Parsing GitLab logs with `jq` (FREE SELF)

We recommend using log aggregation and search tools like Kibana and Splunk whenever possible, but if they are not available you can still quickly parse GitLab logs in JSON format (the default in GitLab 12.0 and later) using jq.

NOTE: Spefically for summarising error events and basic usage statistics, the GitLab Support Team provides the specialised fast-stats tool.

What is JQ?

As noted in its manual, jq is a command-line JSON processor. The following examples include use cases targeted for parsing GitLab log files.

Parsing Logs

The examples listed below address their respective log files by their relative Omnibus paths and default filenames. Find the respective full paths in the GitLab logs sections.

General Commands

Pipe colorized `jq` output into `less`

jq . <FILE> -C | less -R

Search for a term and pretty-print all matching lines

grep <TERM> <FILE> | jq .

Skip invalid lines of JSON

jq -cR 'fromjson?' file.json | jq <COMMAND>

By default jq will error out when it encounters a line that is not valid JSON. This skips over all invalid lines and parses the rest.

Print a JSON log's time range

cat log.json | (head -1; tail -1) | jq '.time'

Use zcat if the file has been rotated and compressed:

zcat @400000006026b71d1a7af804.s | (head -1; tail -1) | jq '.time'

zcat some_json.log.25.gz | (head -1; tail -1) | jq '.time'

Get activity for correlation ID across multiple JSON logs in chronological order

grep -hR <correlationID> | jq -c -R 'fromjson?' | jq -C -s 'sort_by(.time)'  | less -R

Parsing `gitlab-rails/production_json.log` and `gitlab-rails/api_json.log`

Find all requests with a 5XX status code

jq 'select(.status >= 500)' <FILE>

Top 10 slowest requests

jq -s 'sort_by(-.duration) | limit(10; .[])' <FILE>

Find and pretty print all requests related to a project

grep <PROJECT_NAME> <FILE> | jq .

Find all requests with a total duration > 5 seconds

jq 'select(.duration > 5000)' <FILE>

Find all project requests with more than 5 rugged calls

grep <PROJECT_NAME> <FILE> | jq 'select(.rugged_calls > 5)'

Find all requests with a Gitaly duration > 10 seconds

jq 'select(.gitaly_duration > 10000)' <FILE>

Find all requests with a queue duration > 10 seconds

jq 'select(.queue_duration > 10000)' <FILE>

Top 10 requests by # of Gitaly calls

jq -s 'map(select(.gitaly_calls != null)) | sort_by(-.gitaly_calls) | limit(10; .[])' <FILE>

Parsing `gitlab-rails/production_json.log`

Print the top three controller methods by request volume and their three longest durations

jq -s -r 'group_by(.controller+.action) | sort_by(-length) | limit(3; .[]) | sort_by(-.duration) | "CT: \(length)\tMETHOD: \(.[0].controller)#\(.[0].action)\tDURS: \(.[0].duration),  \(.[1].duration),  \(.[2].duration)"' production_json.log

Example output

CT: 2721   METHOD: SessionsController#new  DURS: 844.06,  713.81,  704.66
CT: 2435   METHOD: MetricsController#index DURS: 299.29,  284.01,  158.57
CT: 1328   METHOD: Projects::NotesController#index DURS: 403.99,  386.29,  384.39

Parsing `gitlab-rails/api_json.log`

Print top three routes with request count and their three longest durations

jq -s -r 'group_by(.route) | sort_by(-length) | limit(3; .[]) | sort_by(-.duration) | "CT: \(length)\tROUTE: \(.[0].route)\tDURS: \(.[0].duration),  \(.[1].duration),  \(.[2].duration)"' api_json.log

Example output

CT: 2472 ROUTE: /api/:version/internal/allowed   DURS: 56402.65,  38411.43,  19500.41
CT: 297  ROUTE: /api/:version/projects/:id/repository/tags       DURS: 731.39,  685.57,  480.86
CT: 190  ROUTE: /api/:version/projects/:id/repository/commits    DURS: 1079.02,  979.68,  958.21

Parsing `gitlab-rails/geo.log`

Find most common Geo sync errors

If the geo:status Rake task repeatedly reports that some items never reach 100%, the following command helps to focus on the most common errors.

jq --raw-output 'select(.severity == "ERROR") | [.project_path, .message] | @tsv' geo.log | sort | uniq -c | sort | tail

Parsing `gitaly/current`

The following examples are useful to troubleshoot Gitaly.

