You can continue to use some older version or migrate to the latest. Here are documentation and code snapshot for older releases: v2, v3, v4.

If you would like to upgrade to the latest version, check the changelog and migration guide below.

Node.js 14 or Electron 13 is required.

npm install electron-log@5

In the latest few years many restrictions were added to a renderer process by default. It forces me to rethink electron-log architecture. So now the only way of implementing logging in a renderer process is move all the logic to the main process.

So now, the logger should be configured in the main process.

To make it possible for a renderer process to communicate the main process, it should be initialized in the main process before the first window is created:

main.js

import log from 'electron-log/main';

// It preloads electron-log IPC code in renderer processes
log.initialize();

After that, you can use the library as before.

renderer.ts

import log from 'electron-log/renderer';

log.info('Log from the renderer');

See initialize doc for more information.

To make callback names more obvious, some options where renamed:

• file.resolvePath -> file.resolvePathFn
• file.archiveLog -> file.archiveLogFn

• remote.onError -> remote.processErrorFn({ error, message, request })
• remote.transformBody -> remote.makeBodyFn({ logger, message, transport })

• log.catchErrors -> log.errorHandler.startCatching

npm install electron-log@latest

If you just use electron-log with default configuration, you only need to know that a default log file path was changed.

• Default log path was changed on Linux and Windows to be more compatible with app.getPath('logs') of Electron:

  ~/.config/{app name}/log.log →

  ~/.config/{app name}/logs/{process type}.log

  %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\{app name}\log.log →

  %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\{app name}\logs\{process type}.log

  If you need to keep old file paths, you can override file.resolvePath

• file.fileName is now main.log, renderer.log or worker.log depending on process type

• new option file.resolvePath allows overriding default log path. Here is default implementation:

    log.transports.file.resolvePath = (variables) => {
      return path.join(variables.libraryDefaultDir, variables.fileName);
    }

  • new method file.getFile() was added. It allows to manipulate the current log file.

• The following file transport options and methods are deprecated and will be removed in v5:

  • file.file, use file.resolvePath instead
  • file.bytesWritten, use file.getFile().bytesWritten instead
  • file.fileSize, use file.getFile().size instead
  • file.clear(), use file.getFile().clear() instead
  • file.findLogPath(), use file.getFile().path instead
  • file.init(), doesn't matter anymore

If you change some options of these transport, just use the same options of ipc transport instead.

npm install electron-log@latest

In v3 each process is configured separately. So if you change some options, you should apply the changed both in main and renderer processes.

Another changes:

• require electron-log/main and electron-log/renderer is deprecated.
• transports.file.level is default to 'silly'.
• transports.file.stream and streamConfig options are removed. Instead, you can use one of the following options: file, fileName, writeOptions.
• rendererConsole and mainConsole transports are disabled by default for a packaged application.