How to redirect output of systemd service to a file - linux

Question

I am trying to redirect output of a systemd service to a file but it doesn't seem to work:
[Unit]
Description=customprocess
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/binary1 agent -config-dir /etc/sample.d/server
StandardOutput=/var/log1.log
StandardError=/var/log2.log
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Please correct my approach.

Answer 1

I think there's a more elegant way to solve the problem: send the stdout/stderr to syslog with an identifier and instruct your syslog manager to split its output by program name.
Use the following properties in your systemd service unit file:
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=<your program identifier> # without any quote
Then, assuming your distribution is using rsyslog to manage syslogs, create a file in /etc/rsyslog.d/<new_file>.conf with the following content:
if $programname == '<your program identifier>' then /path/to/log/file.log
& stop
Now make the log file writable by syslog:
# ls -alth /var/log/syslog
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm 439K Mar 5 19:35 /var/log/syslog
# chown syslog:adm /path/to/log/file.log
Restart rsyslog (sudo systemctl restart rsyslog) and enjoy! Your program stdout/stderr will still be available through journalctl (sudo journalctl -u <your program identifier>) but they will also be available in your file of choice.
Source via archive.org

Answer 2

If you have a newer distro with a newer systemd (systemd version 236 or newer), you can set the values of StandardOutput or StandardError to file:YOUR_ABSPATH_FILENAME.
Long story:
In newer versions of systemd there is a relatively new option (the github request is from 2016 ish and the enhancement is merged/closed 2017 ish) where you can set the values of StandardOutput or StandardError to file:YOUR_ABSPATH_FILENAME. The file:path option is documented in the most recent systemd.exec man page.
This new feature is relatively new and so is not available for older distros like centos-7 (or any centos before that).

Answer 3

I would suggest adding stdout and stderr file in systemd service file itself.
Referring : https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.exec.html#StandardOutput=
As you have configured it should not like:
StandardOutput=/home/user/log1.log
StandardError=/home/user/log2.log
It should be:
StandardOutput=file:/home/user/log1.log
StandardError=file:/home/user/log2.log
This works when you don't want to restart the service again and again.
This will create a new file and does not append to the existing file.
Use Instead:
StandardOutput=append:/home/user/log1.log
StandardError=append:/home/user/log2.log
NOTE: Make sure you create the directory already. I guess it does not support to create a directory.

Answer 4

You possibly get this error:
Failed to parse output specifier, ignoring: /var/log1.log
From the systemd.exec(5) man page:
StandardOutput=
Controls where file descriptor 1 (STDOUT) of the executed processes is connected to. Takes one of inherit, null, tty, journal, syslog, kmsg, journal+console, syslog+console, kmsg+console or socket.
The systemd.exec(5) man page explains other options related to logging. See also the systemd.service(5) and systemd.unit(5) man pages.
Or maybe you can try things like this (all on one line):
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c '/usr/local/bin/binary1 agent -config-dir /etc/sample.d/server 2>&1 > /var/log.log'

Answer 5

If for a some reason can't use rsyslog, this will do:
ExecStart=/bin/bash -ce "exec /usr/local/bin/binary1 agent -config-dir /etc/sample.d/server >> /var/log/agent.log 2>&1"

Answer 6

Short answer:
StandardOutput=file:/var/log1.log
StandardError=file:/var/log2.log
If you don't want the files to be cleared every time the service is run, use append instead:
StandardOutput=append:/var/log1.log
StandardError=append:/var/log2.log

Answer 7

We are using Centos7, spring boot application with systemd. I was running java as below. and setting StandardOutput to file was not working for me.
ExecStart=/bin/java -jar xxx.jar -Xmx512-Xms32M
Below workaround solution working without setting StandardOutput. running java through sh as below.
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'exec /bin/java -jar xxx.jar -Xmx512M -Xms32M >> /data/logs/xxx.log 2>&1'

Answer 8

Assume logs are already put to stdout/stderr, and have systemd unit's log in /var/log/syslog
journalctl -u unitxxx.service
Jun 30 13:51:46 host unitxxx[1437]: time="2018-06-30T11:51:46Z" level=info msg="127.0.0.1
Jun 30 15:02:15 host unitxxx[1437]: time="2018-06-30T13:02:15Z" level=info msg="127.0.0.1
Jun 30 15:33:02 host unitxxx[1437]: time="2018-06-30T13:33:02Z" level=info msg="127.0.0.1
Jun 30 15:56:31 host unitxxx[1437]: time="2018-06-30T13:56:31Z" level=info msg="127.0.0.1
Config rsyslog (System Logging Service)
# Create directory for log file
mkdir /var/log/unitxxx
# Then add config file /etc/rsyslog.d/unitxxx.conf
if $programname == 'unitxxx' then /var/log/unitxxx/unitxxx.log
& stop
Restart rsyslog
systemctl restart rsyslog.service

Answer 9

In my case 2>&1(stdout and stderr file descriptor symbol) had to be placed correctly,then log redirection worked as I expected
[Unit]
Description=events-server
[Service]
User=manjunath
Type=simple
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c '/opt/events-server/bin/start.sh my-conf 2>&1 >> /var/log/events-server/events.log'
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Answer 10

Make your service file call a shell script instead of running the app directly. This way you have extra control. For example, you can make output files like those in /var/log/
Make a shell script like /opt/myapp/myapp.sh
#!/bin/sh
/usr/sbin/logrotate --force /opt/myapp/myapp.conf --state /opt/myapp/state.tmp
logger "[myapp] Run" # send a marker to syslog
myapp > /opt/myapp/myapp.log 2>&1 &
And your service file myapp.service contains:
...
[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c /opt/myapp/myapp.sh
...
A sample of log config file /opt/myapp/myapp.conf
/opt/myapp/myapp.log {
daily
rotate 20
missingok
compress
}
Then you will get myapp.log, and zipped myapp.log.1.gz ... for each time the service was started, and previous zipped.