Logging operations¶

This page is operational guidance for collecting and using podCI logs.

For the format contract, see Reference → Logging.

Choosing a format¶

For interactive use:

podci run --job default --log-format human

For CI ingestion:

podci run --job default --log-format jsonl

If you want JSONL by default for a shell session:

export PODCI_LOG_FORMAT=jsonl

Capturing logs¶

Human mode¶

Human mode is meant for a terminal. If you redirect it, you may lose operator hints that are easiest to read with color.

JSONL mode¶

Redirect to a file and ingest it:

podci run --job default --log-format jsonl > podci.jsonl

Per-step stdout/stderr (authoritative)¶

podCI captures each step’s stdout and stderr into the run directory under XDG state:

• default state dir: ~/.local/state/podci/
• per-run directory: runs/<run_id>/
• per-step logs:
• runs/<run_id>/logs/<step>.stdout
• runs/<run_id>/logs/<step>.stderr

These files are the right place to look when Podman output is large or when the CLI truncates error summaries.

The run manifest includes the relative paths (Operations → Manifests).

Log level escalation¶

Use RUST_LOG to raise verbosity:

RUST_LOG=podci=debug,podci_podman=debug podci run --job default

If you are collecting logs for triage, include:

• the full JSONL output (if used)
• the run manifest
• the failing step’s *.stdout / *.stderr