How to view log output using docker-compose run?

Question

When I use docker-compose up I can see logs for all containers in my docker-compose.yml file.

However, when I use docker-compose run app I only see console output for app but none of the services that app depends on. How can see log output for the other services?

Answer 1

At the time of writing this the docker-compose run command does not provide a switch to see the logs of other services, hence you need to use the docker-compose logs command to see the logs you want.

Update June 10th 2022

As commented by @Sandburg docker compose is now integrated into docker. As described here most of the docker compose commands can be called the same way just without the dash:

The new Compose V2, which supports the compose command as part of the Docker CLI, is now available.

Compose V2 integrates compose functions into the Docker platform, continuing to support most of the previous docker-compose features and flags. You can run Compose V2 by replacing the hyphen (-) with a space, using docker compose, instead of docker-compose.

Update July 1st 2019

docker-compose logs <name-of-service>

for all services

docker-compose logs

Use the following options from the documentation:

Usage: logs [options] [SERVICE...]

Options:

--no-color Produce monochrome output.

-f, --follow Follow log output.

-t, --timestamps Show timestamps.

--tail="all" Number of lines to show from the end of the logs for each container.

See docker logs

You can start Docker compose in detached mode and attach yourself to the logs of all container later. If you're done watching logs you can detach yourself from the logs output without shutting down your services.

1. Use docker-compose up -d to start all services in detached mode (-d) (you won't see any logs in detached mode)
2. Use docker-compose logs -f -t to attach yourself to the logs of all running services, whereas -f means you follow the log output and the -t option gives you timestamps (See Docker reference)
3. Use Ctrl + z or Ctrl + c to detach yourself from the log output without shutting down your running containers

If you're interested in logs of a single container you can use the docker keyword instead:

1. Use docker logs -t -f <name-of-service>

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Save the output

To save the output to a file you add the following to your logs command:

1. docker-compose logs -f -t >> myDockerCompose.log

Answer 2

If you want to see output logs from all the services in your terminal.

docker-compose logs -t -f --tail <no of lines> 

Eg.: Say you would like to log output of last 5 lines from all service

docker-compose logs -t -f --tail 5

If you wish to log output from specific services then it can be done as below:

docker-compose logs -t -f --tail <no of lines> <name-of-service1> <name-of-service2> ... <name-of-service N>

Usage:

Eg. say you have API and portal services then you can do something like below :

docker-compose logs -t -f --tail 5 portal api

Where 5 represents last 5 lines from both logs.

Ref: https://docs.docker.com/v17.09/engine/admin/logging/view_container_logs/

Answer 3

1. use the command to start containers in detached mode: docker-compose up -d
2. to view the containers use: docker ps
3. to view logs for a container: docker logs <containerid>

Answer 4

Unfortunately we need to run docker-compose logs separately from docker-compose run. In order to get this to work reliably we need to suppress the docker-compose run exit status then redirect the log and exit with the right status.

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail
docker-compose run app | tee app.log || failed=yes
docker-compose logs --no-color > docker-compose.log
[[ -z "${failed:-}" ]] || exit 1