Adding custom log locations to the OS X console application

Question

After searching online, the best solution I've found so far is to just make a symbolic link in either "/Library/logs/" or "~/Library/logs/" to get it to show up in the Console application.

I'm wondering if it would be possible to add a new directory or log file to the "root" level directly under the "LOG FILES" section in the console.

Here's a quick screenshot:

Answer 1

I don't believe it's possible.

If you're generating log files, you should generate them into one of the standard locations anyway, so this won't be an issue.

Answer 2

There is one way to get your log files into the console.

You can add a symlink to the log file or log directory to one of the directories in the list. The directory ~/Library/Logs seems like the logical choice for adding your own log files.

---

For myself I wanted easy access to apache2 logs. I installed apache2 using macports and the default log file is located at /opt/local/apache2/logs.

Thus all I did was create the symlink to that directory.

# cd ~/Library/Logs
# ln -s /opt/local/apache2/logs/ apache2 

Now I can easily use the console.app to get to the logs.

Answer 3

My solution for macOS Sierra:

First and last step, you must create a hard link from your source (log) directory into (as example) one of existing official log directories, you can seen in console.app.

I take my ~/Library/Logs directory for that.

hln /usr/local/var/log /Users/dierk/Library/Logs/_usr_local_var_log

Cross-posting this great tool for creating hardlinks originally posted by Sam.

Short intro:

To install Hardlink, ensure you've installed homebrew, then run:

brew install hardlink-osx

Once installed, create a hard link with:

hln [source] [destination]

Answer 4

I actually just came across this option that worked perfectly for me:

Actually if you open terminal and...

$ cd /Library/Logs

then sym-link to your new log directory. eg i want my chroot'ed apache logs as 'www'

$ ln -s /chroot/apache/private/var/log www

then re-open Console.app

drill down into /Library/Logs and you will find your sym-linked directory.

;-)

Mohclips.

http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=35680

Answer 5

In Terminal run this command... append any log file directories you want to add

defaults write com.apple.Console LogFolderPaths -array '~/Library/Logs/' '/Library/Logs/' '/var/log/' '/opt/local/var/log/'

Answer 6

Since Mavericks, symlink behavior as change so "ln - s" doesn't work anymore. use hardlink-osx instead to create an hardlink to your directory (may be installed via homebrew)

Answer 7

Very old post I know but, this is the only way I could get it to work.

cd /Library/Logs
sudo mkdir log_files
sudo ln -s /Users/USERNAME/Sites/website/logs/* log_files

Answer 8

In mac os 10.11, you may not be able to link to folder of logs, but instead you need to link to each log of logs folder in side console. Under ~/Library/Logs/Apache2 directory ln -s /opt/loacal/apache2/logs/error_log error_log

Answer 9

You can just open any text file with console.app and it will add and keep it. Folder's though, no luck on that yet.

Answer 10

I was able to hardlink the files into ~/Library/logs by running:

ln /usr/local/var/logs/postgres.log ~/Library/logs

Notice the absence of -s.

No luck for directories though. OSX Sierra 10.12.6

Answer 11

Just tried to do something similar.

I enter this in terminal, while the Console.app was running.

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/var/log/apache2
sudo mv /private/var/log/apache2 /usr/local/var/log/apache2/apache2-old
sudo ln -s /usr/local/var/log/apache2 /private/var/log/apache2

Now whenever I open the Console.app it crashes.

Really wish there was a way of adding log files in the files. You CAN do it by dragging and dropping a folder onto the Console.app (given it a directory path as an argument), but the added folder only displays its immediate contents and doesn't allow for recursively descending into folders.

---------EDIT BELOW----------

Nevermind I stupidly did something like this leading to infinite recursion in Console.app

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/var/log/apache2
sudo ln -s /private/var/log/apache2/apache2 /usr/local/var/log/apache2
sudo mv /private/var/log/apache2 /usr/local/var/log/apache2/apache2-old
sudo ln -s /usr/local/var/log/apache2 /private/var/log/apache2