Old versions and migration

You can continue to use some older version or migrate to the latest. Here are documentation and code snapshot for older releases: v2, v3, v4.

If you would like to upgrade to the latest version, check the changelog and migration guide below.

Migration from v4 to v5

Node.js 14+ or Electron 13+ is required.

npm install electron-log@5

In the latest few years many restrictions were added to a renderer process by default. It forces me to rethink electron-log architecture. So now the only way of implementing logging in a renderer process is move all the logic to the main process.

So now, the logger should be configured in the main process.

To make it possible for a renderer process to communicate the main process, it should be initialized in the main process before the first window is created:

main.js

import log from 'electron-log/main';

// It preloads electron-log IPC code in renderer processes
log.initialize();

After that, you can use the library as before.

renderer.ts

import log from 'electron-log/renderer';

log.info('Log from the renderer');

See initialize doc for more information.

File transport

To make callback names more obvious, some options where renamed:

• file.resolvePath -> file.resolvePathFn
• file.archiveLog -> file.archiveLogFn

Remote transport

• remote.onError -> remote.processErrorFn({ error, message, request })
• remote.transformBody -> remote.makeBodyFn({ logger, message, transport })

Error catching

• log.catchErrors -> log.errorHandler.startCatching

Migration from v3 to v4

npm install electron-log@latest

If you just use electron-log with default configuration, you only need to know that a default log file path was changed.

File transport

• Default log path was changed on Linux and Windows to be more compatible with app.getPath('logs') of Electron:

  ~/.config/{app name}/log.log →

  ~/.config/{app name}/logs/{process type}.log

  %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\{app name}\log.log →

  %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\{app name}\logs\{process type}.log

  If you need to keep old file paths, you can override file.resolvePath

• file.fileName is now main.log, renderer.log or worker.log depending on process type

• new option file.resolvePath allows overriding default log path. Here is default implementation:

    log.transports.file.resolvePath = (variables) => {
      return path.join(variables.libraryDefaultDir, variables.fileName);
    }
  

  • new method file.getFile() was added. It allows to manipulate the current log file.

• The following file transport options and methods are deprecated and will be removed in v5:

  • file.file, use file.resolvePath instead
  • file.bytesWritten, use file.getFile().bytesWritten instead
  • file.fileSize, use file.getFile().size instead
  • file.clear(), use file.getFile().clear() instead
  • file.findLogPath(), use file.getFile().path instead
  • file.init(), doesn't matter anymore

mainConsole and rendererConsole are combined into ipc transport

If you change some options of these transport, just use the same options of ipc transport instead.

Migration from v2 to v3

npm install electron-log@latest

In v3 each process is configured separately. So if you change some options, you should apply the changed both in main and renderer processes.

Another changes:

• require electron-log/main and electron-log/renderer is deprecated.
• transports.file.level is default to 'silly'.
• transports.file.stream and streamConfig options are removed. Instead, you can use one of the following options: file, fileName, writeOptions.
• rendererConsole and mainConsole transports are disabled by default for a packaged application.