Logging with Monolog

Symfony comes with an outside library - called Monolog - that allows you to create logs that can be stored in a variety of different places.

Logging a Message

To log a message, fetch the logger service from the container in your controller:

public function indexAction()
{
    $logger = $this->get('logger');
    $logger->info('I just got the logger');
    $logger->error('An error occurred');

    $logger->critical('I left the oven on!', array(
        // include extra "context" info in your logs
        'cause' => 'in_hurry',
    ));

    // ...
}

The logger service has different methods for different logging levels/priorities. You can configure the logger to do different things based on the level of a message (e.g. :doc:`send an email when an error occurs </logging/monolog_email>`).

See LoggerInterface for a list of all of the methods on the logger.

Where Logs are Stored

The configuration for where logs are stored lives in the specific :doc:`environment </configuration/environments>` configuration files: config_dev.yml and config_prod.yml.

By default, log entries are written to the var/logs/dev.log file when you're in the dev environment. In the prod environment, logs are written to var/logs/prod.log, but only during a request where an error or high-priority log entry was made (i.e. error() , critical(), alert() or emergency()).

To control this, you'll configure different handlers that handle log entries, sometimes modify them, and ultimately store them.

Handlers: Writing Logs to different Locations

The logger has a stack of handlers, and each can be used to write the log entries to different locations (e.g. files, database, Slack, etc).

Tip

You can also configure logging "channels", which are like categories. Each channel can have its own handlers, which means you can store different log messages in different places. See :doc:`/logging/channels_handlers`.

Symfony pre-configures some basic handlers in the config_dev.yml and config_prod.yml files. Check these out for some real-world examples.

This example uses two handlers: stream (to write to a file) and syslog to write logs using the :phpfunction:`syslog` function:

.. configuration-block::

    .. code-block:: yaml

        # app/config/config.yml
        monolog:
            handlers:
                # this "file_log" key could be anything
                file_log:
                    type: stream
                    # log to var/logs/(environment).log
                    path: "%kernel.logs_dir%/%kernel.environment%.log"
                    # log *all* messages (debug is lowest level)
                    level: debug

                syslog_handler:
                    type: syslog
                    # log error-level messages and higher
                    level: error

    .. code-block:: xml

        <!-- app/config/config.xml -->
        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
        <container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
            xmlns:monolog="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/monolog"
            xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
                http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd
                http://symfony.com/schema/dic/monolog
                http://symfony.com/schema/dic/monolog/monolog-1.0.xsd">

            <monolog:config>
                <monolog:handler
                    name="file_log"
                    type="stream"
                    path="%kernel.logs_dir%/%kernel.environment%.log"
                    level="debug"
                />
                <monolog:handler
                    name="syslog_handler"
                    type="syslog"
                    level="error"
                />
            </monolog:config>
        </container>

    .. code-block:: php

        // app/config/config.php
        $container->loadFromExtension('monolog', array(
            'handlers' => array(
                'file_log' => array(
                    'type'  => 'stream',
                    'path'  => '%kernel.logs_dir%/%kernel.environment%.log',
                    'level' => 'debug',
                ),
                'syslog_handler' => array(
                    'type'  => 'syslog',
                    'level' => 'error',
                ),
            ),
        ));

This defines a stack of handlers and each handler is called in the order that it's defined.

Handlers that Modify Log Entries

Instead of writing log files somewhere, some handlers are used to filter or modify log entries before sending them to other handlers. One powerful, built-in handler called fingers_crossed is used in the prod environment by default. It stores all log messages during a request but only passes them to a second handler if one of the messages reaches an action_level. Take this example:

.. configuration-block::

    .. code-block:: yaml

        # app/config/config.yml
        monolog:
            handlers:
                filter_for_errors:
                    type: fingers_crossed
                    # if *one* log is error or higher, pass *all* to file_log
                    action_level: error
                    handler: file_log

                # now passed *all* logs, but only if one log is error or higher
                file_log:
                    type: stream
                    path: "%kernel.logs_dir%/%kernel.environment%.log"

