---
description: Configure logging driver.
keywords: docker, logging, driver
redirect_from:
- /engine/reference/logging/overview/
- /engine/reference/logging/
- /engine/admin/reference/logging/
title: Configure logging drivers
---

Docker includes multiple logging mechanisms to help you
[get information from running containers and services](/engine/admin/logging/view_container_logs.md).
These mechanisms are called logging drivers.

Each Docker daemon has a default logging driver, which each container uses
unless you configure it to use a different logging driver.

In addition to using the logging drivers included with Docker, you can also
implement and use [logging driver plugins](/engine/admin/logging/plugins.md).
Logging driver plugins are available in Docker 17.05 and higher.


## Configure the default logging driver

To configure the Docker daemon to default to a specific logging driver, set the
value of `log-driver` to the name of the logging driver in the `daemon.json`
file, which is located in `/etc/docker/` on Linux hosts or
`C:\ProgramData\docker\config\` on Windows server hosts. The default logging
driver is `json-file`. The following example explicitly sets the default
logging driver to `syslog`:

```json
{
  "log-driver": "syslog"
}
```

If the logging driver has configurable options, you can set them in the
`daemon.json` file as a JSON array with the key `log-opts`. The following
example sets two configurable options on the `json-file` logging driver:

```json
{
  "log-driver": "json-file",
  "log-opts": {
    "labels": "production_status",
    "env": "os,customer"
  }
}
```


If you do not specify a logging driver, the default is `json-file`. Thus,
the default output for commands such as `docker inspect <CONTAINER>` is JSON.

To find the current default logging driver for the Docker daemon, run
`docker info` and search for `Logging Driver`. You can use the following
command on Linux, macOS, or PowerShell on Windows:

```bash
$ docker info | grep 'Logging Driver'

Logging Driver: json-file
```

## Configure the logging driver for a container

When you start a container, you can configure it to use a different logging
driver than the Docker daemon's default, using the `--log-driver` flag. If the
logging driver has configurable options, you can set them using one or more
instances of the `--log-opt <NAME>=<VALUE>` flag. Even if the container uses the
default logging driver, it can use different configurable options.

The following example starts an Alpine container with the `none` logging driver.

```bash
$ docker run -it --log-driver none alpine ash
```

To find the current logging driver for a running container, if the daemon
is using the `json-file` logging driver, run the following `docker inspect`
command, substituting the container name or ID for `<CONTAINER>`:

```bash
{% raw %}
$ docker inspect -f '{{.HostConfig.LogConfig.Type}}' <CONTAINER>

json-file
{% endraw %}
```

## Configure the delivery mode of log messages from container to log driver

Docker provides two modes for delivering messages from the container to the log driver:

* (default) direct, blocking delivery from container to driver
* non-blocking delivery that stores log messages in an intermediate per-container ring buffer for consumption by driver

The `non-blocking` message delivery mode prevents applications from blocking due to logging back pressure. Applications are likely to fail in unexpected ways when STDERR or STDOUT streams block.

> **WARNING**: When the buffer is full and a new message is enqueued, the oldest message in memory is dropped.  Dropping messages is often preferred to blocking the log-writing process of an application.  
{: .warning}

The `mode` log option controls whether to use the `blocking` (default) or `non-blocking` message delivery.

The `max-buffer-size` log option controls the size of the ring buffer used for intermediate message storage when `mode` is set to `non-blocking`.  `max-buffer-size` defaults to 1 megabyte.

The following example starts an Alpine container with log output in non-blocking mode and a 4 megabyte buffer:

```bash
$ docker run -it --log-opt mode=non-blocking --log-opt max-buffer-size=4m alpine ping 127.0.0.1
```

### Use environment variables or labels with logging drivers

Some logging drivers add the value of a container's `--env|-e` or `--label`
flags to the container's logs. This example starts a container using the Docker
daemon's default logging driver (let's assume `json-file`) but sets the
environment variable `os=ubuntu`.

```bash
$ docker run -dit --label production_status=testing -e os=ubuntu alpine sh
```

If the logging driver supports it, this adds additional fields to the logging
output. The following output is generated by the `json-file` logging driver:

```json
"attrs":{"production_status":"testing","os":"ubuntu"}
```

## Supported logging drivers

The following logging drivers are supported. See the link to each driver's
documentation for its configurable options, if applicable. If you are using
[logging driver plugins](/engine/admin/logging/plugins.md), you may
see more options.

| Driver                        | Description                                                                                                   |
|:------------------------------|:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `none`                        | No logs are available for the container and `docker logs` does not return any output.                         |
| [`json-file`](json-file.md)   | The logs are formatted as JSON. The default logging driver for Docker.                                        |
| [`syslog`](syslog.md)         | Writes logging messages to the `syslog` facility. The `syslog` daemon must be running on the host machine.    |
| [`journald`](journald.md)     | Writes log messages to `journald`. The `journald` daemon must be running on the host machine.                 |
| [`gelf`](gelf.md)             | Writes log messages to a Graylog Extended Log Format (GELF) endpoint such as Graylog or Logstash.             |
| [`fluentd`](fluentd.md)       | Writes log messages to `fluentd` (forward input). The `fluentd` daemon must be running on the host machine.   |
| [`awslogs`](awslogs.md)       | Writes log messages to Amazon CloudWatch Logs.                                                                |
| [`splunk`](splunk.md)         | Writes log messages to `splunk` using the HTTP Event Collector.                                               |
| [`etwlogs`](etwlogs.md)       | Writes log messages as Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) events. Only available on Windows platforms.           |
| [`gcplogs`](gcplogs.md)       | Writes log messages to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Logging.                                                   |
| [`logentries`](logentries.md) | Writes log messages to Rapid7 Logentries.                                                                     |

## Limitations of logging drivers

The `docker logs` command is not available for drivers other than `json-file`
and `journald`.