino uses. Use a technique
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | similar to the one below to retain log levels in Google Clould Logging
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```js
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | const pino = require('pino')
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | // https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/reference/v2/rest/v2/LogEntry#logseverity
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | const PinoLevelToSeverityLookup = {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   trace: 'DEBUG',
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   debug: 'DEBUG',
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   info: 'INFO',
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   warn: 'WARNING',
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   error: 'ERROR',
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   fatal: 'CRITICAL',
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | };
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | const defaultPinoConf = {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   messageKey: 'message',
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   formatters: {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     level(label, number) {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |       return {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |         severity: PinoLevelToSeverityLookup[label] || PinoLevelToSeverityLookup['info'],
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |         level: number,
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |       }
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     },
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     log(message) {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |       return { message }
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     }
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   },
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | }
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | module.exports = function createLogger(options) {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   return pino(Object.assign({}, options, defaultPinoConf))
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | }
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | <a id="avoid-message-conflict"></a>
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ## Avoid Message Conflict
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | As described in the [`message` documentation](/docs/api.md#message), when a log
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | is written like `log.info({ msg: 'a message' }, 'another message')` then the
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | final output JSON will have `"msg":"another message"` and the `'a message'`
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | string will be lost. To overcome this, the [`logMethod` hook](/docs/api.md#logmethod)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | can be used:
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```js
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 'use strict'
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | const log = require('pino')({
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   level: 'debug',
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   hooks: {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     logMethod (inputArgs, method) {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |       if (inputArgs.length === 2 && inputArgs[0].msg) {
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |        inputArgs[0].originalMsg = inputArgs[0].msg
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |       }
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |       return method.apply(this, inputArgs)
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |     }
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  |   }
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | })
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | log.info('no original message')
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | log.info({ msg: 'mapped to originalMsg' }, 'a message')
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | 
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | // {"level":30,"time":1596313323106,"pid":63739,"hostname":"foo","msg":"no original message"}
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | // {"level":30,"time":1596313323107,"pid":63739,"hostname":"foo","msg":"a message","originalMsg":"mapped to originalMsg"}
 | 
						
						
						
							|  |  | ```
 |