--- title: "Command-Line Reference" linkTitle: "Command Line" weight: 30 description: "Complete pgBadger command syntax, options, remote input, return codes, and examples" icon: fa-solid fa-terminal module: [PGBADGER] categories: [Reference] aliases: [/pgbadger/command-line/] upstream_link: "https://github.com/darold/pgbadger/tree/a1ad95a035a0c2d246fe632eb1c361d4bde0ddae/README.md" upstream_name: "pgBadger README.md" --- This page preserves the command reference generated from the pinned upstream source. Option names and help text remain verbatim so they can be compared directly with `pgbadger --help`. ## Usage and options {#usage-and-options} Usage: pgbadger [options] logfile [...] ```text PostgreSQL log analyzer with fully detailed reports and graphs. ``` Arguments: ```text logfile can be a single log file, a list of files, or a shell command returning a list of files. If you want to pass log content from stdin use - as filename. Note that input from stdin will not work with csvlog. ``` Options: ```text -a | --average minutes : number of minutes to build the average graphs of queries and connections. Default 5 minutes. -A | --histo-average min: number of minutes to build the histogram graphs of queries. Default 60 minutes. -b | --begin datetime : start date/time for the data to be parsed in log (either a timestamp or a time) -c | --dbclient host : only report on entries for the given client host. -C | --nocomment : remove comments like /* ... */ from queries. -d | --dbname database : only report on entries for the given database. -D | --dns-resolv : client ip addresses are replaced by their DNS name. Be warned that this can really slow down pgBadger. -e | --end datetime : end date/time for the data to be parsed in log (either a timestamp or a time) -E | --explode : explode the main report by generating one report per database. Global information not related to a database is added to the postgres database report. -f | --format logtype : possible values: syslog, syslog2, stderr, jsonlog, csv, pgbouncer, logplex, rds and redshift. Use this option when pgBadger is not able to detect the log format. -G | --nograph : disable graphs on HTML output. Enabled by default. -h | --help : show this message and exit. -H | --html-outdir path: path to directory where HTML report must be written in incremental mode, binary files stay on directory defined with -O, --outdir option. -i | --ident name : programname used as syslog ident. Default: postgres -I | --incremental : use incremental mode, reports will be generated by days in a separate directory, --outdir must be set. -j | --jobs number : number of jobs to run at same time for a single log file. Run as single by default or when working with csvlog format. -J | --Jobs number : number of log files to parse in parallel. Process one file at a time by default. -l | --last-parsed file: allow incremental log parsing by registering the last datetime and line parsed. Useful if you want to watch errors since last run or if you want one report per day with a log rotated each week. -L | --logfile-list file:file containing a list of log files to parse. -m | --maxlength size : maximum length of a query, it will be restricted to the given size. Default truncate size is 100000. -M | --no-multiline : do not collect multiline statements to avoid garbage especially on errors that generate a huge report. -N | --appname name : only report on entries for given application name -o | --outfile filename: define the filename for the output. Default depends on the output format: out.html, out.txt, out.bin, or out.json. This option can be used multiple times to output several formats. To use json output, the Perl module JSON::XS must be installed, to dump output to stdout, use - as filename. -O | --outdir path : directory where out files must be saved. -p | --prefix string : the value of your custom log_line_prefix as defined in your postgresql.conf. Only use it if you aren't using one of the standard prefixes specified in the pgBadger documentation, such as if your prefix includes additional variables like client IP or application name. MUST contain escape sequences for time (%t, %m or %n) and processes (%p or %c). See examples below. -P | --no-prettify : disable SQL queries prettify formatter. -q | --quiet : don't print anything to stdout, not even a progress bar. -Q | --query-numbering : add numbering of queries to the output when using options --dump-all-queries or --normalized-only. -r | --remote-host ip : set the host where to execute the cat command on remote log file to parse the file locally. -R | --retention N : number of weeks to keep in incremental mode. Defaults to 0, disabled. Used to set the number of weeks to keep in output directory. Older weeks and days directories are automatically removed. -s | --sample number : number of query samples to store. Default: 3. -S | --select-only : only report SELECT queries. -t | --top number : number of queries to store/display. Default: 20. -T | --title string : change title of the HTML page report. -u | --dbuser username : only report on entries for the given user. -U | --exclude-user username : exclude entries for the specified user from report. Can be used multiple time. -v | --verbose : enable verbose or debug mode. Disabled by default. -V | --version : show pgBadger version and exit. -w | --watch-mode : only report errors just like logwatch could do. -W | --wide-char : encode html output of queries into UTF8 to avoid Perl message "Wide character in print". -x | --extension : output format. Values: text, html, bin or json. Default: html -X | --extra-files : in incremental mode allow pgBadger to write CSS and JS files in the output directory as separate files. -z | --zcat exec_path : set the full path to the zcat program. Use it if zcat, bzcat or unzip is not in your path. -Z | --timezone +/-XX : Set the number of hours from GMT of the timezone. Use this to adjust date/time in JavaScript graphs. The value can be an integer, ex.: 2, or a float, ex.: 2.5. --anonymize : obscure all literals in queries, useful to hide --charset : used to set the HTML charset to be used. Default: utf-8. --command CMD : command to execute to retrieve log entries on stdin. pgBadger will open a pipe to the command and parse log entries generated by the command. --csv-separator : used to set the CSV field separator, default: , --day-report YYYY-MM-DD: create an HTML report over the specified day. Requires incremental output directories and the presence of all necessary binary data files --disable-autovacuum : do not generate autovacuum report. confidential data. --disable-checkpoint : do not generate checkpoint/restartpoint report. --disable-connection : do not generate connection report. --disable-error : do not generate error report. --disable-hourly : do not generate hourly report. --disable-lock : do not generate lock report. --disable-query : do not generate query reports (slowest, most frequent, queries by users, by database, ...). --disable-session : do not generate session report. --disable-temporary : do not generate temporary report. --disable-type : do not generate report of queries by type, database or user. --dump-all-queries : dump all queries found in the log file replacing bind parameters included in the queries at their respective placeholders positions. --dump-raw-csv : parse the log and dump the information into CSV format. No further processing is done, no report. --enable-checksum : used to add an md5 sum under each query report. --exclude-appname name : exclude entries for the specified application name from report. Example: "pg_dump". Can be used multiple times. --exclude-client name : exclude log entries for the specified client ip. Can be used multiple times. --exclude-db name : exclude entries for the specified database from report. Example: "postgres". Can be used multiple times. --exclude-file filename: path of the file that contains each regex to use to exclude queries from the report. One regex per line. --exclude-line regex : exclude any log entry that will match the given regex. Can be used multiple times. --exclude-query regex : any query matching the given regex will be excluded from the report. For example: "^(VACUUM|COMMIT)" You can use this option multiple times. --exclude-time regex : any timestamp matching the given regex will be excluded from the report. Example: "2013-04-12 .