electron-log
Simple logging module Electron/Node.js/NW.js application.
No dependencies. No complicated configuration.
By default, it writes logs to the following locations:
- on Linux:
~/.config/{app name}/logs/main.log
- on macOS:
~/Library/Logs/{app name}/main.log
- on Windows:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\{app name}\logs\main.log
Installation
Starts from v5, electron-log requires Electron 13+ or
Node.js 14+. Feel free to use electron-log v4 for older runtime. v4
supports Node.js 0.10+ and almost any Electron build.
Install with npm:
npm install electron-log
Usage
Main process
import log from 'electron-log/main';
log.initialize();
log.info('Log from the main process');
Renderer process
If a bundler is used, you can import the module in a renderer code:
import log from 'electron-log/renderer';
log.info('Log from the renderer process');
Without a bundler, you can use a global variable __electronLog. It contains
only log functions like info, warn and so on.
There are a few other ways how a logger can be initialized for a renderer
process. Read more.
Preload script
To use the logger inside a preload script, use the
electron-log/renderer import.
There’s also the electron-log/preload entrypoint, but it’s used only as a
bridge between the main and renderer processes and doesn’t export a logger. In
most cases, you don’t need this preload entrypoint.
Utility process
Logs from a utilityProcess aren’t sent to the main process automatically.
Read how to forward them.
Node.js and NW.js
import log from 'electron-log/node';
log.info('Log from the nw.js or node.js');
electron-log v2.x, v3.x, v4.x
If you would like to upgrade to the latest version, read
the migration guide and the changelog.
Log levels
electron-log supports the following log levels:
error, warn, info, verbose, debug, silly
Transport
Transport is a simple function which does some work with log message.
By default, two transports are active: console and file.
You can set transport options or use methods using:
log.transports.console.format = '{h}:{i}:{s} {text}';
log.transports.file.getFile();
Each transport has level and
transforms options.
Console transport
Just prints a log message to application console (main process) or to
DevTools console (renderer process).
Options
- format, default
'%c{h}:{i}:{s}.{ms}%c › {text}' (main),
'{h}:{i}:{s}.{ms} › {text}' (renderer)
- level, default ‘silly’
- useStyles, force enable/disable styles
Read more about console transport.
File transport (main process only)
The file transport writes log messages to a file.
Options
- format, default
'[{y}-{m}-{d} {h}:{i}:{s}.{ms}] [{level}] {text}'
- level, default ‘silly’
- resolvePathFn function sets the log path, for example
log.transports.file.resolvePathFn = () => path.join(APP_DATA, 'logs/main.log');
Read more about file transport.
IPC transport
It displays log messages from main process in the renderer’s DevTools console.
By default, it’s disabled for a production build. You can enable in the
production mode by setting the level property.
In the renderer process, this transport does the opposite: it sends the data
to the main process via IPC. Then, the data is written to the console and
the filesystem.
Options
- level, default ‘silly’ in the dev mode,
false in the production.
Remote transport (main process only)
Sends a JSON POST request with LogMessage in the body to the specified url.
Options
- level, default false
- url, remote endpoint
Read more about remote transport.
Disable a transport
Just set level property to false, for example:
log.transports.file.level = false;
log.transports.console.level = false;
Transport is just a function (msg: LogMessage) => void, so you can
easily override/add your own transport.
More info.
Third-party transports
Overriding console.log
Sometimes it’s helpful to use electron-log instead of default console. It’s
pretty easy:
console.log = log.log;
If you would like to override other functions like error, warn and so on:
Object.assign(console, log.functions);
Colors
Colors can be used for both main and DevTools console.
log.info('%cRed text. %cGreen text', 'color: red', 'color: green')
Available colors:
- unset (reset to default color)
- black
- red
- green
- yellow
- blue
- magenta
- cyan
- white
- gray
For DevTools console you can use other CSS properties.
electron-log can catch and log unhandled errors/rejected promises:
log.errorHandler.startCatching(options?);
More info.
Electron events logging
Sometimes it’s helpful to save critical electron events to the log file.
log.eventLogger.startLogging(options?);
By default, it save the following events:
certificate-error, child-process-gone, render-process-gone of appcrashed, gpu-process-crashed of webContentsdid-fail-load, did-fail-provisional-load, plugin-crashed,
preload-error of every WebContents. You can switch any event on/off.
More info.
In some situations, you may want to get more control over logging. Hook
is a function which is called on each transport call.
(message: LogMessage, transport: Transport, transportName) => LogMessage
More info.
Multiple logger instances
You can create multiple logger instances with different settings:
import log from 'electron-log/main';
const anotherLogger = log.create({ logId: 'anotherInstance' });
Be aware that you need to configure each instance (e.g. log file path)
separately.
Logging scopes
import log from 'electron-log/main';
const userLog = log.scope('user');
userLog.info('message with user scope');
By default, scope labels are padded in logs. To disable it, set
log.scope.labelPadding = false.
Buffering
It’s like a transaction, you may add some logs to the buffer and then decide
whether to write these logs or not. It allows adding verbose logs only
when some operations failed.
import log from 'electron-log/main';
log.buffering.begin();
try {
log.info('First silly message');
log.info('Second silly message');
log.buffering.reject();
} catch (e) {
log.buffering.commit();
log.warn(e);
}
Troubleshooting
See common problems and solutions.
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