Docker Compose — Logging Drivers

1 minute read

Configure how Docker collects and stores container logs — from simple file-based logging to centralized log aggregation.

Default: json-file

Docker logs to JSON files by default. Configure rotation to prevent disk exhaustion:

services:
  api:
    image: myapi:latest
    logging:
      driver: json-file
      options:
        max-size: "10m"        # Max 10 MB per log file
        max-file: "5"          # Keep 5 rotated files
        compress: "true"       # Compress rotated files

Without rotation, logs grow indefinitely and can fill your disk.

Available Drivers

Driver Destination Use Case
json-file Local files Default, simple
local Local files (optimized) Better performance
syslog Syslog daemon Linux system logging
journald systemd journal Systemd-based hosts
fluentd Fluentd collector Centralized logging
awslogs AWS CloudWatch AWS deployments
gcplogs Google Cloud Logging GCP deployments
none Nowhere Disable logging

Syslog Driver

services:
  api:
    image: myapi:latest
    logging:
      driver: syslog
      options:
        syslog-address: "udp://logserver:514"
        tag: "myapp-api"

Fluentd Driver

services:
  api:
    image: myapi:latest
    logging:
      driver: fluentd
      options:
        fluentd-address: "localhost:24224"
        tag: "docker.myapp.api"

Shared Logging Config

Use YAML extensions to share logging config:

x-logging: &default-logging
  logging:
    driver: json-file
    options:
      max-size: "10m"
      max-file: "5"

services:
  api:
    <<: *default-logging
    image: myapi:latest

  worker:
    <<: *default-logging
    image: myworker:latest

  db:
    <<: *default-logging
    image: postgres:16

Disable Logging

services:
  noisy-service:
    image: something:latest
    logging:
      driver: none

View Logs

# Docker Compose logs (works with json-file and local)
docker compose logs -f api

# Raw log file location
ls /var/lib/docker/containers/<container-id>/*-json.log

Summary

Driver Performance Remote docker compose logs
json-file Good No Yes
local Better No Yes
syslog Good Yes No
fluentd Good Yes No
none N/A No No

Quick Reference

Item Detail
json-file Default driver, configure max-size/max-file
max-size Max log file size (e.g. 10m)
max-file Number of rotated files to keep
local Optimized local driver
fluentd Centralized log collection
none Disable logging entirely

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