Service logs are logs written in a binary format. You cannot view
a service log directly using a text editor. You should never directly edit
the service log, as doing so will corrupt the log.
Before you begin
To
move a service log from one machine to another, you must use a mechanism like
FTP, which supports binary file transfer. You can view a service log in two
ways:
- It is recommended that you use the Log
Analyzer tool to view the service log. This tool provides interactive
viewing and analysis capability that is helpful in identifying problems.
- If you are unable to use the Log Analyzer tool, you can use the Showlog
tool to convert the contents of the service log to a text format that you
can then write to a file or dump to the command shell window.
About this task
Run the showlog script to view the contents of the service log as
described in the following procedure.
Procedure
- Open a shell window on the machine where the service log resides.
- Change the directory to app_server_root/bin where app_server_root is the fully
qualified path where the WebSphere Application Server product is installed.
- Run the showlog script.
showlog.bat
showlog.sh
- Run the following showlog script with no parameters to display
usage instructions.
showlog.bat
showlog.sh
- Display the service log contents to the shell window.
showlog service_log_filename
If the service
log is not in the default location, you must fully qualify the service_log_filename
- Format and write the service log contents to a file.
showlog service_log_filename output_filename
If the service log is not in the default location, you must fully qualify
the service_log_filename