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Logs

The Logs panel at the bottom of the Monitor tab streams messages from the show machine as they happen. Use it to find out what the machine was doing when something went wrong.

The panel

Logs runs the full width of the Monitor tab, below the other panels, and takes the height they leave, so a taller window shows more lines. New entries appear at the bottom of the list.

Control What it does
Count (for example 12 / 340) How many entries the current filter shows, out of how many are held. Hidden on narrow screens.
Level dropdown Filters by severity. See below.
Clear Empties the list on this device. Unavailable when there's nothing to clear.

Until the first entry arrives, the panel reads Waiting for logs.... If there are entries but the filter hides all of them, it reads No logs match filter.

The Logs panel with entries at the info, debug, warn and error levels, the count, the level filter and Clear

Reading an entry

Each line has four parts:

[19:42:07] INFO   <source>: <message>
Part What it is
[19:42:07] When the entry was logged, in this device's local time.
INFO Severity: DEBUG, INFO, WARN or ERROR. Errors are red, warnings amber, information plain and debug dimmed.
<source> The part of the show machine the entry came from: Server, Engine (faults the playback engine reports), PJLink (projector control), Preview (the picture streamed to browsers), Outputs, Transmission or Assistant. Use it to group related lines.
<message> The message itself. Long messages wrap onto more lines, so you always see all of it.

More than one machine

When the show runs on more than one machine, the Cluster view of the Monitor tab shows every machine's messages in one list, in time order, with the machine's name after the severity:

[19:42:07] INFO   STAGE-PC  <source>: <message>

A machine's own view shows only its messages, without the name. Messages from machines other than the one this device is connected to arrive every 2 seconds, and only while the tab is open. A machine that doesn't answer sends none, and its view says why in place of Waiting for logs.... Clear empties the list you're looking at, on this device only.

Filtering by level

Each option in the dropdown shows that level and everything more severe.

Option Shows
All Every entry.
Debug+ Every entry. Debug is the lowest level, so this matches All.
Info+ Information, warnings and errors. Hides debug messages.
Warn+ Warnings and errors only.
Error Errors only.

When you're chasing a problem, start with Warn+: it hides routine activity and leaves the entries Moonshine flagged. Once you know roughly when the problem happened, switch back to All to see what surrounded it.

Scrolling and following

The list opens on the newest entry and follows new entries while you're at the bottom. Scroll up and it stops following, so new messages don't move your place while you read. Scroll back to the bottom to follow again. When you leave the Monitor tab and come back, the list is on the newest entry again.

How much is kept

  • The panel holds up to 1000 entries on this device. Older entries drop off the top as new ones arrive.
  • The show machine keeps its own recent history and sends it when a device connects, so you see what happened shortly before you opened Moonshine.
  • Clear empties the list on the device where you press it. Other people's screens and the show machine's own history are unchanged, and reconnecting or reloading brings recent entries back.

Using it when something looks wrong

  1. Note the time. The time something happened is the most useful thing you can record: a cue that misfired at 19:42, a stutter during the second song.
  2. Set the filter to Warn+ and look for entries near that time.
  3. Switch to All around a suspicious entry to see what led up to it.
  4. Check the other panels. If a warning lines up with a spike in the Cook Time bar, or with the Network status going unresponsive, you can tell which came first and which followed.
  5. Write down the exact text and the time before you clear anything. If you contact support, those two details help more than a description of what you saw.

Clear before doors

Press Clear right before you open the house. Everything in the panel after that happened during the show.

Not everything worth knowing is an error

Routine activity, such as projects loading, devices joining and saves completing, is logged at information level. When you're checking that something did happen, leave the filter on All.