                # still passed *all* logs, and still only logs error or higher
                syslog_handler:
                    type: syslog
                    level: error

    .. code-block:: xml

        <!-- app/config/config.xml -->
        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
        <container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
            xmlns:monolog="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/monolog"
            xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
                http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd
                http://symfony.com/schema/dic/monolog
                http://symfony.com/schema/dic/monolog/monolog-1.0.xsd">

            <monolog:config>
                <monolog:handler
                    name="filter_for_errors"
                    type="fingers_crossed"
                    action-level="error"
                    handler="file_log"
                />
                <monolog:handler
                    name="file_log"
                    type="stream"
                    path="%kernel.logs_dir%/%kernel.environment%.log"
                    level="debug"
                />
                <monolog:handler
                    name="syslog_handler"
                    type="syslog"
                    level="error"
                />
            </monolog:config>
        </container>

    .. code-block:: php

        // app/config/config.php
        $container->loadFromExtension('monolog', array(
            'handlers' => array(
                'filter_for_errors' => array(
                    'type'         => 'fingers_crossed',
                    'action_level' => 'error',
                    'handler'      => 'file_log',
                ),
                'file_log' => array(
                    'type'  => 'stream',
                    'path'  => '%kernel.logs_dir%/%kernel.environment%.log',
                    'level' => 'debug',
                ),
                'syslog_handler' => array(
                    'type'  => 'syslog',
                    'level' => 'error',
                ),
            ),
        ));

Now, if even one log entry has an error level or higher, then all log entries for that request are saved to a file via the file_log handler. That means that your log file will contain all the details about the problematic request - making debugging much easier!

Tip

The handler named "file_log" will not be included in the stack itself as it is used as a nested handler of the fingers_crossed handler.

Note

If you want to override the monolog configuration via another config file, you will need to redefine the entire handlers stack. The configuration from the two files cannot be merged because the order matters and a merge does not allow to control the order.

All Built-in Handlers

Monolog comes with many built-in handlers for emailing logs, sending them to Loggly, or notifying you in Slack. These are documented inside of MonologBundle itself. For a full list, see Monolog Configuration.

How to Rotate your Log Files

Over time, log files can grow to be huge, both while developing and on production. One best-practice solution is to use a tool like the logrotate Linux command to rotate log files before they become too large.

Another option is to have Monolog rotate the files for you by using the rotating_file handler. This handler creates a new log file every day and can also remove old files automatically. To use it, just set the type option of your handler to rotating_file:

.. configuration-block::

    .. code-block:: yaml

        # app/config/config_dev.yml
        monolog:
            handlers:
                main:
                    type:  rotating_file
                    path:  '%kernel.logs_dir%/%kernel.environment%.log'
                    level: debug
                    # max number of log files to keep
                    # defaults to zero, which means infinite files
                    max_files: 10

    .. code-block:: xml

        <!-- app/config/config_dev.xml -->
        <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
        <container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services"
            xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
            xmlns:monolog="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/monolog"
            xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services
                http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd
                http://symfony.com/schema/dic/monolog
                http://symfony.com/schema/dic/monolog/monolog-1.0.xsd">

            <monolog:config>
                <!-- "max_files": max number of log files to keep
                     defaults to zero, which means infinite files -->
                <monolog:handler name="main"
                    type="rotating_file"
                    path="%kernel.logs_dir%/%kernel.environment%.log"
                    level="debug"
                    max_files="10"
                />
            </monolog:config>
        </container>

    .. code-block:: php

        // app/config/config_dev.php
        $container->loadFromExtension('monolog', array(
            'handlers' => array(
                'main' => array(
                    'type'  => 'rotating_file',
                    'path'  => '%kernel.logs_dir%/%kernel.environment%.log',
                    'level' => 'debug',
                    // max number of log files to keep
                    // defaults to zero, which means infinite files
                    'max_files' => 10,
                ),
            ),
        ));

Adding extra Data to each Log (e.g. a unique request token)

Monolog also supports processors: functions that can dynamically add extra information to your log entries.

See :doc:`/logging/processors` for details.

Learn more

.. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 1
    :glob:

    logging/*

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