Find all Gitaly requests sent from web UI

jq 'select(."grpc.meta.client_name" == "gitlab-web")' current

Find all failed Gitaly requests

jq 'select(."grpc.code" != null and ."grpc.code" != "OK")' current

Find all requests that took longer than 30 seconds

jq 'select(."grpc.time_ms" > 30000)' current

Print top ten projects by request volume and their three longest durations

jq --raw-output --slurp '
  map(
    select(
      ."grpc.request.glProjectPath" != null
      and ."grpc.request.glProjectPath" != ""
      and ."grpc.time_ms" != null
    )
  )
  | group_by(."grpc.request.glProjectPath")
  | sort_by(-length)
  | limit(10; .[])
  | sort_by(-."grpc.time_ms")
  | [
      length,
      .[0]."grpc.time_ms",
      .[1]."grpc.time_ms",
      .[2]."grpc.time_ms",
      .[0]."grpc.request.glProjectPath"
    ]
  | @sh' current \
| awk 'BEGIN { printf "%7s %10s %10s %10s\t%s\n", "CT", "MAX DURS", "", "", "PROJECT" }
  { printf "%7u %7u ms, %7u ms, %7u ms\t%s\n", $1, $2, $3, $4, $5 }'

Example output

   CT    MAX DURS                              PROJECT
  206    4898 ms,    1101 ms,    1032 ms      'groupD/project4'
  109    1420 ms,     962 ms,     875 ms      'groupEF/project56'
  663     106 ms,      96 ms,      94 ms      'groupABC/project123'
  ...

Find all projects affected by a fatal Git problem

grep "fatal: " current | \
    jq '."grpc.request.glProjectPath"' | \
    sort | uniq

Parsing `gitlab-shell/gitlab-shell.log`

For investigating Git calls via SSH, from GitLab 12.10.

Find the top 20 calls by project and user:

jq --raw-output --slurp '
  map(
    select(
      .username != null and
      .gl_project_path !=null
    )
  )
  | group_by(.username+.gl_project_path)
  | sort_by(-length)
  | limit(20; .[])
  | "count: \(length)\tuser: \(.[0].username)\tproject: \(.[0].gl_project_path)" ' \
  gitlab-shell.log

Find the top 20 calls by project, user, and command:

jq --raw-output --slurp '
  map(
    select(
      .command  != null and
      .username != null and
      .gl_project_path !=null
    )
  )
  | group_by(.username+.gl_project_path+.command)
  | sort_by(-length)
  | limit(20; .[])
  | "count: \(length)\tcommand: \(.[0].command)\tuser: \(.[0].username)\tproject: \(.[0].gl_project_path)" ' \
  gitlab-shell.log

Parsing GitLab logs with jq (FREE SELF)

What is JQ?

Parsing Logs

General Commands

Pipe colorized jq output into less

Search for a term and pretty-print all matching lines

Skip invalid lines of JSON

Print a JSON log's time range

Get activity for correlation ID across multiple JSON logs in chronological order

Parsing gitlab-rails/production_json.log and gitlab-rails/api_json.log

Find all requests with a 5XX status code

Top 10 slowest requests

Find and pretty print all requests related to a project

Find all requests with a total duration > 5 seconds

Find all project requests with more than 5 rugged calls

Find all requests with a Gitaly duration > 10 seconds

Find all requests with a queue duration > 10 seconds

Top 10 requests by # of Gitaly calls

Parsing gitlab-rails/production_json.log

Print the top three controller methods by request volume and their three longest durations

Parsing gitlab-rails/api_json.log

Print top three routes with request count and their three longest durations

Parsing gitlab-rails/geo.log

Find most common Geo sync errors

Parsing gitaly/current

Find all Gitaly requests sent from web UI

Find all failed Gitaly requests

Find all requests that took longer than 30 seconds

Print top ten projects by request volume and their three longest durations

Find all projects affected by a fatal Git problem

Parsing gitlab-shell/gitlab-shell.log

Parsing GitLab logs with `jq` (FREE SELF)

Pipe colorized `jq` output into `less`

Parsing `gitlab-rails/production_json.log` and `gitlab-rails/api_json.log`

Parsing `gitlab-rails/production_json.log`

Parsing `gitlab-rails/api_json.log`

Parsing `gitlab-rails/geo.log`

Parsing `gitaly/current`

Parsing `gitlab-shell/gitlab-shell.log`