Express morgan middleware
HTTP request logger middleware for node.js
Named after Dexter, a show you should not watch until completion.
API
var morgan = require('morgan')
morgan(format, options)
Create a new morgan logger middleware function using the given format and options. The format argument may be a string of a predefined name (see below for the names), a string of a format string, or a function that will produce a log entry.
The format function will be called with three arguments tokens, req, and res, where tokens is an object with all defined tokens, req is the HTTP request and res is the HTTP response. The function is expected to return a string that will be the log line, or undefined / null to skip logging.
Using a predefined format string
morgan('tiny')
Using format string of predefined tokens
morgan(':method :url :status :res[content-length] - :response-time ms')
Using a custom format function
morgan(function (tokens, req, res) {
return [
tokens.method(req, res),
tokens.url(req, res),
tokens.status(req, res),
tokens.res(req, res, 'content-length'), '-',
tokens['response-time'](req, res), 'ms'
].join(' ')
})
Options
Morgan accepts these properties in the options object.
immediate
Write log line on request instead of response. This means that a requests will be logged even if the server crashes, but data from the response (like the response code, content length, etc.) cannot be logged.
skip
Function to determine if logging is skipped, defaults to false. This function will be called as skip(req, res).
// EXAMPLE: only log error responses
morgan('combined', {
skip: function (req, res) { return res.statusCode < 400 }
})
stream
Output stream for writing log lines, defaults to process.stdout.
Predefined Formats
There are various pre-defined formats provided:
combined
Standard Apache combined log output.
:remote-addr - :remote-user [:date[clf]] ":method :url HTTP/:http-version" :status :res[content-length] ":referrer" ":user-agent"
common
Standard Apache common log output.
:remote-addr - :remote-user [:date[clf]] ":method :url HTTP/:http-version" :status :res[content-length]
dev
Concise output colored by response status for development use. The :status token will be colored red for server error codes, yellow for client error codes, cyan for redirection codes, and uncolored for all other codes.
:method :url :status :response-time ms - :res[content-length]
short
Shorter than default, also including response time.
:remote-addr :remote-user :method :url HTTP/:http-version :status :res[content-length] - :response-time ms
tiny
The minimal output.
:method :url :status :res[content-length] - :response-time ms
Tokens
Creating new tokens
To define a token, simply invoke morgan.token() with the name and a callback function. This callback function is expected to return a string value. The value returned is then available as “:type” in this case:
morgan.token('type', function (req, res) { return req.headers['content-type'] })
Calling morgan.token() using the same name as an existing token will overwrite that token definition.
The token function is expected to be called with the arguments req and res, representing the HTTP request and HTTP response. Additionally, the token can accept further arguments of it’s choosing to customize behavior.
:date[format]
The current date and time in UTC. The available formats are:
clffor the common log format ("10/Oct/2000:13:55:36 +0000")isofor the common ISO 8601 date time format (2000-10-10T13:55:36.000Z)webfor the common RFC 1123 date time format (Tue, 10 Oct 2000 13:55:36 GMT)
If no format is given, then the default is web.
:http-version
The HTTP version of the request.
:method
The HTTP method of the request.
:referrer
The Referrer header of the request. This will use the standard mis-spelled Referer header if exists, otherwise Referrer.
:remote-addr
The remote address of the request. This will use req.ip, otherwise the standard req.connection.remoteAddress value (socket address).
:remote-user
The user authenticated as part of Basic auth for the request.
:req[header]
The given header of the request. If the header is not present, the value will be displayed as "-" in the log.
:res[header]
The given header of the response. If the header is not present, the value will be displayed as "-" in the log.
:response-time[digits]
The time between the request coming into morgan and when the response headers are written, in milliseconds.
The digits argument is a number that specifies the number of digits to include on the number, defaulting to 3, which provides microsecond precision.
:status
The status code of the response.
If the request/response cycle completes before a response was sent to the client (for example, the TCP socket closed prematurely by a client aborting the request), then the status will be empty (displayed as "-" in the log).
:url
The URL of the request. This will use req.originalUrl if exists, otherwise req.url.
:user-agent
The contents of the User-Agent header of the request.
morgan.compile(format)
Compile a format string into a format function for use by morgan. A format string is a string that represents a single log line and can utilize token syntax. Tokens are references by :token-name. If tokens accept arguments, they can be passed using [], for example: :token-name[pretty] would pass the string 'pretty' as an argument to the token token-name.
The function returned from morgan.compile takes three arguments tokens, req, and res, where tokens is object with all defined tokens, req is the HTTP request and res is the HTTP response. The function will return a string that will be the log line, or undefined / null to skip logging.
Normally formats are defined using morgan.format(name, format), but for certain advanced uses, this compile function is directly available.
Examples
express/connect
Simple app that will log all request in the Apache combined format to STDOUT
var express = require('express')
var morgan = require('morgan')
var app = express()
app.use(morgan('combined'))
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.send('hello, world!')
})
vanilla http server
Simple app that will log all request in the Apache combined format to STDOUT
var finalhandler = require('finalhandler')
var http = require('http')
var morgan = require('morgan')
// create "middleware"
var logger = morgan('combined')
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
var done = finalhandler(req, res)
logger(req, res, function (err) {
if (err) return done(err)
// respond to request
res.setHeader('content-type', 'text/plain')
res.end('hello, world!')
})
})
write logs to a file
single file
Simple app that will log all requests in the Apache combined format to the file access.log.
var express = require('express')
var fs = require('fs')
var morgan = require('morgan')
var path = require('path')
var app = express()
// create a write stream (in append mode)
var accessLogStream = fs.createWriteStream(path.join(__dirname, 'access.log'), { flags: 'a' })
// setup the logger
app.use(morgan('combined', { stream: accessLogStream }))
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.send('hello, world!')
})
log file rotation
Simple app that will log all requests in the Apache combined format to one log file per day in the log/ directory using the rotating-file-stream module.
var express = require('express')
var morgan = require('morgan')
var path = require('path')
var rfs = require('rotating-file-stream')
var app = express()
// create a rotating write stream
var accessLogStream = rfs('access.log', {
interval: '1d', // rotate daily
path: path.join(__dirname, 'log')
})
// setup the logger
app.use(morgan('combined', { stream: accessLogStream }))
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.send('hello, world!')
})
split / dual logging
The morgan middleware can be used as many times as needed, enabling combinations like:
- Log entry on request and one on response
- Log all requests to file, but errors to console
- … and more!
Sample app that will log all requests to a file using Apache format, but error responses are logged to the console:
var express = require('express')
var fs = require('fs')
var morgan = require('morgan')
var path = require('path')
var app = express()
// log only 4xx and 5xx responses to console
app.use(morgan('dev', {
skip: function (req, res) { return res.statusCode < 400 }
}))
// log all requests to access.log
app.use(morgan('common', {
stream: fs.createWriteStream(path.join(__dirname, 'access.log'), { flags: 'a' })
}))
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.send('hello, world!')
})
use custom token formats
Sample app that will use custom token formats. This adds an ID to all requests and displays it using the :id token.
var express = require('express')
var morgan = require('morgan')
var uuid = require('node-uuid')
morgan.token('id', function getId (req) {
return req.id
})
var app = express()
app.use(assignId)
app.use(morgan(':id :method :url :response-time'))
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.send('hello, world!')
})
function assignId (req, res, next) {
req.id = uuid.v4()
next()
}