Settings View Source Logger.Backends.Console (Logger v1.12.0)

A logger backend that logs messages by printing them to the console.

Options

• :level - the level to be logged by this backend. Note that messages are filtered by the general :level configuration for the :logger application first.

• :format - the format message used to print logs. Defaults to: "\n$time $metadata[$level] $levelpad$message\n". It may also be a {module, function} tuple that is invoked with the log level, the message, the current timestamp and the metadata.

• :metadata - the metadata to be printed by $metadata. Defaults to an empty list (no metadata). Setting :metadata to :all prints all metadata. See the "Metadata" section for more information.

• :colors - a keyword list of coloring options.

• :device - the device to log error messages to. Defaults to :user but can be changed to something else such as :standard_error.

• :max_buffer - maximum events to buffer while waiting for a confirmation from the IO device (default: 32). Once the buffer is full, the backend will block until a confirmation is received.

The supported keys in the :colors keyword list are:

• :enabled - boolean value that allows for switching the coloring on and off. Defaults to: IO.ANSI.enabled?/0

• :debug - color for debug messages. Defaults to: :cyan

• :info - color for info and notice messages. Defaults to: :normal

• :warn - color for warning messages. Defaults to: :yellow

• :error - color for error and higher messages. Defaults to: :red

See the IO.ANSI module for a list of colors and attributes.

Here is an example of how to configure the :console backend in a config/config.exs file:

config :logger, :console,
  format: "\n$time $metadata[$level] $levelpad$message\n",
  metadata: [:user_id]

Custom formatting

The console backend allows you to customize the format of your log messages with the :format option.

You may set :format to either a string or a {module, function} tuple if you wish to provide your own format function. Here is an example of how to configure the :console backend in a config/config.exs file:

config :logger, :console,
  format: {MyConsoleLogger, :format}

And here is an example of how you can define MyConsoleLogger.format/4 from the above configuration:

defmodule MyConsoleLogger do
  def format(level, message, timestamp, metadata) do
    # Custom formatting logic...
  end
end

It is extremely important that the formatting function does not fail, as it will bring that particular logger instance down, causing your system to temporarily lose messages. If necessary, wrap the function in a rescue and log a default message instead:

defmodule MyConsoleLogger do
  def format(level, message, timestamp, metadata) do
    # Custom formatting logic...
  rescue
    _ -> "could not format: #{inspect({level, message, metadata})}"
  end
end

The {module, function} will be invoked with four arguments:

• the log level: an atom
• the message: this is usually chardata, but in some cases it may contain invalid data. Since the formatting function should never fail, you need to prepare for the message being anything
• the current timestamp: a term of type Logger.Formatter.time/0
• the metadata: a keyword list

You can read more about formatting in Logger.Formatter, especially if you want to support custom formatting in a custom backend.