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1st chunk of `content/manuals/engine/daemon/logs.md`
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---
title: Read the daemon logs
description: How to read the event logs for the Docker daemon
keywords: docker, daemon, configuration, troubleshooting, logging
aliases:
  - /config/daemon/logs/
---

The daemon logs may help you diagnose problems. The logs may be saved in one of
a few locations, depending on the operating system configuration and the logging
subsystem used:

| Operating system                   | Location                                                                                                                                 |
| :--------------------------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Linux                              | Use the command `journalctl -xu docker.service` (or read `/var/log/syslog` or `/var/log/messages`, depending on your Linux Distribution) |
| macOS (`dockerd` logs)             | `~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/log/vm/dockerd.log`                                                                         |
| macOS (`containerd` logs)          | `~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/log/vm/containerd.log`                                                                      |
| Windows (WSL2) (`dockerd` logs)    | `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Docker\log\vm\dockerd.log`                                                                                               |
| Windows (WSL2) (`containerd` logs) | `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Docker\log\vm\containerd.log`                                                                                            |
| Windows (Windows containers)       | Logs are in the Windows Event Log                                                                                                        |

To view the `dockerd` logs on macOS, open a terminal Window, and use the `tail`
command with the `-f` flag to "follow" the logs. Logs will be printed until you
terminate the command using `CTRL+c`:

```console
$ tail -f ~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/log/vm/dockerd.log
2021-07-28T10:21:21Z dockerd time="2021-07-28T10:21:21.497642089Z" level=debug msg="attach: stdout: begin"
2021-07-28T10:21:21Z dockerd time="2021-07-28T10:21:21.497714291Z" level=debug msg="attach: stderr: begin"
2021-07-28T10:21:21Z dockerd time="2021-07-28T10:21:21.499798390Z" level=debug msg="Calling POST /v1.41/containers/35fc5ec0ffe1ad492d0a4fbf51fd6286a087b89d4dd66367fa3b7aec70b46a40/wait?condition=removed"
2021-07-28T10:21:21Z dockerd time="2021-07-28T10:21:21.518403686Z" level=debug msg="Calling GET /v1.41/containers/35fc5ec0ffe1ad492d0a4fbf51fd6286a087b89d4dd66367fa3b7aec70b46a40/json"
2021-07-28T10:21:21Z dockerd time="2021-07-28T10:21:21.527074928Z" level=debug msg="Calling POST /v1.41/containers/35fc5ec0ffe1ad492d0a4fbf51fd6286a087b89d4dd66367fa3b7aec70b46a40/start"
2021-07-28T10:21:21Z dockerd time="2021-07-28T10:21:21.528203579Z" level=debug msg="container mounted via layerStore: &{/var/lib/docker/overlay2/6e76ffecede030507fcaa576404e141e5f87fc4d7e1760e9ce5b52acb24
...
^C
```

## Enable debugging

There are two ways to enable debugging. The recommended approach is to set the
Title: Reading Docker Daemon Logs
Summary
This section describes how to locate and read the Docker daemon logs on various operating systems (Linux, macOS, and Windows) to diagnose problems. It provides the file paths for the logs and an example of using the `tail` command to view the logs in real-time on macOS.