Timber for Ruby is a drop in replacement for your Ruby logger that unobtrusively augments your logs with rich metadata and context making them easier to search, use, and read. It pairs with the Timber console to deliver a tailored Ruby logging experience designed to make you more productive.
- Installation - One command:
bundle exec timber install
- Usage - Simple & powerful API
- Integrations - Automatic context and metadata for your existing logs
- The Timber Console - Designed for applications & developers
- Get things done with your logs 💪
-
In your
Gemfile
, add thetimber
gem:gem 'timber', '~> 2.3'
-
In your
shell
, run:bundle install && bundle exec timber install
Basic logging
Use the Timber::Logger
just like you would ::Logger
:
logger.debug("Debug message")
logger.info("Info message")
logger.warn("Warn message")
logger.error("Error message")
logger.fatal("Fatal message")
- Search it with queries like:
error message
- Alert on it with threshold based alerts
- View this event's metadata and context
Logging events (structured data)
Log structured data without sacrificing readability:
logger.warn "Payment rejected", payment_rejected: {customer_id: "abcd1234", amount: 100, reason: "Card expired"}
- Search it with queries like:
type:payment_rejected
orpayment_rejected.amount:>100
- Alert on it with threshold based alerts
- View this event's data and context
Setting context
Add shared structured data across your logs:
Timber.with_context(job: {id: 123}) do
logger.info("Background job execution started")
# ... code here
logger.info("Background job execution completed")
end
- Search it with queries like:
job.id:123
- View this context when viewing a log's metadata
Metrics, Timings, & Tracing
Time code blocks:
timer = Timber.start_timer
# ... code to time ...
logger.info("Processed background job", background_job: {time_ms: timer})
Log generic metrics:
logger.info("Credit card charged", credit_card_charge: {amount: 123.23})
- Search it with queries like:
background_job.time_ms:>500
- Alert on it with threshold based alerts
- View this log's metadata in the console
Below are a few popular configuration options, for a comprehensive list, see Timber::Config.
Logrageify. Silence noisy logs.
Silence noisy logs that aren't of value to you, just like lograge:
# config/initializers/timber.rb
Timber.config.logrageify!()
It turns this:
Started GET "/" for 127.0.0.1 at 2012-03-10 14:28:14 +0100
Processing by HomeController#index as HTML
Rendered text template within layouts/application (0.0ms)
Rendered layouts/_assets.html.erb (2.0ms)
Rendered layouts/_top.html.erb (2.6ms)
Rendered layouts/_about.html.erb (0.3ms)
Rendered layouts/_google_analytics.html.erb (0.4ms)
Completed 200 OK in 79ms (Views: 78.8ms | ActiveRecord: 0.0ms)
Into this:
Get "/" sent 200 OK in 79ms
Feel free to deviate and customize which logs you silence. We recommend a slight deviation from lograge with the following settings:
# config/initializers/timber.rb
Timber.config.integrations.action_view.silence = true
Timber.config.integrations.active_record.silence = true
Timber.config.integrations.rack.http_events.collapse_into_single_event = true
This does not silence the controller call log event. This is because Timber captures the parameters passed to the controller, which are generally valuable when debugging.
For a full list of integration settings, see Timber::Config::Integrations
Silence specific requests (LB health checks, etc)
Silencing noisy requests can be helpful for silencing load balance health checks, bot scanning,
or activity that generally is not meaningful to you. The following will silence all
[GET] /_health
requests:
# config/initializers/timber.rb
Timber.config.integrations.rack.http_events.silence_request = lambda do |rack_env, rack_request|
rack_request.path == "/_health"
end
We require a block because it gives you complete control over how you want to silence requests. The first parameter being the traditional Rack env hash, the second being a Rack Request object.
Capture custom user context
By default Timber automatically captures user context for most of the popular authentication libraries (Devise, and Clearance). See Timber::Integrations::Rack::UserContext for a complete list.
In cases where you Timber doesn't support your strategy, or you want to customize it further, you can do so like:
# config/initializers/timber.rb
Timber.config.integrations.rack.user_context.custom_user_hash = lambda do |rack_env|
user = rack_env['warden'].user
if user
{
id: user.id, # unique identifier for the user, can be an integer or string,
name: user.name, # identifiable name for the user,
email: user.email, # user's email address
}
else
nil
end
end
All of the user hash keys are optional, but you must provide at least one.
Capture release / deploy context
Timber::Contexts::Release tracks the current application release and version.
If you're on Heroku, simply enable the dyno metadata feature. If you are not, set the following environment variables and this context will be added automatically:
RELEASE_COMMIT
- Ex:2c3a0b24069af49b3de35b8e8c26765c1dba9ff0
RELEASE_CREATED_AT
- Ex:2015-04-02T18:00:42Z
RELEASE_VERSION
- Ex:v2.3.1
All variables are optional, but at least one must be present.
Timber integrates with popular frameworks and libraries to capture context and metadata you couldn't otherwise. This automatically augments logs produced by these libraries, making them easier to search and use. Below is a list of libraries we support:
...more coming soon! Make a request by opening an issue
Logging features designed to help developers get more done:
- Powerful searching. - Find what you need faster.
- Live tail users. - Easily solve customer issues.
- View logs per HTTP request. - See the full story without the noise.
- Inspect HTTP request parameters. - Quickly reproduce issues.
- Threshold based alerting. - Know when things break.
- ...and more! Checkout our the Timber application docs