Ruby on rails log file size too large

Question

I stumbled to learn that my rails3.1 log file is super large, around 21mb. Is this, in terms of size normal? What the log file would like in the production environment? Besides, can I get rid of the log?thanks

score 80 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 19 '15 at 08:37

80

The log folder of your Rails application holds three log files corresponding to each of the standard environments. Log files can grow very large over time. A rake task is provided to allow the easy clearing of the log files.

rake log:clear
# Truncates all *.log files in log/ to zero bytes 
# Specify which logs with LOGS=test,development,production

edited Mar 19 '15 at 08:37

Sheharyar

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answered Mar 17 '13 at 16:46

Raj Adroit

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This anwser should have been accepted. On passenger deployment, once you delete log file, rails doesn't create new one. – EGurelli Nov 19 '15 at 17:14

score 29 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

29

you can just delete the file!
Rails will create a new log if one doesn't exist.
Obviously save / backup the file if it's important, but usually it's not.
You can also zip the backuped up file (and then delete the source) if you want to keep it on the same drive but still save space.

To automatically rotate log files (the best long-term solution) use log rotate as described here:

Ruby on Rails production log rotation

then you can set it and forget it!

To actually change what gets logged see:

http://dennisreimann.de/blog/silencing-the-rails-log-on-a-per-action-basis/

edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Community

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answered Oct 16 '11 at 11:58

Michael Durrant

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I mean that if it's possible that rails don't generate a log file. – Jason Oct 16 '11 at 12:16
I don't know if that can easily be done. Maybe alias it to dev/null? Nah, better to use rotate and so I added that in too. – Michael Durrant Oct 16 '11 at 12:53
Updated expired link to be a real one. – Michael Durrant Oct 27 '14 at 10:00

score 13 · Answer 3 · answered May 28 '16 at 13:35

According to the documentation, if you want to limit the size of the log folder, put this in your 'development.rb'-file:

config.logger = ActiveSupport::Logger.new(config.paths['log'].first, 1, 50 * 1024 * 1024)

With this, your log files will never grow bigger than 50Mb. You can change the size to your own preference. The ‘1’ in the second parameter means that 1 historic log file will be kept, so you’ll have up to 100Mb of logs – the current log and the previous chunk of 50Mb.

parameters are name, shift_age and shift_size, http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib-1.9.3/libdoc/logger/rdoc/Logger.html#method-c-new — localhostdotdev, Apr 08 '19 at 10:55

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 21 '16 at 15:07

6

I automatically clear the logs in development on each server start with config/initializers/clear_development_log.rb:

if Rails.env.development?
  `rake log:clear`
end

answered Dec 21 '16 at 15:07

Drew Stephens

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You should add `LOGS=development` after `log:clear` so it only clears the `development.log`. – Joshua Pinter Jul 22 '18 at 18:50

score 5 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

5

You may want to use logrotate. Have a look at the answer to this question: Ruby on Rails production log rotation.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Community

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answered Oct 16 '11 at 12:02

htanata

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score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 03 '16 at 06:55

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Yes, You can using syntax like this:

config.logger = ActiveSupport::Logger.new(config.log_file, num_of_file_to_keep, num_of_MB*1024*1024)

Example:

config.logger = ActiveSupport::Logger.new(config.log_file, 2, 20*1024*1024)

It not only using for Rails log, you can using log file of any services run with rails, such as: rpush log, ...

answered Aug 03 '16 at 06:55

ThienSuBS

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`log_file` method does not exist, at least in Rails 5+ – Pere Joan Martorell Oct 13 '20 at 13:42

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 27 '16 at 13:42

0

config.logger = ActiveSupport::Logger.new(nil) does the trick and completely disables logging to a file (console output is preserved).

answered Aug 27 '16 at 13:42

Artur INTECH

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 31 '17 at 17:26

0

A fair compromise, in an initializer:

Rake::Task['log:clear'].invoke if Rails.env.development? || Rails.env.test?

answered Mar 31 '17 at 17:26

Dorian

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 25 '20 at 19:47

If you don't like waiting for rake log:clear to load its environment and only want to clear one log on the fly, you can do the following:

cat /dev/null > log/mylog.log # Or whatever your log's name is

(This allows the log to stay online while the app is running, whereas rm log/mylog.log would require restarting the app.)

Ruby on rails log file size too large

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