Redirecting Apache Logs to STDOUT

Question

I have a docker container running an apache server in background (apachectl start &) and i am directing the logs to STDOUT/STDERR via CustomLog /dev/stdout and ErrorLog /dev/stderr directives.

Now , when i invoke the script containing the apache start command (apachectl start &) , i am unable to view the logs on the console.

However , if use apachectl start -DFOREGROUND as the command , i can very well see the output on console.

Any idea as to how do we get the logs on console for apache which is running in the background?

Thanks for the help

Answer 1

If your container runs a main Bash script, you can add these redirections:

sudo ln -sf /proc/$$/fd/1 /var/log/apache2/access.log
sudo ln -sf /proc/$$/fd/2 /var/log/apache2/error.log

It will redirect the Apache output to the current Bash's stdout/stderr. Make sure to (re)start Apache after you create the symlink, otherwise Apache will not see it.

It is fine if Apache runs as a systemd/init.d service. In other words, Apache doesn't need to run within Bash.

For us, the purpose of Docker containers is to run continuous integration tests, so I added the lines to our .gitlab-ci.yml file.

Some background: Each process has its own stdout/stderr. Another instance of Bash will not necessarily be connected to the same stdout/stderr. Similarly, the OP's Apache directive ErrorLog /dev/stderr will write it to the syslog or the journal if Apache runs as a service.