Sails.js 0.10.x: Log to file

Question

I want to use the built in Sails.js logger and log everything to a file. The "filePath" variable used to work in 0.9.x in config/log.js, but it no longer appears to work in 0.10.x. Has this feature been removed - if so, what's the best way to log to disk now?

Answer 1

For logging, Sails.js (>= 0.10.0) relies on captains-log, a "lightweight logger with a simple pass-through configuration for use with fancier logging libraries."

To log to a file, you need to configure a custom logger. I would suggest you use Winston, and configure it with the File Transport. This is relatively easy to do:

Install winston

$ npm install winston --save

In your app, edit the config/log.js file and add the following content

var winston = require('winston');

var customLogger = new winston.Logger({
    transports: [
        new(winston.transports.File)({
            level: 'debug',
            filename: './logs/my_log_file.log'
        }),
    ],
});

module.exports.log = {
    colors: false,  // To get clean logs without prefixes or color codings
    custom: customLogger
};

Log any messages with the standard sails log command

sails.log.debug("Message to be logged");

Restart sails

$ sails lift

You should see content getting stored in your ./logs/my_log_file.log file.