How to retrieve sane stdout/stderr logging for Elastic Beanstalk deployment

Question

When I attempt an elastic beanstalk deployment, one of my container_commands may fail. Unfortunately, the elastic beanstalk log eb-commandprocessor.log only reports a non-zero exit status:

Error occurred during build: Command 08_collectstatic failed (Executor::NonZeroExitStatus)

The rest of the stdout/stderr apparently fails to log because of Unicode characters. (I've successfully troubleshooted other failed commands because of Unicode quote marks, etc). I have attached the log below.

---

As an example, doing something like ln -s Gruntfile.js Gruntfile.js would raise an error with ln: failed to create symbolic link ‘Gruntfile.js’: File exists. The left- and right- angled quote marks are Unicode and upset Elastic Beanstalk logging -- apparently.

I really need sane output from stdout/stderr to troubleshoot the underlying issue in the container command failure and I don't know how I can patch EB to log this. How can I achieve this?

---

.ebextensions/05_container_commands.config

option_settings:
  - namespace: aws:elasticbeanstalk:container:python:staticfiles
    option_name: /static/
    value: static/
  - namespace: aws:elasticbeanstalk:container:python
    option_name: WSGIPath
    value: wsgi.py
  - option_name: DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE
    value: settings

container_commands:
  08_collectstatic:
    command: "python manage.py collectstatic --noinput"

---

/var/log/eb-commandprocessor.log

-------------------------------------
/var/log/eb-commandprocessor.log
-------------------------------------
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 32: ordinal not in range(128)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/logging/__init__.py", line 799, in emit
    stream.write(fs % msg.encode("UTF-8"))
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 32: ordinal not in range(128)
Error occurred during build: Command 08_collectstatic failed (ElasticBeanstalk::ActivityFatalError)
	at /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:189:in `rescue in exec'
	...
caused by: command failed with error code 1: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/logging/__init__.py", line 799, in emit
    stream.write(fs % msg.encode("UTF-8"))
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 32: ordinal not in range(128)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/logging/__init__.py", line 799, in emit
    stream.write(fs % msg.encode("UTF-8"))
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 32: ordinal not in range(128)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/logging/__init__.py", line 799, in emit
    stream.write(fs % msg.encode("UTF-8"))
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 32: ordinal not in range(128)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/logging/__init__.py", line 799, in emit
    stream.write(fs % msg.encode("UTF-8"))
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 32: ordinal not in range(128)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/logging/__init__.py", line 799, in emit
    stream.write(fs % msg.encode("UTF-8"))
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 32: ordinal not in range(128)
Error occurred during build: Command 08_collectstatic failed (Executor::NonZeroExitStatus)
	at /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/executor-1.0/lib/executor/exec.rb:81:in `sh'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/executor-1.0/lib/executor/exec.rb:24:in `sh'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/cfn-wrapper.rb:51:in `call_cfn_script'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/cfn-wrapper.rb:28:in `run_config_sets'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/infrahooks/infra-embeddedpostbuild.rb:20:in `execute!'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/executable.rb:56:in `instance_eval'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/executable.rb:56:in `execute!'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command.rb:213:in `block (3 levels) in exec_stage'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:169:in `call'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:169:in `exec'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:126:in `timeout_exec'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:110:in `block in create'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:109:in `instance_eval'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:109:in `create'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command.rb:209:in `block (2 levels) in exec_stage'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command.rb:207:in `each'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command.rb:207:in `each_with_index'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command.rb:207:in `block in exec_stage'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:169:in `call'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:169:in `exec'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:126:in `timeout_exec'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:110:in `block in create'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:109:in `instance_eval'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:109:in `create'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command.rb:204:in `exec_stage'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command.rb:158:in `execute!'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command.rb:68:in `run'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command-processor.rb:64:in `block (2 levels) in execute!'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:169:in `call'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:169:in `exec'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:126:in `timeout_exec'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:110:in `block in create'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:109:in `instance_eval'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/activity.rb:109:in `create'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command-processor.rb:62:in `block in execute!'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command-processor.rb:106:in `execute_command'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/lib/elasticbeanstalk/command-processor.rb:60:in `execute!'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/beanstalk-core-1.1/bin/command-processor:46:in `<top (required)>'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/bin/command-processor:23:in `load'
	from /opt/elasticbeanstalk/lib/ruby/bin/command-processor:23:in `<main>'

Answer 1

You can simply pipe the output to a log file and tail it during deployment:

commands:
  01-install-git:
    command: "yum install -y git &>> /tmp/deploy.log"
  02-install-nodejs-npm:
    command: "yum install -y --enablerepo=epel nodejs npm &>> /tmp/deploy.log"
  03-install-grunt:
    command: "npm install -g grunt-cli &>> /tmp/deploy.log"
  04-install-coffee:
    command: "npm install -g coffee-script &>> /tmp/deploy.log"
  05-install-bower:
    command: "npm install -g bower &>> /tmp/deploy.log"
container_commands:
  01_grunt:
    command: "export PATH=$PATH; grunt prod &>> /tmp/deploy.log"