*" You can use this option multiple times. --explain-url URL : use it to override the url of the graphical explain tool. Default: https://explain.depesz.com/ --histogram-query VAL : use custom inbound for query times histogram. Default inbound in milliseconds: 0,1,5,10,25,50,100,500,1000,10000 --histogram-session VAL: use custom inbound for session times histogram. Default inbound in milliseconds: 0,500,1000,30000,60000,600000,1800000,3600000,28800000 --include-file filename: path of the file that contains each regex to the queries to include from the report. One regex per line. --include-query regex : any query that does not match the given regex will be excluded from the report. You can use this option multiple times. For example: "(tbl1|tbl2)". --include-pid PID : only report events related to the session pid (%p). Can be used multiple time. --include-session ID : only report events related to the session id (%c). Can be used multiple time. --include-time regex : only timestamps matching the given regex will be included in the report. Example: "2013-04-12 .*" You can use this option multiple times. --iso-week-number : in incremental mode, calendar weeks start on Monday and respect the ISO 8601 week number, range 01 to 53, where week 1 is the first week that has at least 4 days in the new year. --keep-comments : do not remove comments from normalized queries. It can be useful if you want to distinguish between same normalized queries. --journalctl command : command to use to replace PostgreSQL logfile by a call to journalctl. Basically it might be: journalctl -u postgresql-9.5 --log-duration : force pgBadger to associate log entries generated by both log_duration = on and log_statement = 'all' --log-timezone +/-XX : Set the number of hours from GMT of the timezone that must be used to adjust date/time read from log file before beeing parsed. Using this option makes log search with a date/time more difficult. The value can be an integer, ex.: 2, or a float, ex.: 2.5. --month-report YYYY-MM : create a cumulative HTML report over the specified month. Requires incremental output directories and the presence of all necessary binary data files --noexplain : do not process lines generated by auto_explain. --no-fork : do not fork any process, for debugging purpose. --no-process-info : disable changing process title to help identify pgbadger process, some system do not support it. --no-progressbar : disable progressbar. --noreport : no reports will be created in incremental mode. --no-week : inform pgbadger to not build weekly reports in incremental mode. Useful if it takes too much time. --normalized-only : only dump all normalized queries to out.txt --pgbouncer-only : only show PgBouncer-related menus in the header. --pid-dir path : set the path where the pid file must be stored. Default /tmp --pid-file file : set the name of the pid file to manage concurrent execution of pgBadger. Default: pgbadger.pid --pie-limit num : pie data lower than num% will show a sum instead. --prettify-json : use it if you want json output to be prettified. --rebuild : used to rebuild all html reports in incremental output directories where there's binary data files. --start-monday : in incremental mode, calendar weeks start on Sunday. Use this option to start on a Monday. --tempdir DIR : set directory where temporary files will be written Default: File::Spec->tmpdir() || '/tmp' ``` pgBadger is able to parse a remote log file using a passwordless ssh connection. Use -r or --remote-host to set the host IP address or hostname. There are also some additional options to fully control the ssh connection. ```text --ssh-identity file path to the identity file to use. --ssh-option options list of -o options to use for the ssh connection. Options always used: -o ConnectTimeout=$ssh_timeout -o PreferredAuthentications=hostbased,publickey --ssh-port port ssh port to use for the connection. Default: 22. --ssh-program ssh path to the ssh program to use. Default: ssh. --ssh-timeout second timeout to ssh connection failure. Default: 10 sec. --ssh-user username connection login name. Defaults to running user. ``` Log file to parse can also be specified using an URI, supported protocols are http[s] and [s]ftp. The curl command will be used to download the file, and the file will be parsed during download. The ssh protocol is also supported and will use the ssh command like with the remote host use. See examples bellow. Return codes: ```text 0: on success 1: die on error 2: if it has been interrupted using ctr+c for example 3: the pid file already exists or can not be created 4: no log file was given at command line ``` Examples: ```text pgbadger /var/log/postgresql.log pgbadger /var/log/postgres.log.2.gz /var/log/postgres.log.1.gz /var/log/postgres.log pgbadger /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-2012-05-* pgbadger --exclude-query="^(COPY|COMMIT)" /var/log/postgresql.log pgbadger -b "2012-06-25 10:56:11" -e "2012-06-25 10:59:11" /var/log/postgresql.log cat /var/log/postgres.log | pgbadger - # Log line prefix with stderr log output pgbadger --prefix '%t [%p]: user=%u,db=%d,client=%h' /pglog/postgresql-2012-08-21* pgbadger --prefix '%m %u@%d %p %r %a : ' /pglog/postgresql.log # Log line prefix with syslog log output pgbadger --prefix 'user=%u,db=%d,client=%h,appname=%a' /pglog/postgresql-2012-08-21* # Use my 8 CPUs to parse my 10GB file faster, much faster pgbadger -j 8 /pglog/postgresql-10.1-main.log ``` Use URI notation for remote log file: ```text pgbadger http://172.12.110.1//var/log/postgresql/postgresql-10.1-main.log pgbadger ftp://username@172.12.110.14/postgresql-10.1-main.log pgbadger ssh://username@172.12.110.14:2222//var/log/postgresql/postgresql-10.1-main.log* ``` You can use together a local PostgreSQL log and a remote pgbouncer log file to parse: ```text pgbadger /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-10.1-main.log ssh://username@172.12.110.14/pgbouncer.log ``` Reporting errors every week by cron job: ```text 30 23 * * 1 /usr/bin/pgbadger -q -w /var/log/postgresql.log -o /var/reports/pg_errors.html ``` Generate report every week using incremental behavior: ```text 0 4 * * 1 /usr/bin/pgbadger -q `find /var/log/ -mtime -7 -name "postgresql.log*"` -o /var/reports/pg_errors-`date +\%F`.html -l /var/reports/pgbadger_incremental_file.dat ``` This supposes that your log file and HTML report are also rotated every week. Or better, use the auto-generated incremental reports: ```text 0 4 * * * /usr/bin/pgbadger -I -q /var/log/postgresql/postgresql.log.1 -O /var/www/pg_reports/ ``` will generate a report per day and per week. In incremental mode, you can also specify the number of weeks to keep in the reports: ```text /usr/bin/pgbadger --retention 2 -I -q /var/log/postgresql/postgresql.log.1 -O /var/www/pg_reports/ ``` If you have a pg_dump at 23:00 and 13:00 each day during half an hour, you can use pgBadger as follow to exclude these periods from the report: ```text pgbadger --exclude-time "2013-09-.* (23|13):.*" postgresql.log ``` This will help avoid having COPY statements, as generated by pg_dump, on top of the list of slowest queries. You can also use --exclude-appname "pg_dump" to solve this problem in a simpler way. You can also parse journalctl output just as if it was a log file: ```text pgbadger --journalctl 'journalctl -u postgresql-9.5' ``` or worst, call it from a remote host: ```text pgbadger -r 192.168.1.159 --journalctl 'journalctl -u postgresql-9.5' ``` you don't need to specify any log file at command line, but if you have other PostgreSQL log files to parse, you can add them as usual. To rebuild all incremental html reports after, proceed as follow: ```text rm /path/to/reports/*.js rm /path/to/reports/*.css pgbadger -X -I -O /path/to/reports/ --rebuild ``` it will also update all resource files (JS and CSS). Use -E or --explode if the reports were built using this option. pgBadger also supports Heroku PostgreSQL logs using logplex format: ```text heroku logs -p postgres | pgbadger -f logplex -o heroku.html - ``` this will stream Heroku PostgreSQL log to pgbadger through stdin. pgBadger can auto detect RDS and cloudwatch PostgreSQL logs using rds format: ```text pgbadger -f rds -o rds_out.html rds.log ``` Each CloudSQL Postgresql log is a fairly normal PostgreSQL log, but encapsulated in JSON format. It is autodetected by pgBadger but in case you need to force the log format use \`jsonlog\`: ```text pgbadger -f jsonlog -o cloudsql_out.html cloudsql.log ``` This is the same as with the jsonlog extension, the json format is different but pgBadger can parse both formats. pgBadger also supports logs produced by CloudNativePG Postgres operator for Kubernetes: ```text pgbadger -f jsonlog -o cnpg_out.html cnpg.log ``` To create a cumulative report over a month use command: ```text pgbadger --month-report 2919-05 /path/to/incremental/reports/ ``` this will add a link to the month name into the calendar view in incremental reports to look at report for month 2019 May. Use -E or --explode if the reports were built using this option.